Hopkinson was speaking following the release of the club’s latest set of financial results for the year ending June 2025.
The accounts detail how the sale of the leasehold to St James’ Park and adjacent land to PZ Holdings Limited, a subsidiary company, contributed to the club posting an overall £34.7m profit after tax.
The club insist this was carried out with a view to either redeveloping the stadium or building a new ground, rather than complying with the Premier League’s outgoing profitability and sustainability rules (PSR).
Newcastle‘s chief financial officer Simon Capper said: “The motivation was very much to reorganise our property assets and get them into the correct legal boxes to allow us to go forward with our potential development and to facilitate that with financing.”
However, Newcastle could be at risk of breaching Uefa’s rules as they cannot fall back on such deals to comply with the European governing body’s separate regulations.
Chelsea, for instance, were fined last summer for a breach of Uefa’s financial rules.
That followed financial results which included the £200m sale of the Chelsea women’s team to a separate entity within the club’s parent company BlueCo. Chelsea have also sold two hotels to a sister company.
In their financial accounts, Newcastle state they are reviewing the potential outcomes in respect of Uefa’s club licensing and financial sustainability regulations for the period to 30 June, 2025 and are currently in discussions with Uefa on the matter.
Both Newcastle and Uefa have been contacted for comment.
Newcastle ultimately announced club-record revenues of £335.3m, but still have a huge gap to bridge on the status quo.
Liverpool, by comparison, generated £703m in the same period, while Manchester City brought in more in commercial revenue (£340.4m) than Newcastle raised in overall income.
It is a timely reminder of the challenge Newcastle face to somehow realise Hopkinson’s vision of competing for the biggest prizes by 2030.
“When I think about our competitors, they are formidable and they have already got a head start on us, but all they’ve got is a head start on us and we’ve got a tremendous opportunity for growth right in front of us,” he added.
“We’ve used the phrase ‘headroom’ in terms of a player budget, but what I also look at is the commercial opportunity. We have significant headroom to catch up.
“It means we’ve got work harder. We’ve got to work smarter with high conviction and energy every single day to capture that headroom. We’ve got to catch these guys.”