Newcastle are looking to expand St James’ Park beyond its current 52,000 capacity to at least 60,000. But doing so poses significant logistical challenges.
The club have been conducting a feasibility study and are set to make a decision on how St James’ Park is expanded or whether it is expanded at all. This is because a new stadium has also been proposed and discussed by the club.
Building a new stadium on part of the current Leazes Park site next to St James’ Park has been mooted. It has recently been confirmed that Newcastle City Council will be taking over management of the park once again.
Since 2019, Leazes Park has been managed by Urban Green.
Newcastle City Council will play an important part in any stadium redevelopment plans for Newcastle United and talks are understood to have taken place between the two parties.
Chief operations officer Brad Miller discussed the subject of a new stadium at a fan event at St James’ STACK last week.
“It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” he said. “Do we invest and transform St James’ as we see it today on the site where we are? Or do we take that bold move and think about moving?
“We want to make sure it is a very robust process. So regardless of the outcome, I want to stand up in front of everybody throughout the process and say, ‘This is why it is a logical decision, with long-term competitiveness in mind.’ Because as you have heard a lot, it is all about revenue and PSR. We have to work hard to make sure we give as much money as possible to Paul (Mitchell) and the football side in order to remain competitive on the field.
“In terms of next steps, we are coming towards the end of the next stage, the briefing stage. There are a lot of risks and opportunities at St James’.
“We have to take time to dig into those and make sure we’ve got the devil in the detail — in terms of the programme, how long it will take and what it will do for us in terms of revenue.”
Expanding St James’ Park is thwarted by the stadium’s city centre location close to listed buildings and the Leazes Conservation Area.
The estimated costs are between £800million and £1billion, while a new stadium is estimated to cost £2 billion to £3billion.
While official details have not been made public, that hasn’t stopped concept designers from sharing their takes on what a proposed expansion or stadium rebuild could look like.
In April, stadium concept designer and 3D animator Damián Bosio proposed three stadium expansion suggestions via his YouTube channel, Bondibot.
One option involves expanding the Gallowgate Stand and Gallowgate West Corner to the same level as the current Milburn and Leazes Stands. It involves building over the Strawberry Place street and onto the land above the St James’ Metro Station.
To the untrained eye, this would be seen as the most feasible option with the club purchasing the Strawberry Place land last year. Though the St James’ STACK is currently situated on the site.
The second option involves raising the St James’ Park playing surface and moving the pitch north west to allow more space to expand the East Stand and Gallowgate Stand. While it will mean losing capacity from the Milburn Stand and Leazes Stand, the design goes on to expand the East Stand and Gallowgate Stands so that all four stands are of a similar height.
This design won’t be viewed as realistic in its current guise due to the properties on Leazes Terrace and the ‘right to light’ easement that gives the landowners a right to receive sunlight on their buildings.
However, advances in technology could allow light to pass through an expanded East Stand and is something that was raised as part of the feasibility study.
But the most intriguing concept designs involve a partial deconstruction of St James’ Park and a rebuild next to the current site on Leazes Park. This allows for a new state-of-the-art stadium to be constructed without any major capacity or further expansion restrictions.
However, any construction on the Leazes Conservation Area would likely face significant backlash even if an agreement was to be reached.
Here are images of the concept designs, giving an impression of how an expanded or new St James’ Park could look in the years to come...
This would involve building over the road and into Strawberry Place.
1. Expanding the Gallowgate Stand
This would involve building over the road and into Strawberry Place. | Bondibot
The concept design involves removing the Gallowgate Stand roof and starting the expansion across the road to allow traffic to continue passing through.
2. Removing the roof
The concept design involves removing the Gallowgate Stand roof and starting the expansion across the road to allow traffic to continue passing through. | Bondibot
The East Stand, listed buildings and Leazes Conservation area would remain undisturbed by this expansion.
3. One stand expansion
The East Stand, listed buildings and Leazes Conservation area would remain undisturbed by this expansion. | Bondibot
The Gallowgate expansion concept would raise the stand to the same level as the Milburn and Leazes stands.
4. A significant expansion
The Gallowgate expansion concept would raise the stand to the same level as the Milburn and Leazes stands. | Bondibot