The discourse around Newcastle United and a possible new stadium has once again reached fever pitch this week with the two options slowly but surely becoming clearer.
The Times Sport has reported that the club are weighing up their options between upgrading the existing St James’ Park to a capacity of 60,000 for £500m or building an entirely new 65,000 seater stadium on Leazes Park for £1.5bn. Pocket change for PIF…
Both of those options have their upsides and their downsides and, given how long the deliberations have been going on about how best to go about the stadium situation, there is clearly a hefty number of logistical bumps to work through before deciding which is the most fruitful.
At present, we aren’t any closer to knowing which option the Magpies will end up choosing despite some details being revealed, but I actually wonder whether we may have a better understanding about which route they’ll go down than anybody realises.
Land purchases & Leazes Park blockades
When the club purchased Strawberry place for £12.5m and the majority of the historic, Grade I-listed Leazes Terrace for £25m, senior figures insisted it was with a view to keeping both options firmly open.
But, in reality, what this did was address some of the issues that have historically complicated expansion of the stadium, such as light disputes and planning objections.
Now I’m not suggesting that was an admission by the club that they are definitely going with the redevelopment option, but it does feel like a highly specific move and one which has been a thorn in the side of the club previously.
There is also the issue of Leazes Park itself, which is an absolute minefield when it comes to proposing a clean-slate stadium build. The park is a Grade II-listed public green space that would require copious amounts of planning and the need to overcome a plethora of legal restrictions to actually do the work required. Not to mention the fact that there are protected wildlife colonies in the park that would have to be moved and rehomed ethically.
The club would likely be looking at at least a couple of years to simply get everything accepted, which of course they could do for absolutely no reason should the plans end up being rejected.
The Euro 2028 problem
St James’ Park has to exist in its current form until at least Euro 2028 as the stadium is set to host some games, unless of course the club fast-tracks something through before that which is almost impossible.
Whilst this doesn’t directly suggest the club will keep St James’ Park around forever, if they are having to wait that long to even start what they are doing, could a redevelopment that takes less time than a full stadium build make most sense, especially given the club are looking to continue growing their commercial side quickly over the next few years.
Having no stadium income at all for a prolonged period right in the midst of when the club want to start challenging properly could cause some big issues.
Brand re-investment
Whilst not a particularly big roadblock, the recent rebranding of St James’ Park and upgrades that were made to the stadium itself this past summer don’t make much sense if the plan is to build a full new stadium, unless it’s not going to happen or be announced for a good long while.
The positioning of St James’ with a new logo would suggest that the club have plans to make it a commercially hard-working asset outside of merely holding Newcastle games there.
If this is the case and it becomes a draw as an entertainment venue, would it make sense to forgo all of that extra marketing to replace such a strong cultural landmark with an entirely new, untested venue for three times the price it would take to upgrade St James’ Park? I’m not too sure.
The cost/financial compliance
If the option is there to pay just £500m instead of £1.5bn for just 5-10,000 less capacity, I can’t see a world where the club don’t take that option in the current financial climate.
Choosing the new stadium option would require large amounts of outside investment, all of which the club would have to be careful not to breach any rules whilst sourcing and, given the other investments such as £190m into the new training ground that is being built, it simply feels far-fetched to suggest the club could sanction such a big outlay whilst also trying to remain competitive financially in the league during the build period.
Of course, we are merely hypothesising and speculating about what may happen in the future and, for all we know, the club may already be working on some grand plan to unveil a state-of-the-art new stadium blueprint. But, at least right now, it does seem as though there may be more evidence leaning toward remaining at St James’ Park.
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