Newcastle United make official announcement after £12.4m investment & St James' Park images emerge

A new Newcastle United fan zone outside St James' Park is set to be complete by the summer with building work under way.

The St James' STACK was announced after Newcastle purchased the leasehold land at Strawberry Place next to St James' Park from developers last year. The fan zone will remain on the site for three years.

The club's latest accounts confirmed an investment of £12.4million was made to purchase the leasehold land and upgrade the first-team training ground at Darsley Park during the 2022-23 season. Construction work on the site started earlier this month.

An official statement released by Newcastle read: "Work on transforming the land on Strawberry Place has begun with construction company,  The Abbey Group, laying the foundations for the site, before the shipping containers which are synonymous with the STACK brand, will be installed in coming months. 

"Built using repurposed shipping containers around a central plaza and main stage area, 'St. James' STACK, presented by Sela' will attract people of all ages, with carefully curated events and attractions designed for families at key dates throughout the year, whilst matchdays will provide supporters with a number of food and drink options and entertainment."

Newcastle chief executive officer Darren Eales told The Gazette that the plan is for the fan zone to be open this summer.

"We're full steam ahead on [the fan zone]," Eales said. "Our plan is to get it open for that Spring, Summer time and we're looking to try and get it open for the end of the season, certainly by the start of next season to have that fully open.

"To be clear it's not just on matchday, St James' Stack will be open seven days a week and we're excited because it gives us more of that footprint. It goes back to our fan base and we've got this amazing fan base which is twice the size of St James' Park.

"The ability for us to have a footprint with St James' Stack to do events there and make fans feel connected without a season ticket is part of how we're thinking about our ability to grow the club and make our supporters feel more connected. It's not just on a match day, it's about what else we can do around the club 365 days a year."