Newcastle United - Time to Move!

Mick Martin argues the time has come to move on from St James'

I don’t think there’s a supporter who hasn’t thought about it or had the conversation – what are we going to do about St James’ Park?

The question of course is motivated by intense demand for tickets following the Oct/2021 takeover and the new feeling of ambition and associated investment following fourteen years of neglect under Mike Ashley. The clamour to get into St James’ Park is a daily discussion point and the conclusion Newcastle United needs to do something about increasing capacity for thousands of supporters currently locked out is one the vast majority of us agree on. There are varying points of view on what that capacity should be and range from 60,000 to 80,000 though there are voices that shout for more than that too. If I was to offer a personal opinion, we need to push between 65 – 70,000. That said I accept when United pushed the capacity up to 52,000 at the start of this century I never imagined the demand would go beyond that but here we are.

The common refrain amongst supporters is we should do our best to stop at St James’ Park. Our current location is our ancestral home, where we have played throughout our history and even where the forerunners to our club (Newcastle West End and East End) played before the name and colours changed in 1892. I know I’m not the only one who feels that sense of history every time I click through the turnstiles and what is football without emotion and sentiment?

The location of SJP smack in the middle of the city centre is without doubt the envy of the country and whilst there is a certain charm from the game’s roots within the urban, industrial working class communities of some of the world’s most famous clubs (e.g. Liverpool) still locked into networks of red-bricked terraced houses I wouldn’t swap St James’ Park’s location for any of them.

I’ve been as guilty as any in imagining how our famous ground can be extended even having taken myself on wanders around the back of the East Stand on Leazes Terrace and down Strawberry Lane to behind the Gallowgate End on non-match-days to try and imagine how the place can be extended.

There has been a lot of inexpert opinions offered on the subject and I’m about to add to them here in drawing my own conclusion as to what might happen in “the early part of 2025” when United’s Chief Operating Officer, Brad Miller might advise us of the club’s decision following the feasibility study’s findings.

I’ve taken a lot of note of what my fellow TF writer Stephen Hodgson has written and expressed on the subject. Stephen is a construction-engineering professional and understands the fiscal as well as practical constraints and opportunities of a project as big as extending SJP or relocating to a new site. I’ve listened to others, in particular Mark Douglas of The i who has offered some balanced reporting on what might happen next with our home.

My conclusion is we can extend St James’ Park dependent upon the money being there to do so. It would be a significant feat of engineering given the challenges of the East Stand – Leazes Terrace and the Gallowgate End, hemmed in by a vital connecting road from the RVI Hospital and a Metro Station underneath it. It would cost a lot of money, but I think it could be achieved.

But should Newcastle United spend its money this way?

I don’t have any exact figures but the benefits in economic terms from the investment being made don't add up to me. United could invest hundreds of millions in largely unseen engineering fixes and the club could end up with something it doesn’t really want.

The only conclusion I can make is that in terms of the quality of a new stadium as well as the cost, Newcastle United needs to leave St James’ Park. I know this will be heresy to some. There are people in the stands at SJP who can trace their supporting ancestry to the formation of the club and there are people who have had family members supporting the Magpies since the 1890s. St James’ Park is the heartbeat of the city and only good taste forbids me from going off on one about cathedrals on hills and all of that schmaltz.

On a personal basis I’ve been going to various specs around St James’ Park since the early 70s. Texaco Cup games with my Dad in the old West Stand, with the foot-stampers on the old timber boards, on the West Stand Centre Paddock behind Joe Harvey’s dug-out with my old man, then at the front of the Leazes with cousins and school-pals then the Gallowgate Corner with teenage pals, The Benches and being part of that flying column in the front row haranguing linesmen, referees and the opposition in my 20s, back to the paddock with drinking pals, onto the shiny new Leazes End post KK promotion, bumped into the NE Corner of the Leazes on the back of corporate cleansing of the middle of the Leazes and now in the Gallowgate West where I’ve been for the last fifteen years amongst great company benefitting from a good view.

But whatever decision is made about expansion v new stadium, I’m pretty certain it won’t be made on the back of a sentimental old lush like me and my personal nostalgia. The decision will be made for the future not the past and it will be made with a close eye on the balance sheet. Whatever happens with the stadium will be for Mags that haven’t even been born yet and not for ones long cold in the grave. United are about to make a decision for the next fifty years at least.

