Newcastle United owners deliberating on whether to stay at St James’ Park – Two alternatives possible

The point is coming where the Newcastle United owners need to make a major stadium decision.

Friday morning has seen an interesting new piece from The Telegraph (see below) on the ongoing situation.

They report that informed ‘sources’ have told them that the Newcastle United owners preference, by far, is to stay at St James’ Park and redevelop it.

However, if current ‘feasibility’ studies that are currently ongoing on expanding St James’ Park, don’t show this is… feasible, then a move to a whole new site may be the final decision. Though The Telegraph keep stressing that staying put is by far the first choice of the Newcastle United owners.

The Telegraph have put forward two options that have been much talked about and these are mentioned in the snippets I have picked out below from the newspaper report, then I have given my own conclusions afterwards.

The Telegraph report – 1 March 2024:

‘Newcastle want to stay at St James’ Park – but other options remain on table

Saudi owners are weighing up whether to remain and expand on their historic site or build ‘Wembley of the North’ elsewhere in the city

Newcastle United want to remain at St James’ Park and expand the site as a feasibility study into the proposed redevelopment continues to consider viable options.

Senior sources who have spoken to Telegraph Sport have revealed it is the overwhelming preference of the club to remain where they are despite the complex challenges it will bring.’

‘There are two possible sites that could work. The first would be on the banks of the River Tyne, still near the main train station, on the site of the current Metro Radio Arena, which is starting to look tired and in need of replacing anyway.

The other is to move St James’ Park on to Leazes Park and completely rebuild the stadium in roughly the same location as it currently stands. There has been some talk of reviving the idea of building on the Town Moor, but this project caused uproar in the 1990s when former chairman Freddie Shepherd first proposed it.

The Moor belongs to the Freeman of the city. Cows graze on it in the summer and Europe’s largest funfair, The Hoppings, arrives every June. It is the much loved “green lung” of an old industrial city. For many, this idea is just as unpalatable as leaving St James’ Park and plain toxic to those who are not obsessed with football.’

‘They desire a multipurpose venue to hold England internationals, male and female, concerts with huge global acts, as well as other ventures like NFL and Rugby League matches. This would significantly boost revenue streams, which will help ease their PSR constraints.’

‘If the feasibility study shows they can turn St James’ Park into that venue, with a capacity between 60-70,000, this is the route Newcastle will go down. But it is full of complications.’

‘However, even if Newcastle can expand St James’ Park and modernise it, the project could take years to finish and the capacity of the stadium will be reduced – at least to some extent – while the work is done. Demand for tickets already far outstrips supply.’

My Conclusions

This is a never ending debate, as things stand, with no totally right or wrong answer, in my opinion.

If a magic button could be pressed and a much expanded St James’ Park could magically appear, then as fans we are all pressing that button.

Sadly, there is no magic solution.

Personally, I don’t think the Newcastle United owners are going to be significantly increasing St James’ Park.

As The Telegraph report makes clear, the challenges are massive of even increasing SJP by any decent numbers.

The plans originally drawn up by the club when the Hall / Shepherd ownership existed and the land at Strawberry Place was bought (long lease), suggested an increased Gallowgate End could take the capacity up by 8,000 to 60,000.

Even if there could be a few more thousand seats, you are still only talking around 10,000 extra seats.

Anybody with experience of the membership scheme will tell you how horrendous it is trying to get tickets this season, even when NUFC have fallen to mid-table. Never mind all the fans without memberships who would want to go to games.

Then most important of all arguably, the fans of the future, how will they ever hope to get into St James’ Park unless they are lucky to be part of a kind of hereditary process where tickets in their family and extended contacts end up getting them in?

My thought is that an 80,000 seater stadium is needed and I am pretty sure the Newcastle United owners are thinking along those lines.

They certainly should be if they truly want Newcastle United to be taking on the very best in the future.

It is now around four years or more since these Newcastle United owners publicly made clear they were trying to buy the club. I think if you believe that it is only now they are doing feasibility studies on expanding St James’ Park or moving elsewhere, then you have to be pretty naive.

I think for sure that this would have been one of the very first things they would have done, long before they ever got the keys to SJP off Mike Ashley.

To even expand St James’ Park to 60,000+ would be massively expensive, take a long time, massive city centre disruption, plus at the very least a much reduced SJP capacity whilst expansion work went on.

I just can’t see it.

Especially when quite clearly the Newcastle United owners are hugely focused on expanding the numbers buying hospitality, which brings in massive money compared to the average normal seat sold.

A brand new stadium on a brand new site would enable that, just as it has done so at Spurs and elsewhere.

For the Newcastle United owners to get what they want AND the fans to get a massively increased capacity stadium, only a new stadium ticks all those boxes.

I believe the decision has already been made in reality, that it will be a case of ‘well we tried everything but staying at St James’ Park and doing everything we want to do to make NUFC a monster club competing at the very top of world football was just not possible… not feasible’

 

The Telegraph report confuses issues slightly when talking about the alternative sites to host a new stadium

The Arena

It talks of the Arena potentially getting replaced but that has already been decided, the current Arena will close once the new Arena next to the Sage / Baltic on the Gateshead side opens in a few years time. However, much of the land down in that area where the Arena currently is situated, was sold only last month to Homes England for a major regeneration project with new housing a key element of that. I think that land purchase includes the land the Arena currently sits on but whether or not it does so, a large proportion of the land down in that area getting developed for other purposes, surely rules out a new Newcastle United stadium getting built down there.

Town Moor

A brief explanation of what the ‘Town Moor’ actually is.

