St James' Park

[TheBrownBottle]

3 hours ago, Rafalove said:

I think that’s optimistic. Very optimistic. 60k would be about right imo.

A successful NUFC comfortably sells 80k+ tickets.  NUFC’s support base is much bigger than WHU’s.

 

While the 100k+ on the waiting list for STs in the mid-90s would never have actually been realised, it’s a cert we could almost double attendances if we’re any good and the pricing is correct. 

[TheBrownBottle]

2 hours ago, Wallsendmag said:

 

They've never had a fanbase anywhere near the size of ours and that is a fact. I doubt they'd historically be in the top 10 best supported clubs in England whereas I think we are 5th.

Yep.  5th on averages; 4th in total tickets sold. 
 

And bear in mind that the four clubs who have higher averages - Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs - haven’t had long stretches in the doldrums like us.  

[SteV]

What you have to realise is that because of where we’ve been as a club in our recent(ish) history, demand is almost at it’s absolute optimum now, certainly in terms of local support.

 

Now, and probably for the foreseeable future, could we sell out a 75k stadium the vast majority of weeks, yeah we probably could.

 

But will it always be like this? What happens when we’ve won the league and a few cups, and regularly been in the latter stages of Europe, then we hit a bit of a downturn (and by that I mean finishing 4th or 5th or something)? Nobody wins forever, so what’s the size of your fan base when things aren’t going great?

 

If you’re not in London where you’ve got 10 million people, the only way you’re regularly filling that size of stadium in times of longer term poorer results, is to expand your national/global fan base the way Man Utd and Liverpool have done. And that probably takes 10-15 years of sustained success, if it’s even possible in modern times.

 

For me, get the superstar architects to increase SJP to the absolute maximum possible, and if the next ten years sees us turn into a genuine European powerhouse, let’s have a conversation about a new super stadium then.

[LV]

2 hours ago, SteV said:

What you have to realise is that because of where we’ve been as a club in our recent(ish) history, demand is almost at it’s absolute optimum now, certainly in terms of local support.

 

Now, and probably for the foreseeable future, could we sell out a 75k stadium the vast majority of weeks, yeah we probably could.

 

But will it always be like this? What happens when we’ve won the league and a few cups, and regularly been in the latter stages of Europe, then we hit a bit of a downturn (and by that I mean finishing 4th or 5th or something)? Nobody wins forever, so what’s the size of your fan base when things aren’t going great?

 

If you’re not in London where you’ve got 10 million people, the only way you’re regularly filling that size of stadium in times of longer term poorer results, is to expand your national/global fan base the way Man Utd and Liverpool have done. And that probably takes 10-15 years of sustained success, if it’s even possible in modern times.

 

For me, get the superstar architects to increase SJP to the absolute maximum possible, and if the next ten years sees us turn into a genuine European powerhouse, let’s have a conversation about a new super stadium then.

Absolutely this.

[Guest]

Rayo Vallecano is the equivalent of a WWE house show at the Newcastle Arena and will push 30k. It's crazy the demand at the minute.

[TheBrownBottle]

7 hours ago, SteV said:

What you have to realise is that because of where we’ve been as a club in our recent(ish) history, demand is almost at it’s absolute optimum now, certainly in terms of local support.

 

Now, and probably for the foreseeable future, could we sell out a 75k stadium the vast majority of weeks, yeah we probably could.

 

But will it always be like this? What happens when we’ve won the league and a few cups, and regularly been in the latter stages of Europe, then we hit a bit of a downturn (and by that I mean finishing 4th or 5th or something)? Nobody wins forever, so what’s the size of your fan base when things aren’t going great?

 

If you’re not in London where you’ve got 10 million people, the only way you’re regularly filling that size of stadium in times of longer term poorer results, is to expand your national/global fan base the way Man Utd and Liverpool have done. And that probably takes 10-15 years of sustained success, if it’s even possible in modern times.

 

For me, get the superstar architects to increase SJP to the absolute maximum possible, and if the next ten years sees us turn into a genuine European powerhouse, let’s have a conversation about a new super stadium then.

Expanding the current stadium is liable to cost the same as a brand new one.  It’s one or the other.  

[TheGuv]

1 hour ago, TheBrownBottle said:

Expanding the current stadium is liable to cost the same as a brand new one.  It’s one or the other.  

Pretty sure £800m-1bn is less than £200m or whatever it would cost to expand…

[Wilson]

1 hour ago, TheBrownBottle said:

Expanding the current stadium is liable to cost the same as a brand new one.  It’s one or the other.  

 

Aye... thats not right like. 

 

 

About this whole debate, when Mehrdad said:

 

“We will definitely look at expanding it, working with the city and council to see what we can do. There are a lot of things that need to happen first, but that’s the way forward.

 

If we can get it to 60 or 65,000 thousand, amazing, and we will look at every possibility.

 

But are we going to build a new stadium? No. It would be like tearing your soul out.”

 

Do those just ignoring it think he was:

 

A. Lying.

B. Naive about future requirements.

C. Believes what he said but will be over-ruled by the majority owners. 

[Jackie Broon]

53 minutes ago, Wilson said:

 

But are we going to build a new stadium? No. It would be like tearing your soul out.”

