Newcastle Thunder confirm head coach, home stadium for 2024 as club provide latest update on future
Newcastle Thunder head coach Chris Thorman - Alamy
Chris Thorman will remain as head coach of Newcastle Thunder, who will stay at their Kingston Park home in 2024, the club has confirmed.
Thunder, who suffered relegation from the Championship last season, have advanced with their planning for 2024 ahead of lodging their formal application to join League One for 2024.
The two announcements were made by chairman Keith Christie at a supporters update meeting earlier in the week at Kingston Park.
Christie said: “We are really pleased that Chris has agreed to be Thunder head coach for the 2024 season, subject to the club being accepted back into League One.
“He did a good job last year in very trying circumstances and developed a real rapport with the players and other staff members.
“He’s a local bloke, has played and coached extensively with a number of top teams and it is a real coup for us to retain his services.”
Chris Thorman ‘delighted’ to remain Newcastle Thunder head coach
Thorman said: “I’m delighted to be involved again for next season.
“We are all under no illusion how tough the next 12 months will be if we are included in the 2024 competition. However, the excitement of being part of a complete club re-build is significant and long-term I know we can enjoy success.
“Time is now ticking and we need to put together a squad of players, coaches and support staff who share our passion and ambition for the Thunder.”
Thunder boss explains decision behind staying at Kingston Park
Newcastle chairman Christie says the club looked at ‘a number of venues’ in regards to their home stadium for 2024 – but realised Kingston Park is the ‘ideal’ home base for the club as it prepares to enter a new era.
He said: “We looked at a number of venues but ultimately we all realised that we have the ideal home base here at Kingston Park Stadium.
“The supporters are familiar with it, there are great transport links, it scores very well on the IMG grading and it more than meets all our operational needs.
“We’d like to thank Semore Kurdi and the senior management team at Newcastle Rugby Limited for making this possible.
“We will have to work around the Falcons and Newcastle United Women’s Football team but that’s always been the case and the fact we play in the summer helps us.”
Christie says the first of the three phases of planning to gain entry to League One are nearing completion, with the formal application to the Rugby Football League being submitted ‘imminently’.
Once the application is accepted, the club say they will then start to collect membership fees from supporters and sponsors who have committed more than 75 per cent of the year one target within three weeks of launch.