Newcastle United Supporters' Trust 'encouraged' after opening dialogue with new CEO David Hopkinson
David Hopkinson took over as CEO of Newcastle United at the beginning of September and walked into a wall of fire.
Shortly after his arrival, it was discovered that a school in Dundee had received 45 tickets for the Champions League game against Barcelona at St James' Park, causing fan uproar as many Mags members had failed to get tickets via the ballot.
The Newcastle United Supporters' Trust penned an open letter to the club, demanding more transparency around ticketing and informing the club that the trust between the fans and the board was dwindling.
It was hardly the most encouraging start to life as CEO for David Hopkinson.
Newcastle United Supporters' Trust have spoken to David Hopkinson
This morning, an update from the Trust has confirmed that they have now spoken with David Hopkinson about this and are 'encouraged' by his words.
We wanted to share a brief update following our recent call for transparency around ticketing at Newcastle United.
Since sending our letter to the club, we’ve had productive conversations with the club’s new CEO, David Hopkinson. We are encouraged by his openness and willingness to engage directly on the issues we raised on your behalf. This marks the beginning of a constructive relationship; one we are hopeful will lead to more meaningful dialogue and progress for supporters.
David shared the following with us:
“I’ve really valued the conversations I’ve had with Lisa Mole from the Newcastle United Supporters Trust. As CEO, it’s been incredibly important for me to understand the deep connection between this club and its supporters, and Lisa has been instrumental in helping me appreciate the vital role the Trust plays in representing our fan community. These discussions have given me genuine insight into what Newcastle United means to so many people, and they’ve been built on a foundation of mutual trust and openness. I’m committed to ensuring that supporter voices remain at the heart of everything we do as we move forward together, and I believe that trust between the club and our fans is essential to our success.”
We’re pleased that this dialogue is happening and we will continue to press for greater transparency, fairness and clarity, particularly around how tickets are allocated; something we know matters deeply to our members and the wider fanbase.
We will keep you updated as these conversations continue.
Hopefully, this is the first step in rebuilding those communication lines
It's a good start, as the communication between the club and the fans has been practically non-existent since Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi left the club last summer.
While we understand that Darren Eales had greater priorities in life, he could have delegated the role of communicating with the fans to another senior board member.
Hopefully, David Hopkinson can build on this early promise and move to ensure that fans are kept up to date with what's happening at the club.
An update on the stadium and the training ground would be nice.
