Newcastle Eagles celebrate 30 years of flying high on Tyneside

Few clubs in British basketball can match the trophy cabinet of the Newcastle Eagles, and this season the club has a special reason to celebrate. The 2026/27 campaign marks 30 years since the team took the Eagles name, and supporters can look forward to an anniversary edition of the club logo, a commemorative kit and a calendar of events across the next 12 months.

The story actually begins on Wearside. The franchise's roots lie in Sunderland, where Dave Elderkin established the business in 1973, and the club played in Sunderland and Washington through the 1970s and 1980s. In 1995 it moved north of the Tyne as the Newcastle Comets, and a year later it became the Eagles, joining the city's sporting family of Magpies and Falcons.

The golden era arrived under player-coach Fabulous Flournoy. Starting with the BBL Trophy in 2005, the Eagles went on to achieve a first ever clean sweep of all four major trophies in 2005-06, and repeated the feat more than once. In that same season a record 7,150 supporters packed into the Metro Radio Arena for a home game against Birmingham Bullets.

In January 2019 the club moved into its own home, the Eagles Community Arena on Scotswood Road, a project ten years in the making on the banks of the Tyne. Since 2021 it has carried the name Vertu Motors Arena through a naming rights deal with the Gateshead-based motor retailer. The venue is owned and operated by the Eagles Community Foundation, and has also hosted Great Britain in international qualifiers against nations including Germany, Serbia and Greece.

The club is about far more than its first teams. The foundation, formed in 2006, runs an academy, junior leagues, walking basketball and community programmes, and one academy graduate, Tosan Evbuomwan, became the first Geordie and Eagles Academy player to play in the NBA in 2024. Since 2018 the club has also run the city's top-flight women's team.

The anniversary season has started with plenty to cheer, including an 87-81 win for the men at Sheffield Sharks and an 80-55 win for the women over Wildcats.

Fixtures, tickets and details of the #Eagles30 celebrations are on the Newcastle Eagles website, and game nights at the Vertu Motors Arena are a great way to catch the action.