A comment by Tash on another thread prompted me to wonder what happened to our stadium extension plans. I know they were seen as very expensive because of the height required at the Gallowgate end and the supports which would be required complicated by the Metro but havent heard anything on this subject for a long time. I would love to see it happen and the extra capacity would not only generate much more atmosphere and give the possibility of a big singing section but long term the revenue could push the club right up with the big boys especially with FFP coming into play. Anyone else heard anything on this recently?
I heard we were, at one point, planning to move to leazes park, which is 70k+? I think. I don't know what happened to the plans. I guess we just didn't maintain success for long enough. Even in our glory era, we had the odd season where we finished bottom half.
I believe the new stadium plans at Castle Leazes were shelved when there were too many protests and it was decided to extend St. James Park instead. Obviously a lot has already been done and the East Side cant be further extended due to the protected status of Leazes Terrace but plans were to extend the Gallowgate up to match the Milburn and Sir John Hall stands in a horseshoe type of shape but heard nothing on this for quite a long time. In Shepherds days i did hear tell that the land around the Metro and Metro car park belonged to the club along with the site of the old Magpie club on Barrack road but heard nothing on this since then either.
3000 empty seats against Norwich, 4000 against Villa. I don't know how much of that would be down to away support but until we're selling out every league game it makes no sense to extend the stadium. It would cost millions to do and we'd only benefit from it half a dozen times per season; it would take years to pay itself back.
A lot of it comes down to stupid seat allocations as there are so many single seats people don't want to take up as they'd want to sit next to a friend viseversa
We finished 5th last year and still don't fill it every game. If the club has to finish higher than that to fill the ground the risk would be too great. I think a lot of it is down to the economic climate anyway, I'm sure we used to sell out all the time before the recession. Even before Keegan resigned we had a few low attendances, we only had 47k in his last home game in charge, so the dip wasn't purely down to relegation and boycotts.
A lot of it comes down to the fact people don't have as much disposable income as they did a 5/10 years ago.
Dont forget tho that Arsenals ground is much bigger than highbury was yet they nigh on fill that regularly whereas highbury wasnt always sold out so its not all down just to figures for todays games. Obviously reduced prices would attract more into the ground but with the reduced price per seat would negate some of the point of the extension but not totally and more attending gets more hooked into attending regularly. The improved atmosphere would attract more to want to come regularly. Also people attending the match dont always just buy their ticket, you have shop sales, programmes, refreshments etc. A further interesting point is that with a vastly extended family section at the ground now, where are all these people going to sit when the kids grow up and want to continue attending?
The plans fell down at the council approval stage I believe. I agree with a lot of you but if we had a 70,000 seat stadium the club could step up its engagement with fans and allow. say kids in for £5 for all home games thereby encouraging future fans to get involved. It may take 10 years but we could build up a very large (and regular) support base on the back if this. Most kids have something to eat and drink too so there's extra revenue there for a start.
The planning permission for the Gallowgate extension expired last year I think. They would have to apply again now not that I think there would be much of a problem. Like others have said though, I just don't see the need for this at the mo, lets get it right on the pitch consistently then everything else will follow.
IIRC it's all to do with sunlight, in that you can't block it out. So unless the stand was made of entirely glass then the east stand will always be unable to be expanded. Altho we could do a Nou Camp and dig down! lol
This is true, anybody who wants to take their family...or friends to a match, will find it very hard too get seating together.
Just can't see any need for it. I think we'd have to start winning trophies and see what impact that has before we thought about that.
a woman called dolly potter and friends of leazes park objected to the proposals,most of them didnt even live in the area,when i was looking at the plans that were exhibited in the ground, i got talking to people that lived local. barrack rd, fenham ect,there opinion was the area of the park newcastle was wanting to build on, was just used by druggies n pervs. dolly n her mates mostly from gosforth applied and got a grant from the lottery fund to do up the park(never bothered before)so NUFC dropped the plans,N U F C submitted new plans for the existing ground from 36,000 to 52,000 dolly and her mates then tried to block that but the council told them they couldn't have it both ways and to bugger off! personally i thought it was sad the brewery went but if only it had gone a few years earlier or the ground redevelopment wasnt quite so big when it went .that area would of been perfect.
Aye that's her she use to stand in Northumberland street getting signatures from anyone who would sign, tourists shoppers, people with no interest in football, when I spoke to her I said "you're not from this area" she replied that she has lived in the area for 12 years I said "I've lived here all my effing life" cost me a lot of money she did