The Town Moor is an area of common land in Newcastle upon Tyne. It covers an area of around 1,000 acres making it larger than Hyde Park and Hampstead Heath combined. It is also larger than New York City’s Central Park (843 acres).

Freemen of the city have the right to graze cattle on the Town Moor. The rental income is distributed through the Town Moor Money Charity.

Now when you think of the ‘Town Moor’ most people automatically think of where the Hoppings are held, so if you head from St James’ Park and past the RVI, it is the land on the other side of the Central Motorway.

However…  as well as that big area of land where the Hoppings are located each year, the 1,000 acres or so of ‘Town Moor’ also includes Nuns Moor, Dukes Moor, Little Moor, Hunters Moor and Castle Leazes Moor.

When the Hall / Shepherd ownership was in place, Newcastle United never tried to build a new stadium where the Hoppings are each year.

However… they did try to build a new stadium on the ‘Town Moor’, on the Castle Leazes Moor part of it.

In the end, for various reasons, including the opposition from some local residents, the then Newcastle United owners instead extended St James’ Park from 36,000 to a 52,000+ capacity.

That new 16,000+ extra capacity was opened in time for the 2000/2001 season.

I am convinced that the ‘Town Moor’ WILL be where Newcastle United will be playing in the future inside a brand new stadium.

Not the Hoppings bit of course but the Castle Leazes Moor part of the ‘Town Moor’.

For anybody not aware, the Castle Leazes site is basically five to ten minutes maximum more walk if heading from the City Centre, than St James’ Park is.

Heading up from the city centre you get to St James’ Park, then above SJP is Leazes Park with the lake etc, then above there is Castle Leazes, where some of the ‘Town Moor’ cows currently graze. So for example if you head along the bottom of the RVI and then head up the side of it on Richardson Road, a few hundred yards up there is the entrance on the left to Leazes Park and then another 1oo yards or so you get to Castle Leazes on the left.

On the other side of the Castle Leazes site you have, just the same as St James’ Park, Barrack Road running up the side of it.

Maybe what we currently know as Leazes Park itself would / could also be sacrificed as part of any new stadium, who knows?

My belief is that in an imperfect world where we can’t have an 80,000 capacity St James’ Park, having an 80,000 capacity new stadium (‘New St James’ Park powered by new sponsor willing to pay ££££££’ ???) at Castle Leazes is the best possible compromise site. The Newcastle United owners getting what they need / want AND the best alternative to SJP for the supporters.

Protests from local residents?

My understanding / belief is that in a situation like this, if it can be successfully argued that the positives for the city / region vastly overwhelm the negatives affecting nearby residents etc, then a new stadium could get the go ahead on Castle Leazes, with the Freemen and City Council convinced.

Obviously whilst a new stadium would be getting built, a lot of disruption for residents / businesses nearby. However, that would arguably be even more the case if St James’ Park was getting expanded.

Plus, for those residents living close to the Castle Leazes site, reality is that they already live very close to a Premier League football stadium and all of these current residents and many more that came before them, have always lived just up the road from the region’s major football stadium. Moving that stadium hundreds of yards closer to some current residents, should that really be enough to stop a project that could / would be transformational for the city and region?

We are talking about the benefits for the overall city and region and I believe that the current Newcastle United owners would / could also commit to various other initiatives that would benefit city and region, as a kind of balance to getting permission for a new stadium on Castle Leazes.

Not least of these maybe the current St James’ Park.

Maybe the club forming a partnership with the City Council that could bring all kinds of benefits to our city and region. Maybe SJP becoming the centre / focus all year round as the heart of all kinds of community initiatives to benefit all, including those who aren’t necessarily football / Newcastle United fans.

Maybe the Newcastle United Women’s team playing at SJP every match, especially if / when getting to the Super League and playing Champions League and so on in the future.

Maybe the Newcastle United Foundation moving back into SJP in an ever expanding form, as well as operating their current site on Diana Street. The Foundation working even more closely with the City Council?

Maybe an entire summer season of concerts, with St James’ Park becoming a music venue for a couple of months, there has been a massive explosion of such summer concerts and festivals in the UK and as the Sam Fender gigs showed, no better city to host such events than Newcastle and SJP with its unique location and transport links. Just think of all that extra revenue and visitor numbers, hotel bookings, money spent in shops, on drink and food and so on, with all the major bands etc playing Newcastle / St James’ Park each summer. Plus potentially other times of the year as well, plus hosting other events.

Whatever decision is made now, then I think that will be it for most of us in our lifetimes.

A totally new stadium on a new site, would of course also allow St James’ Park to keep on having 52,000+ inside the ground, until the new one was ready.

Maybe far in the future the kids of today will see something else change significantly.

However, the reality for most is that whether it is some kind of expansion of St James’ Park or a brand new stadium, then that will be the state of play for the rest of our NUFC supporting days.

Everybody will have their own ideas but for me the worst outcome of all (that is of course not including the very worst idea which would be moving Newcastle United to some new site well away from the city centre), would be the Newcastle United owners building a brand new stadium but with only a capacity of 60,000 or so. As what would effectively happen is that far more seats would be for hospitality / corporate in such a stadium, as is the case at Spurs, with no increase in the number of seats for ordinary fans and indeed maybe even less!

Whatever happens, a lot of Newcastle United fans won’t see the final decision as ideal, but I see it as only two options.

Stay at St James’ Park and hopefully have some kind of increased capacity allowing more ordinary fans in, or alternatively really going for it with a far far higher capacity (80,000?) brand new stadium at an alternative city centre site that would really give Newcastle United the platform to compete with anybody on and off the pitch, plus most importantly of all, allow far more fans to watch their team. Especially young fans and those yet to even be born.