Edited - 03.03.22 https://www.footballinsider247.com/...ped-for-30000-new-seats-after-brilliant-news/ Some sources saying 60-65k upgrade, some saying up to 80k
I think stadium facilities and overall hospitality will be very high up. Property development, fixed assets, are key to their investment. Five years tops before things start moving. If we’re still alive of course.
They're going to expand st James Park by around 8k seats and id imagine give it a face-lift. Having been informed that I can't see a new stadium happening for a number of years.
I think 8k, then factor in a likely application for safe standing, is fantastic, great news and more than sufficient. It’s an iconic ground. If they can then expand the hospitality into Strawberry Place to build a modern hotel, a la Stamford Bridge, then that’s perfect. There’s no need to move until we’re firmly established at the top table. If ever. Teams with smaller grounds have won the CL (aforementioned Chelsea).
Yes and there's alot can be done.. They could clad the entire thing for example and achieve a modern aesthetic look no problem whatsoever these days.
those that are not close to the pitch are not football stadiums Man City, West Ham and even Gateshead
I just don't think this is anything to worry about or get hung up on. 60k plus more for safe standing is ample.
Why not? I think we could fill a 60k seater most weeks easily. The club is now actually going somewhere. We got 50k avg attendance in the championship ffs.
I'm sure we can, but really it's just not a pressing matter. It's not going to be particularly high in their list of immediate needs. We might still get relegated.
Especially considering Man City and Liverpool haven't moved yet either lol. They get attendances the same as ours.
Indeed.. It might happen, but I don't really care tbh. There's a long journey involved... I'm more interested in players and winning games
Man City have no reason to move - they had a new stadium which was adapted to footy from athletics before they moved in. They don't need any extra capacity as there is no pressing demand for tickets. They normally give away a number to students and kids. Its also on a huge swathe of land, with the Academy and loads of other sporting facilities right next to it. Liverpool added 8500 seats in 2016 and are adding an extra 7000 now to increase capacity to 61000 by 2023 and their owners have declared they want to stay at Anfield. I would love to see us stay put as well. However if a site became available where you could turn into a true sports complex, with an Academy, training ground etc it would be good as well.
The site shown in the video would be ideal in terms of size and the potential to build a full sports complex. However, I hate the idea of it not being closer to the city centre and not being within Newcastle. Our city centre location is massively important to our identity. I'm also not sure how feasible the road network is around this site to cope with a matchday. The guy who made the video keeps telling anyone who raises that issue to watch the video and his points that it would need to rely on metro and buses to get to games, but you cannot take the fact that people would attempt to drive as close to the stadium as they can out of the equation. You would also get people wanting to be dropped off. This happens even when you close roads and tell people that they cannot access a site by car, and the roads you would need to close would also prevent a lot of people from accessing their homes. The roads around Longbenton are already a nightmare so would need to be completely overhauled to the extent of removing some housing to widen roads.
The fact that St. James is in the City helps with the dispersal of the crowds after the gams We all know it can get a bit congested trying to get home on a night game But many people choose to go to the pub or restaurant after the game and so eases the immediate congestion on the roads. Going home straight from the game onto public transport would be a nightmare as I witnessed at some of the larger grounds like Wembley or Old Trafford Say for example there were 25,000 people wanting to get back to Newcastle/Gateshead (and I am saying this considering it would be a bigger stadium say 70,000) to meet up with their onward travel plans you would need 50 trains carrying 500 people at a time, taking 10mins to load up and move for the next 8 hours, people are not going to wait
These big complexes look great but there’s no need to have the training ground, academy, reserve stadium etc all together with the main stadium. They all serve different functions. City centre location not only retains identity but also helps with transportation, facilities for fans before and after and brings massive economic benefits for many businesses in the city. My choice if unable to adequately improve St James would be the arena site for the stadium kept separate from the other bits. Yes it’s earmarked for other things but is currently available and money with goodwill and good planning talks.
