Red Bull buy English rugby strugglers Newcastle
Red Bull further extended their interests in sport on
Tuesday by investing in rugby union for the first time by taking over English
top-flight strugglers Newcastle.
The Austria-based energy drinks company already has significant interests in football, motor racing and winter sports.
The club will now be known as Newcastle Red Bulls.
Oliver Mintzlaff, Red Bull CEO corporate projects and investments, said their aim was to "empower the club to reach its full competitive potential".
They face an uphill task as they take over a club that has failed to sparkle in recent years, finishing bottom in the past three Premiership campaigns.
Semore Kurdi, who had been majority owner since 2011, put Newcastle up for sale towards the end of last year.
"Red Bull's takeover of Newcastle is a landmark moment for our sport and a powerful endorsement of our vision and strategy for the future of the PREM," PREM chief executive Simon Massie-Talyor said in a statement, using the new name for the rebranded Premiership.
“We are hugely excited by Red Bull's ambition for the club, which includes developing the player pathway in the North East and growing the club’s fanbase," he added.
He said Red Bull's "track record in global sport" would bring "enormous value not only to Newcastle but to the PREM as a whole".
There will be no upheavals at the top with the vastly-experienced Steve Diamond remaining the club's director of rugby.
The Newcastle players will get a chance to show their qualities to their new owners when they get their season underway with a home match against six-time champions Saracens on September 26.
