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Should we stay or should we go?


Kid Icarus

Should we stay or should we go?  

496 members have voted

  1. 1. Stadium expansion vs a new stadium

    • Stay - expand St James's Park to the rumoured 65k capacity
    • Go - move to an alternative city centre location


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1 hour ago, nufcjb said:

I don't think the owners would consider any move beyond the current location. The city council too would not want us to move as it will have an impact on the city's economy in some way. Hence, if there is a need for a location for any new stadium, compromise will be made for an SJP land and Leazes Park exchange. Moving elsewhere is a non-starter for any parties.

 

 

 

Leazes Park meaning Castle Leazes ?

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2 hours ago, nufcjb said:

I don't think the owners would consider any move beyond the current location. The city council too would not want us to move as it will have an impact on the city's economy in some way. Hence, if there is a need for a location for any new stadium, compromise will be made for an SJP land and Leazes Park exchange. Moving elsewhere is a non-starter for any parties.

 

 

 

Very few supporters or city hospitality businesses would be happy with a move away from the city

centre. It won't happen.

The most realistic options appear to be:

1. Stay put and enhance our current stadium.

2. Migrate about 300 yards north to Castle Leazes.

Castle Leazes is an ancient piece of common land owned by NCCC and, essentially, the freemen who have cattle grazing rights. As far as I know there are no other protections in place and the land could be built on if the council and freemen agree exceptionally. They did so in the mid '90s and are likely to do so again.

Leazes Park has national protection in the form of Listed and Conservation Area status and so must be preserved. It is our oldest and most central city park and is owned by NCCC (for citizen wellbeing) although currently maintained by Urban Green due to austerity budget cuts. 

Any new stadium proposals on Castle Leazes should result in an extended Leazes Park on the site of the current stadium. It could be laid out and maintained by NUFC as part of the agreement. It would be a highly impressive setting. 

I'd be happy with an enhanced St.James's Park  - as most would - but I believe the second option would be better for the club and the city.

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We absolutely can’t move out of town, it would destroy the economy of the city. As well as the unique character of the club. 
 

I would take a new stadium almost anywhere in the city centre, but we are already very short of green space so Leazes Park either has to be protected or moved/recreated. 

 

 

Edited by AyeDubbleYoo

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  • 8 months later...

Poll re-opened with new options. This time it's a straight shoot out between the best of both options: SJP stadium expansion or moving to another city centre location.

 

 

Result of last result for posterity

 

image.thumb.png.b432c3aa8c6cbd46b8aaa084b9e04883.png

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Heart is stay, head is go. I was always stay but I do think there’s the potential for a better atmosphere in a new stadium and that’s the most important thing in my opinion. Would break my heart to see St. James’ knocked down though. Dream scenario is state of the art new ground that ticks every box. Women’s team becomes really popular and uses St. James’ as their main stadium 

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Voted to move, on the basis that all we can do at the current site is add an extra 10-12k seats to the Gallowgate/East Stand.

 

That extra capacity is going to bring in maybe £10m? Based on 12k STs at £750 each. Plus we'll potentially have to temporarily reduce capacity while the work takes place. 

 

If we can build a state-of-the-art stadium, in the city centre, built with atmosphere in mind, that would be my choice. We can tag on a load of extra corporate stuff, rather than just converting existing areas (eg the "Wings") and bring on a Stadium sponsor. It could open up the opportunity to host other events such as concerts, other sports etc as well as more regular international fixtures.

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I've been pretty open about how dead against I am about moving and that will never change. For me you'd be removing a huge percentage of what supporting Newcastle means to me, never to return. I think in terms of what it means in terms of 'what supporting a club is supposed to be about' from my perspective, it would be catastrophic, up there with Hull 2014 when my eyes were opened to how much of our fanbase were spineless, bootlicking arseholes. 

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Surprised that leaving is ahead in the poll. If we can expand to the rumoured 65K mentioned in the poll and if we can refurb the existing interiors of the ground, I don’t think we need to move. 

 

 

Edited by NUFC_Chris

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1 minute ago, NUFC_Chris said:

Surprised that leaving is ahead in the poll. If we can expand to the rumoured 65K mentioned in the poll and if we can refurb the existing interiors of the ground, I don’t think we need to move. 

 

Depends what we/the club want out of the stadium really. If it's just an extra 10k on top of the Gallowgate and a lick of paint etc around the concourses then I agree, we don't need to move.

 

If they really want to maximise the income from the stadium, that's where we would be limiting ourselves by staying put.

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Just now, Keegans Export said:

Depends what we/the club want out of the stadium really. If it's just an extra 10k on top of the Gallowgate and a lick of paint etc around the concourses then I agree, we don't need to move.

 

If they really want to maximise the income from the stadium, that's where we would be limiting ourselves by staying put.

Do you think we need a capacity upwards of 65K though? My gut feeling is we don’t, certainly not any time soon.

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What are we going to be doing with this mooted new stadium that isn't being done at the minute, just out of interest? Putting Pink on and that? Doesn't seem to help much with finances :shifty:

 

Genuine question, what commercial opportunities are we missing out on at SJP? I haven't seen any of the arguments, although I'm sure they've been made enough

 

 

Edited by OpenC

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2 minutes ago, NUFC_Chris said:

Do you think we need a capacity upwards of 65K though? My gut feeling is we don’t, certainly not any time soon.

 

No I think 65k is probably about right but I think they will look at the split between standard and corporate though. They've tried that already with part of the Leazes and the changes up in the Gallowgate corner. 

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1 minute ago, OpenC said:

What are we going to be doing with this mooted new stadium that isn't being done at the minute, just out of interest? Putting Pink on and that? Doesn't seem to help much with finances :shifty:

 

Genuine question, what commercial opportunities are we missing out on at SJP?

 

Stadium sponsorship? 

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We've had that before, was canny popular :lol: why is that easier somewhere else?  Because it doesn't have history as SJP so it's easier to just call it the WongaDome from the outset?

 

 

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1 minute ago, Kid Icarus said:

Might have to reset the poll. If you click into who's voted you can see that 'stay' has 23 votes since it opened, not 11. 

Well I just voted and it went straight up from 11 to 12

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10 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

@Yorkie Is the poll counting correctly? I see 23 people having voted 'stay' in the last couple of hours and it's only showing 11 votes?

 

Yeah, it's clearly not working properly is it. I have it at 24 to 35 atm. Really sorry but I don't know how to fix it, or if it's even fixable. @Rich / @Big River any ideas chaps?

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Definitely stay for me if we can expand as listed. I love our stadium, as someone not from Newcastle it's far and away the coolest looking one in the country and would hate to lose some of our history 

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