St James' Park Euro 2028 dates confirmed
Newcastle United’s St James’ Park will be hosting five matches at Euro 2028, UEFA have confirmed.
Newcastle United’s St James’ Park could host up to two England matches and five games in total in June 2028 as part of the European Championships.
Euro 2028 will see England, Scotland, Wales and Republic of Ireland co-host the tournament with St James’ Park selected as one of the nine host stadiums ahead of the likes of Manchester United’s Old Trafford, Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium and Liverpool’s Anfield.
The announcement comes after the club provided guarantees to UEFA that the stadium would be ready and available to host matches at the tournament in less than three years’ time. It raises fresh questions over the future of St James’ Park and the club’s plans to expand or build a new stadium on a different site.
The club claimed last year that an update on the stadium would be provided in early 2025 but over a year on, no significant update regarding a new or expanded stadium has been made.
It’s understood that the club’s preference is to build a new stadium just north of the current site on Leazes Park. Which would keep St James’ Park open and available for the upcoming Euro 2028 tournament.
Euro 2028 host stadiums
In addition to St James’ Park, Wembley Stadium will host the final for the second time in three European Championship tournaments, having hosted the Euro 2020 final, which England lost on penalties to Italy.
The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Etihad Stadium (Manchester City), Hill Dickinson Stadium (Everton) and Villa Park (Aston Villa) complete the list of host stadiums in England.
Hampden Park in Glasgow will be Scotland’s host stadium while Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium and Dublin’s Aviva Stadium will host for Wales and Republic of Ireland, respectively.
UEFA confirm key St James’ Park dates
UEFA has confirmed that St James’ Park will host four Euro 2028 group stage matches as well as one last-16 game in June 2028.
The five dates for games at St James’ Park are:
Group games
Monday 12th June 2028
Thursday 15th June 2028
Saturday 17th June 2028
Tuesday 20th June 2028
Last 16 game
Sunday 25th June 2028
David Hopkinson’s St James’ Park update
Following his appointment as Newcastle chief executive officer in September, David Hopkinson provided a small update on the club’s official stance regarding the stadium.
“I think the decision before us is, look St. James Park, this is iconic, this is special, it's a special place. Are our ambitions best served here? Might our ambitions be served even better as we create a new stadium? We'll figure that out.
“I don’t think we’re ready to make that decision today but these are nice choices to be thinking about and nice options to be creating for ourselves.”
His comments suggest little tangible progress has been made over the past 12 months or so.
St James’ Park concept images - watch below
No official stadium designs have been made public at the time of writing but stadium concept designer and 3D animator Damián Bosio shared his ideas on what a proposed expansion of St James’ Park or new stadium could look like via his YouTube channel, Bondibot.
The designs were made public last year, but provide an idea of what an expanded St James’ Park or new ‘Leazes Stadium’ could look like.
Continue Reading