Newcastle United 70,000 St James' Park concept designs have already emerged as capacity change confirmed
Newcastle United’s Champions League clash against Barcelona has sparked fresh talk about the future of St James’ Park and a potential expansion.
Newcastle United’s Champions League encounter with Barcelona saw unprecedented demand for tickets at St James’ Park.
Over 110,000 supporters queued virtually for tickets to Thursday’s match which saw The Magpies lose 2-1 to the La Liga champions.
Ahead of the match, there was also controversy when tickets appeared for sale on unauthorised re-sale sites while a high school in Dundee advertised that it had secured 45 tickets for its students to go and watch the game. These tickets were later cancelled, prompting an investigation that led to the cancelling of 103 season tickets linked to the re-selling of tickets through Scottish tour operators.
Newcastle’s appointment of David Hopkinson as the club’s new chief executive officer is expected to accelerate plans regarding the future of St James’ Park and the potential of a new stadium.
Last year, Newcastle released a statement declaring that an announcement over the future of St James’ Park would be made in ‘early 2025’ after conducting a full feasibility study and engaging with Newcastle City Council.
But almost a year on, official communication from the club regarding the stadium has been limited. Newcastle’s initial preference was to expand St James’ Park but it is understood the club’s stance has changed and alternative options regarding the construction of a new stadium on a different site have been explored.
There has been talk of a new state-of-the-art arena built just north of the current stadium site.
Although the club’s stadium plans are yet to be officially announced, the suggestion that a new stadium would be built on Leazes Park has already been met by a significant backlash. Over 28,000 people have signed a petition opposing the rumoured plans for building a new stadium on Newcastle’s oldest public park.
St James’ Park could be expanded to have a capacity of around 60,000 while a new stadium for the club would be closer to the 70,000 mark, which would make the stadium the second largest in the Premier League behind Manchester United’s Old Trafford.
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David Hopkinson’s St James’ Park update
One of the long-term tasks for Hopkinson as Newcastle’s new CEO will be to find a suitable resolution to the club’s stadium situation after years of uncertainty surrounding the project. Former CEO Darren Eales had experience overseeing a state-of-the-art stadium build at Atlanta United but such plans never got off the ground during his time on Tyneside.
In a recent statement, Hopkinson provided a small update on the club’s current stance regarding the stadium.
Hopkinson said via the club website: “That [stadium plans] we're thinking about really hard and higher ambitions are going to require some investments.
“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 progress has been made over the past 12 months or so.
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St James’ Park official tiny capacity change confirmed by Premier League
Eagle-eyed supporters or simply readers of The Shields Gazette, will know St James’ Park’s official capacity has increased this season.
While not the major expansion many would have been hoping four, several new seats have been installed in the ground which has seen the stadium’s capacity increase from 52,258 to 52,264. The barely noticeable six seat expansion was officially confirmed in an official Premier League document released at the start of the season.
But that’s not the expansion news people are hoping for as everyone awaits a more significant update.
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.