And that’s why I can’t see any real alternative but to move. It works best for the design and facilities of a new stadium as well as ensuring the club is investing its money in things that will make money back for the club as opposed to become items of great interest in engineering circles. The land SJP is currently on also offers opportunities and might explain why the Reubens are part of this consortium with PIF too.

We also need to be honest about St James’ Park. Whatever it is, it is not the football ground many of us started going to decades ago. It has changed completely. The East Stand is the oldest part of the ground being about fifty years old and has itself been through several iterations since it was constructed in the early 70s. There is no Popular Side terrace our great grandparents crammed onto watch Veitch, Gallacher, Milburn, White et al. There is no Leazes End with that low slung roof and its growling roar urging Supermac on or an open Gallowgate End going heady on the smell of hops from S&N Breweries and sucking KK's debut goal into the net. The old history of SJP has gone with those demolished terraces.

I might be accused of partisan bias but I believe St James’ Park is the best place to watch and play football anywhere in the UK. The atmosphere created by supporters, often with a magnificent backdrop provided by Wor Flags gives the place a really special feeling with the bar high pretty much for run of the mill fixtures as well as the big events against top opposition etc. But we should know it is the people inside SJP that create that atmosphere and some might disagree but I believe that is achieved despite SJP and not because of it. The shape of the stadium with Level 7 too far away from the pitch and the loss of crowd noise as a result doesn’t help. Few would say the acoustics are great anywhere in SJP with the exception of The Gallowgate.

Not that I would give United carte-blanche to move wherever they might wake up one morning and decide to go. I think we all have the horrors at moving away from the city centre to a windswept, soulless site on the suburban outskirts. The oft-discussed Leazes Park site would be absolutely ideal, allowing us to retain our envied location and the culture of the club for many years to come for those Mags yet to join us and retain that tradition.

My support isn’t without its caveats. It has to be a stadium for the people of the north east and befitting our status as the Club of the North. As a starting point it has to be as least as impressive as the Spurs arena which I think most who’ve been believe sets the bar in this country if not Europe.

A few things from me we’d need – a home end to perhaps accommodate 25-30,000 supporters to create a Geordie wall of noise with the acoustics to harness that support, designed to be a canvass for Wor Flags’ creativity and the best tifo in Europe and naturally all safe-standing. A massive family enclosure to nurture future generations of support and at the other end of the scale plenty space for the corporate and international supporters to drive up the club’s income. Special deals for u-21s too. I’m sure there are plenty who will disagree but I’d like away supporters at pitch-side, behind the goal but surrounded on all sides and above by our support to create an intimidating atmosphere for them. There are as many threats as opportunities of course and that is United understand none of this and see a new opportunity to squeeze out legacy, local supporters and head for the quick buck of tourists. These are my fears and I don't think I'll be alone in that. United need to be careful and understand the value of our support and the identity of Newcastle United rests centrally with its Geordie following. .

There are further potential benefits however – United needs to increase its income and can replicate what Spurs have done by using the stadium to do so. We lose out to Sunderland for big concerts because of access to different parts of SJP which is far easier at the SoS even though we have a city set up for hotels and other hospitality. Like Spurs we can use SJP for NFL (though I’ll never go to a game myself) as we have with the Magic Weekend for Rugby League and hopefully put ourselves in the picture for future internationals and UEFA tournaments. The new stadium can be a huge economic benefit for the city-region as well as massive for the club in business terms too.

My take on capacity would be between 65-70,000 (with a possibility to increase as football’s growth shows no sign of stopping) and I’d hope United would be sensible with pricing to enable all parts of the NE community to attend games – certainly none of this shredding of concessions as Spurs and West Ham have started doing.

I’ve no idea if Leazes Park is viable, whether or not it would be entangled in years of litigation given it is a conservation area and we know how well-motivated and switched on protestors can put a spanner in the works (Dolly Potter anyone?) but it seems the ideal site and I’d hope an arrangement could be made for the city to have a brilliant stadium and a wholly regenerated park in walking distance from the existing transport infrastructure.

Whatever happens will tell us of the ambition for Newcastle United. Brad Miller has spoken of a historic investment. We are all anticipating what that will be but for me, I believe we have outgrown St James’ Park.

Let’s have a heated debate.

Keep On, Keepin’ On ...

Mick Martin

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