Newcastle United are hoping to go ahead with plans to expand St. James’ Park and increase the capacity to over 60,000, with Luke Edwards of The Telegraph reporting the news. Daniel Wales speaks to Edwards and reports on the development.
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00:00 With a capacity of just over 52,000, St James' Park in Newcastle is the eighth largest football
00:08 stadium in England. In recent years it has dropped down that list as other clubs have
00:13 either expanded their grounds or moved to new venues entirely. And given the demand
00:19 for tickets at Newcastle United under their new ownership, enabling more fans to enter
00:23 the stadium has become a priority. The expansion of St James' Park has always been fraught
00:29 with difficulties however because of listed buildings nearby, roads and metro lines, as
00:36 comes with the stadium being in the city centre. However, Luke Edwards of The Telegraph has
00:42 confirmed that the club's study does believe that staying at the venue and expanding should
00:48 be possible. The actual architectural plans are remaining very secret at this stage but
00:55 from what I'm led to believe, the Gallagher end, they can do something with that. I think
01:01 they can probably, and this is more complicated, do something with the East Stand as well.
01:07 But they're going to be working through all this. I'm led to believe it's going to be
01:10 very expensive to do. We're talking hundreds of millions of pounds worth of investment
01:15 in the stadium. I think they'd also like to modernise the Milburn Stand and the Leazy
01:19 Stand as well. So it's some project. I just think we're quite a long way from actually
01:24 seeing spades in the ground as it were. There's a lot still to go through. They've got to
01:28 negotiate the extension of the lease with Newcastle City Council. They've obviously
01:32 then got to get planning permission. So we could be sort of 18 months, even two years
01:37 away from any work starting. Given the difficulties regarding St James' Park's expansion, some
01:43 would argue that moving entirely might be easier. But Edwards explained why the preference
01:48 from the club is to remain where they are. I think people are very aware of the emotional
01:54 attachment it has, its geographical location, right in the heart of the city centre. It
01:59 makes St James' Park the most popular ground to visit for away fans. And I think that's
02:04 also important. I think if you have it in the city centre, which is actually quite unique
02:08 now, if you look at the other major clubs in England and even Europe, to have a stadium
02:12 right in the heart of the city is unusual. Part of the romanticism of St James' Park
02:19 and Newcastle United as a football club is to do with the fact that the stadium really
02:23 is the heartbeat of the city. So I think there is another option on the table. It's a fallback
02:29 option at the moment, which would be to build an entirely new stadium on Leazes Park, sort
02:34 of slash where the Castle Leazes Halls of Residence, where Newcastle University land
02:40 is there. Now, I think that would be a planning nightmare, personally, and I think that would
02:44 get bogged down in all sorts of opposition and appeals and all that sort of stuff. So
02:49 I think they've looked at that. That does remain on the table, but at the moment the
02:54 priority is to stay at St James' Park. And I think that's the right decision.
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