Newcastle Red Bulls

The first thing supporters had to learn in August 2025 was how to say the new name out loud. A takeover by Red Bull GmbH turned Newcastle Falcons into Newcastle Red Bulls, and a club that had carried the same identity since turning professional in 1997 found itself rebranded inside a single close season. That earlier change had its own long run-up: what began in 1877 as Gosforth Football Club, founded by Old Boys of Durham School, merged with Northumberland Football Club and spent decades as Newcastle Gosforth before professionalism gave it the Falcons name it wore for nearly thirty years.

The rugby played under that name had its high points.

Kingston Park holds around 10,200, a capacity that has kept the club's ambitions modest even when the rugby was not. Black and white remain the home colours, a link back to the Falcons years that survives the corporate rebrand at least on the kit.

What the new ownership inherits is a side that had fallen out of the Premiership at the end of both the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons before returning to the top flight under its new name. The takeover changed the badge and the bank balance.