St James’ Park’s last hurrah as one of the best football stadiums in the country may be drawing closer, as the cathedral on the hill faces an uncertain future as our home ground.
With rumours of a new stadium up on Leazes Park persisting, and no further hints of any plans to expand St James’ Park, the end of an era could be upon us.
Thankfully, St James’ Park is set for one last big showing at the next EUROs, being one of the host venues for the tournament, like it was back in the 2012 Summer Olympics.
And, on that note, it was confirmed last night that FIVE games will be staged on Tyneside in 2028…
As one of the nine host venues for the upcoming tournament, which will see 24 teams play 51 games over the course of the event, St James’ Park has been allocated five separate clashes!
This will consist of four group stage games, followed by one last 16 tie, with the dates currently pencilled in being June the 12th, 15th, 17th, 20th and 25th.
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By comparison, Wembley Stadium will host eight separate fixtures, including both semi-finals and the final.
The games should see in excess of 250,000 fans attend St James’ Park in just over a week, with former local councillor Nick Kemp commenting that the games will generate £98m for the local economy.
There’s a lot of EURO history to have taken place up on Barrack Road: back in EURO 1996, we hosted three games in Group B, where future World Champions France defeated both Bulgaria and Romania, whilst Bulgaria defeated Romania in the other fixture.
The last time England played at our ground was just last year in a 3-0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina, where second half goals from Cole Palmer, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Harry Kane proved to be decisive.
But, in the very likely scenario that the Three Lions qualify for their home tournament, having unusually opted against automatic qualification, then this opens the door for the national team to take to the St James’ Park pitch for one of its competitive games.
According to The Chronicle, England will be assigned a spot in Group B should they qualify, where they will kick off their tournament campaign at the Etihad Stadium, before their next two group games both take place at Wembley.
Should England top Group B, this means that they will make the trip from London to the North East for the round of 16 tie, which will be against one of the four best third-placed teams from the group stage. To use EURO2024 as an example, Spain topped Group B and were subsequently drawn against minnows Georgia
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