Newcastle United’s St James’ Park changes and future developments that fans need to know about

Other than changing its name to the ‘Sports Direct Arena’, St James’ Park had barely any noticeable changes to it during Mike Ashley’s 13-year reign as owner. What was, for a while, the third biggest stadium in the Premier League, remained largely unchanged for over a decade before the takeover of the club in October 2021.

New ownership promised an overhaul of not just their on-field fortunes, but off the field as well. The club are still honing all of their long-term plans with the future of St James’ Park right at the centre of thinking from owners and supporters alike.

Here, we take a look at everything fans need to know about the changes that have already occurred and what potential developments could happen in the future at St James’ Park:

What changes have already been made at St James’ Park?

The first details of changes to St James’ Park under new ownership emerged when pictures on social media showed windows on the outside of the stadium being cleaned. This doesn’t seem like a major thing for the club to do, however, after a decade and a half of the stadium being treated like an afterthought, it was a very welcome sight.

Walls in the concourses were also given a lick of paint as the club made the place simply look nicer. The Sports Direct signage that had been plastered all over St James’ Park was also removed in December 2021 - firmly signalling the end of Ashley’s tenure.

Sponsorship and advertising boards

The removal of these advertising boards, however, have created large gaps of unused advertising space around the ground. The club will undoubtedly look to fill these spaces in the future as they sign off new commercial deals.

Safe standing to be introduced

From next season, a safe standing section will be introduced for both home and away supporters. Situated in the ‘Strawberry corner’, Newcastle will implement rail-seating in time for the beginning of the 2023/23 season with 1,800 safe-standing seats set to be introduced.

Potential stadium expansion

Of course, the biggest hope for supporters is that St James’ Park can increase its 52,305 capacity. Demand for tickets has been off-the-scale since the takeover of the club with sell-outs occurring every match day.

Hopes of expanding the stadium were dashed in 2019 when Mike Ashley sold off Strawberry Place to developers. However, the club were able to buy back the land and could use it to expand the Gallowgate End and thus the overall capacity of St James’ Park to around 60,000.

What have the owners said about a potential move away from St James’ Park?

Last February, before the club purchased the land at Strawberry Place, co-owner Mehrdad Ghodoussi told the Athletic that the club would explore ‘every possibility’ to expand the stadium. "If we can get it to 60 or 65,000 thousand, amazing, and we’ll look at every possibility. Are we going to build a new stadium? No. It would be like tearing your soul out."