It's really hemmed in now. I work in Newcastle at least once a week and drive over the Redheugh Bridge to park in The Gate. The stadium has disappeared among all the high rise buildings that have been built over the last few years. I still give it the finger when I go past it like.
Aye Ashley sold that land for development, behind the Gallowgate, but they did buy it back last year. It’s plausible to build there and raise that end to the same height as the Leazes. They talked about a big single tier stand akin to Dortmund however there’s a road there so the planning would be massive and also they’d be left with 3 towering stands and a tiny one. The ‘concrete cancer’ is a real thing and is in the extended area so in reality they could be looking at a 3 sided rebuild. This could be done pretty spectacularly by the right architect in truth but costs would be huge and it also means likely 2-3 years at a reduced capacity. In truth, this should have been looked at years ago and they’ve missed the boat. They will not be allowed to build on green belt in the city. I do think they end up moving out of the city. I always thought they maybe go Kingston Park but that’s not possible now as Red Bull bought the rugby club, so the most likely option is somewhere along the a1, maybe great park area where tie Sage building that was a disaster is currently. Land is there, parking is there, access is good. No metro or rail nearby though which would be an issue. If they don’t want to live out of the city centre they have a task and a half developing.
You are both right about SJP, sadly I get no inside info about Sunderland now but do regarding SJP, nothing about the team or whatever. The crux is that Ashley played an absolute blinder and took the big money before the whole truth was known about the stadium. Amanda Staveley has a history of collusion with the Sheiks around Ascot, etc and convinced them Newcastle was the right club despite having previously tried with Liverpool, Spurs, etc. Sunderland was also mentioned but I can’t honestly remember if that was common knowledge before I heard. As Saudi is used to simply ‘deciding’ what they're building, and where, they never imagined they’d have to deal with archaic entities like the Freemen of the City, Friends of the Town Moor or Mike and Brenda’s great crested newt sanctuary. Once the Arabs realised Staveley had sold them a dead donkey she was out. I’m still trying to find out why the Reuben Brothers were brought into it although I suspect it was purely financial benefit in exchange for influence and credibility. One day all this will blow up and we’ll know. One thing is clear, no one will be queuing up to buy a club in a decaying stadium on land they’ll never own … … bulldozing SJP, returning the land to the owners and building a new stadium would cost more than Everton forked out and take longer to build. I reckon they're stuck where they are.
The concrete problem may be expensive ( to us) to fix - but I would imagine still pocket money to the Saudis . If they struggle to find anywhere to go , this cost would be a test of the “ Saudi investment in the city and region” idea. We’ve not seen any of that yet, it would be fun to see them not even investing in the club .
Depends, it could be a film rebuild of that stand if it’s throughout and depending on the standard o the steels. If they did one bit cheap they likely did the lot cheap. I remember bits of it falling apart shortly after it was built.
Can't see them spending anything on facilities or new grounds, they're pulling back on money and building work on their new desert city so won't be spending huge amounts of money in the North of England
I can’t agree with that mind, be a billion easy to buy them now. Absolute bottom end of gonna rate for a PL/CL club. Doesn’t mean it would be value or would make them anything special, but they’d easy sell for that tomorrow if went in market.
The Reubens own Newcastle race course and are building and owning the new HMRC offices in Pilgrim Street. My thoughts are they were brought in politically as they're Jewish, so to give a bit of sports washing, but also to work mutually on boths property portfolios. Help build a new stadium that they own a share in, which they can offload at some point along with their stake in the mags for a sizable profit.
They were a PL/CL club under Ashley ... ... I don't get why they're now worth a billion when they need to build a new stadium. Not saying you're wrong, I was just guessing tbh.
Just the way club ownership has gone mate. TV deals are up, sponsorship and kit deals are up. Massive sales of US franchise sports teams have lifted the value further as well. They’d walk a billion of they put the for sale signs up tomorrow.
Really hard to gauge at the minute. Probs close to what the Mags went for to the Saudis. Could double that when we stay up. You are looking for that increased commercial side (which we doing great in) and Euro qualification to max it. For some context Spurs are valued at around £2.6 billion by Forbes, and they’d sell for more than that in real world.
So KLD has made a very large fortune by spending a small fortune We have no debt, better training facilities and own our own ground ... ... plus all those Mexicans
KLD has taken a rusty nail and made it viable. Not quite a glowing crown jewel yet, that’s reliant on staying up. The infrastructure is superb and close to the absolute elite. Commercial deals will absolutely rocket come the end of the season. Fair to say KLD has been superbly advised and would see 8-10 times his money. Fortunately he shows no wish to cash in.
You can't " fix" concrete cancer mind. If it is there in the structure, then sooner or later that structure has to come down. A rebuild would be an enormous thing to undertake. It's hard enough to build an extension to an outside toiled these days, with a massive plethora of different organisations to keep happy. And a city centre location makes it doubly harder. It could take a billion quid and five years or more to end up with a tarted up version of what they have now.
And, after all that, they still won't own it ... ... it's like building marble styes and gold plated feeding troughs on the land you rent for your pigs
Aye. Back to the steelwork at best, more likely a full rebuild. Normally caused by the steels rotting I’m sure.
A very good friend of mine told me about it. It's his job to know this and stuff like it. He has less than zero interest in football, but he told me about the likelihood of the Hotchpotch having this problem a few years ago. No idea how he could tell! It occurs when the incorrect mix of concrete is applied to rebar in an inappropriate state. Most grounds are built with pre made concrete beams made off site in controlled conditions. This renders the problem extremely unlikely. But a lot of the concrete for the Hotchpotch was cast on site. It's in these conditions that it can go wrong, the rebar starts rusting and expands over time cracking the concrete. Apparently they also call this condition "exploding concrete"!
