The Newcastle Thunder is a professional rugby league club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It was founded in 2000 as Gateshead Thunder, after the merger of the original Gateshead Thunder into Hull F.C. in 1999.[1][2] The Thunder were based in Gateshead until 2014. In 2015, the club relocated and changed its name to Newcastle Thunder. In 2024, the Newcastle Thunder made a return to Gateshead as their playing base. They currently play home matches at Gateshead International Stadium. The club currently competes in League 1, the third tier of rugby league in the United Kingdom.
History
The club was formed by the Thunder 2000 working group, formed by supporters of the original Gateshead Thunder after that organisation made the decision to merge with Hull Sharks at the end of the 1999 season.[3] The new club, like the former club, played their home games at Gateshead International Stadium, also the home ground of Gateshead F.C. The Thunder entered the Northern Ford Premiership for the 2001 season; however, they struggled to compete, and eventually finished 17th out of the 19 clubs.[4]
Gateshead continued to struggle in the following season, finishing bottom of the league in 2002.[5] When the Northern Ford Premiership was split into two divisions for the 2003 season the club joined National League Two, and again finished in the bottom two, being kept off the bottom only by new entrants London Skolars.[6] The club's fortunes began to improve in 2005, a seventh-place finish being enough to gain a first ever place in the play-offs, before losing to Workington Town in their first ever play-off game.[7] The club again finished seventh in 2006, but went on to lose 46–18 to Featherstone Rovers in the play-offs.[8]
In 2008 the club won its first silverware, finishing the season as League 1 champions.[9] As champions, the club were promoted to the Championship, and avoided on-field relegation by finishing seventh under coach Steve McCormack.[10] Thunder's joy at securing a second season in the second tier was however short-lived, as the club was wound up following a dispute between the directors. A new company was formed to continue the club, however the club had to restart as a Championship 1 side, effectively being relegated for the 2010 season.[11]
Kingston Park became the Thunder's home ground in 2015
Gateshead Thunder were taken over by the owners of rugby union side Newcastle Falcons in 2015.[12] The club was rebranded as Newcastle Thunder and applied for permission to use Kingston Park in Newcastle as their home ground.[13]
On 10 December 2020, Thunder were promoted to the Championship by a committee to replace Leigh who were, in turn, promoted to Super League to replace Toronto Wolfpack, who went out of business. Newcastle began playing in the 2021 Championship season.[15]
For the 2022 season, Newcastle announced they were adopting the full time professional model in order to aid promotion to the Super League.[16] This lasted for one year with the club reverting back to part time semi professional status for 2023.[17]
Following the 2023 RFL Championship season, Newcastle were relegated to League One after winning five of 27 matches.[18] On 13 October 2023, the club announced that they had withdrawn from League One for the 2024 season. A club statement said "Unfortunately, the impact of COVID-19, combined with the low levels of regional growth and development in the game, means it just isn't feasible to continue."[19] An attempt to revive the club was immediately launched under former chairman, Keith Christie.[20] Despite an application to rejoin the league not having been accepted by the RFL, the RFL did include the club in the fixture lists for the 1895 Cup and the 2024 League One season when these were announced at the start of December 2023.[21] In December 2023 the RFL approved the club's change of ownership and confirmed Newcastle's participation in the 2024 season competitions.[22]
On 16 May 2024, the club announced that it would return to the Gateshead International Stadium for the rest of the 2024 season.[23]
