Wallsendmag

Lost 4-1 v The Mags IIRC.

Great post and something I noticed at the time as well. In fact it was all too obvious.

Liverpool are currently in the process of expanding Anfield up to 61k, Man City struggle to fill their stadium as it is and Chelsea can't expand Stamford Bridge on Health and Safety grounds as the only exit/entry points are onto the Fulham Road.

Not sure of that but I've got friends in Holland and quite a few weren't keen when Ajax moved to the Amsterdam ArenA in the mid 90s. Took them a few years to settle in and the atmosphere suffered as a result. Nowadays it's a Cauldron of noise, the F Side have their huge section behind one of the goals, they have another large fangroup in another corner behind the opposite goal and the place is absolutely bouncing these days. Ultimately its the people inside who make a stadium.

Arsenal sell out every week. Try getting a ticket for one of their games and see how you get on. They have a problem with some fans simply not turning up to certain games. They also suffered from a lack of atmosphere at Highbury, hence its nickname the Highbury Library. Man City are also handicapped by sharing a city with the most successful club in the UK and arguably the biggest supported club in the world.

I could have typed that myself word for word. Agree with it completely. I'm desperate to get my ST back next season but if L7 is the only area available I'll probably not bother and take my chances match by match. Hate it up there. Feels so detached from the rest of the ground looking straight over the East Stand and onto the Gallowgate roof and the atmosphere up there suffers badly as a result.

Burnley 100% sold out other than some gaps in their section. I know this because my brother came home from offshore on the Friday night beforehand and tried to get a ticket and they were sold out. Tbf Norwich was midweek with virtually no travelling support (all the usual home sections were sold out amd there were some home fans in the usual away section) and we were without a win all season. Still over 50k there. Maybe I'm not as attached to SJP as some. I've been going there since 1983 but it's completely different to what it was back then, other than the East Stand and even that has been remodelled. I just hate the thought of 1000s of youngsters across Tyneside and beyond, the future of NUFC, the next generation, being locked out of seeing their heroes play. If I'd had been locked out and unable to get in back in 83/84 maybe I wouldn't have grown up to be a Newcastle fan. If land be be acquired within walking distance of the city centre where a new super 65/70k stadium I think it would be put to serious consideration as part of the plan to make this club one of, if not the biggest club in World football. I don't think they've bought us with the intention of us being anything else.

I can see them going down the Chelsea membership route. Stamford Bridge only holds 40k which is nowhere near enough to satisfy demand. What they do is award their members points for buying tickets as well as their season ticket holders, and members with most points get priority for match tickets and the option to buy season tickets should any become available. For example for this season they allowed members with 129+ loyalty points (their system works different to ours with more points awarded for the lesser games) to apply for a season ticket.

Should have clarified myself better. Meant more the city centre boundaries (bad descriptionon my part). So basically get a map, stick your pencil where Greys Monument is, and from there within a max radius of 1/1.5 miles. Leaves the 2 obvious sites.

Spurs weren't filling Wembley like. They filled it a handful of times v the likes of Arsenal, Man Utd and Liverpool and they had times when very few turned up (29,000 v Watford). When we played them at Wembley the crowds were 54k and 41k respectively. They aren't even filling their new stadium, they've had a few recent sub 50k attendances.

I'd only want a new stadium if it could be built within the city boundaries for the reasons you've mentioned and it would need a capacity of circa 70k. If we could extend round the Gallowgate End to bring capacity to around 59k and maybe remodel the East Stand (as mentioned above), giving it a steeper rake without building out any/much further but adding a further 2k seats to that stand taking capacity up to around 61k that would be a good solution.

In the past when season tickets have sold out, under SBR and for 1 season under Benitez they capped sales at 44k. Allowing for 3,200 away fans that leaves 5k to go on sale game by game. I'd predict that would mean no general sale at all next season with members scrambling for those 5k tickets.

I think even extending the Gallowgate to the level of the Leazes only gives us an extra 6k seats so we'd still only be on around 58/59k. It would be a lot of expense (I know money isn't really an issue) and upheaval for a relatively modest increase. The East Stand is the real issue but I don't see a solution there.

I hate Derby days. I'd rather they just bobbed between League One and League Two from here on in, with the odd season in the Vanarama. It's still kinder than they wish on us mind!

Met him at Whitley Park one afternoon a few years ago when I had a walk along to watch an U23 game. I was with the bairn at the time and not only was he happy to have his photo taken with him but spent another couple of minutes just having a chat with him as well. Really made his day! Came across as a very nice bloke.

In amongst all of todays hilarity they've now gone 7 points behind 2nd placed Wigan, who also still have 3 games in hand on them!

I think this will be a project quite high on their list of priorities. SJP is already too small as things are. Brighton tickets went on public sale and sold out within an hour and that included almost 2k extra tickets that Brighton couldn't sell. No doubt 60k+ could have been sold for this one. That's for a team 4th bottom of the league for a game against Brighton. Once we're up towards the top, challenging and hopefully winning trophies demand for tickets will just be crazy! Mayb in an ideal world the Gallowgate could be expanded to the size of the Leazes which would probably take capacity to 58/59k, keeps us at our spiritual home with its prime location and gives us a decent increase but part of me would love the club to either re-explore the possibility of a brand new 70k super stadium on the Town Moor or the current Arena site. I suppose the possibilities are endless when money is no object!

I'll be devastated if they don't make another Netflix series after this!

Yeah this. Under KK the sky was the limit. He had us believing we would be the biggest club in the country, we could beat anyone, we could buy anyone, but that was Keegan. He had the players believing that as well. Just an amazing character. Under SBR we always knew we'd be playing 3rd fiddle behind Man Utd and Arsenal. Still great times Under Sir Bobby but that ceiling was in place by then and we knew we couldn't break it.

It's a definite 1 for me. Haven't been this excited about NUFC since 92-96!

The Edinburgh - Newcastle trains are always packed with NUFC fans on a matchday so there's definitely loads of Edinburgh based Mags that's for sure!

Scary how much I love this bloke. He was even coaching the ball boys today!

Totally agree with you there. SJH is the greatest thing to happen to NUFC, certainly in the modern day. If it wasn't for him coming in and wrestling the club away from Gordon Mckeag we wouldn't have the club we have today. He literally saved the club from complete oblivion. There would have been no KK retuning as manager, none of those magical days in the 90s, no 52,000 seater stadium, probably no Sir Bobby Robson managing us as him coming in was a consequence as to what had happened between 92-99. Mike Ashley looked the perfect owner at the time. A British, self made Billionaire with a background in sport. Certainly the fanbase were excited when it was announced he'd bought the club. In fact for me it was one of those moments when I'll always remember where I was when the news broke (The Benton Ale House). None of us knew what his true intentions were back then. He duped Hall, the same as he duped the rest of us.

Haha I know mate and I certainly wasn't implying that. I was just emphasising the point that tickets are already in huge demand and that is only going to get bigger and bigger. If you are lucky enough to ever find yourself in possession of a season ticket you'll have no problem in selling it for games you can't make it up to.

Trippier getting all the plaudits today, and rightly so, but it's great to see so many people saying how good this lad was. I thought he was class last night and he'll be a huge miss on Sunday.