Yahoo News Why Newcastle United's stay at £850m Adidas HQ will help propel Magpies to the next level
Newcastle United will join a list of global giants when they spend pre-season training at the Adidas HQ in Herzogenaurach, Germany.
The £850million facility has hosted all of the big names since opening four years ago and the likes of Arsenal and Ajax have spent time training at the state of the art centre. It has everything a top sporting star could want or need including football pitches, tennis courts, gyms, a health and spa suite and olympic swimming pool.
The facility even boasts bouldering climbing walls and will be the dream pre-season venue for Eddie Howe's Newcastle squad this summer. The Adidas campus is also home to 5,600 employees with a restaurant that serves 2,000 meals per day.
An Adidas spokesperson said: "Located on a 346 acre site, the main Adidas headquarters, the World of Sports (WOS) is often compared to a university campus. Besides offices, this is home to playing fields, the adidas Consumer Center, an award-winning cafeteria “Stripes” facing an artificial lake and an entirely new state-of-the art “Laces” building.
"Employees have the unique opportunity to come face to face with their sporting idols. Lionel Messi, David Beckham, Dwight Howard and the New Zealand All-Blacks rugby team have all been guests at WOS."
The Newcastle squad will also have the chance to dig into the Adidas archive on site and take a look at some classic kits. That was the case when Arsenal visited the complex in 2023 as players looked back at some cherished items behind the scenes, as well as some of the classic boots such as Predators.
But it will be all about the "perfect working conditions" that Newcastle's backroom staff will be interested in. The stay in Herzogenaurach coincides with Adidas returning to St James' Park.
The club's CCO Peter Silverstone spoke about the importance of the link up with Adidas and recently told Chronicle Live: "Adidas have some pretty extraordinary launch plans for us, which will put us on a global marketing platform, which is fantastic. The bigger we build our brand, the more other partners want to partner with us."
Newcastle's new Adidas kit will be launched on June 7 but the £40m a year deal is set to take the club to the next level on and off the field. And the club's journey to Germany in pre-season will underline their return as one of Europe's elite clubs.
