Newcastle United’s owners agree one of their biggest deals yet

Liverpool, for example, spent years buying houses around Anfield so that the stadium could eventually be expanded.

Not Mike Ashley. Ashley sold a plot of land next to St James’s Park which was absolutely critical to any hopes of expanding the ground.

Expansion, of course, was never on the agenda during Ashley’s time as owner. An ambitious plan to increase the capacity of the stadium to 60,000, announced months before Ashley bought the club, was shelved by the billionaire.

And Ashley sold Strawberry Place in 2019, and a high-rise development, which would have hemmed in the stadium on one side and changed the city’s skyline, was controversially approved by Newcastle City Council planners, despite more than 1,700 objections, many from fans who felt that the plans would limit scope to increase capacity.

Yet the development never got off the ground, and that gave supporters hope that the club, taken over in late 2021, would one day buy the land back.

That day, thankfully, has come following long-running talks between the club’s owners and the land owners.

The club’s new owners have been looking at “every possibility” to expand St James's Park over the past 12 months, and this move gives them a realistic opportunity to increase the capacity to at least 60,000. In the short-term, the club can use the land next to the Metro station as fan zone, something which will add to the matchday experience.

Looking longer-term, this deal should see Strawberry Place transformed – for the better.