 

 

Was there much concern from that point of view about the Castle Leazes proposal back in 97? From what I remember it was generally supported by the fans at the time.

[loki679]

1 hour ago, TheGuv said:

Pretty sure £800m-1bn is less than £200m or whatever it would cost to expand…

 

How sure, exactly?

[Keegans Export]

1 hour ago, Wilson said:

But are we going to build a new stadium? No. It would be like tearing your soul out.”

 

Do those just ignoring it think he was:

 

A. Lying.

B. Naive about future requirements.

C. Believes what he said but will be over-ruled by the majority owners. 

Possibly a little bit of B and eventually C.

 

Hasn't it been reported that PIF will at some point take full ownership? Or did I imagine that? 

[NEEJ]

I think any new stadium is likely to cost hundreds of billions. 

[wormy]

8 minutes ago, Keegans Export said:

Possibly a little bit of B and eventually C.

 

Hasn't it been reported that PIF will at some point take full ownership? Or did I imagine that? 

 

I don't recall seeing anything specifically like that but I did see talk that their majority share will probably increase over time with cash injections that are creating further shares? As presumably PCP won't be able to keep up the pace and inject their 'fair share' in comparison. With the Reubens I guess it's a case of whether they would want to keep the pace, rather than whether they're able.

 

I could be completely wrong. I usually am.

[TheGuv]

33 minutes ago, loki679 said:

 

How sure, exactly?

That’s the joke 

[Guest]

23 minutes ago, NEEJ said:

I think any new stadium is likely to cost hundreds of billions. 

 

Could the stadium be big enough one day that the upper tier could potentially leave the atmosphere?

[Interpolic]

2 minutes ago, Optimistic Nut said:

 

Could the stadium be big enough one day that the upper tier could potentially leave the atmosphere?

 

You want prontonise you optimistic imbecile? 

 

 

Edited December 3, 2022 by Interpolic

[Wandy]

3 hours ago, Wilson said:

 

Aye... thats not right like. 

 

 

About this whole debate, when Mehrdad said:

 

“We will definitely look at expanding it, working with the city and council to see what we can do. There are a lot of things that need to happen first, but that’s the way forward.

 

If we can get it to 60 or 65,000 thousand, amazing, and we will look at every possibility.

 

But are we going to build a new stadium? No. It would be like tearing your soul out.”

 

Do those just ignoring it think he was:

 

A. Lying.

B. Naive about future requirements.

C. Believes what he said but will be over-ruled by the majority owners. 

 

None of the above. It's actually

 

D : They already underestimated the size and potential of the club at the time that statement was made, and now realise that a 70000+ seater is an absolute necessity.

[Wolfcastle]

Yeah. The previous rebuilds show that. If they had the chance again they'd do it differently and bigger because it cost us a lot of money having to go twice.

[Whitley mag]

8 hours ago, Wilson said:

 

Aye... thats not right like. 

 

 

About this whole debate, when Mehrdad said:

 

“We will definitely look at expanding it, working with the city and council to see what we can do. There are a lot of things that need to happen first, but that’s the way forward.

 

If we can get it to 60 or 65,000 thousand, amazing, and we will look at every possibility.

 

But are we going to build a new stadium? No. It would be like tearing your soul out.”

 

Do those just ignoring it think he was:

 

A. Lying.

B. Naive about future requirements.

C. Believes what he said but will be over-ruled by the majority owners. 

I’ve got no doubt he genuinely meant what he said at the time, but massive caveat has to be how far had they looked into expansion at the time of quotes and have they even underestimated our potential support.

 

Lets not forget who ultimately writes the cheques here, any redevelopment will have to offer value for money for PIF to sign off. If the bill is 300 million plus to add 6k seats do they see value. If they build a new stadium for 800 million with 18k extra seats, increased corporate and stadium naming rights (which would be bigger for a new stadium ), is this better value ?

 

With the best will in the world circumstances change and the obstacles to expanding St James might not fully have been impacted at time of Mehrdad’s comments.

[Nun tumblers]

I'm all for a new 70k+ staduim, but I'd never support it ,if it was outside the city centre and that's the dilemma .anyone who thinks we couldn't fill 70k for home games doesn't know our support   .

 

[TheBrownBottle]

10 hours ago, TheGuv said:

Pretty sure £800m-1bn is less than £200m or whatever it would cost to expand…

Who said a new ground costs $1bn?  Wembley and Spurs new ground are not the benchmark

9 hours ago, Wilson said:

 

Aye... thats not right like. 

 

 

About this whole debate, when Mehrdad said:

 

“We will definitely look at expanding it, working with the city and council to see what we can do. There are a lot of things that need to happen first, but that’s the way forward.

 

If we can get it to 60 or 65,000 thousand, amazing, and we will look at every possibility.

 

But are we going to build a new stadium? No. It would be like tearing your soul out.”

 

Do those just ignoring it think he was:

 

A. Lying.

B. Naive about future requirements.

C. Believes what he said but will be over-ruled by the majority owners. 

Time for me to give up the day job as a civils estimator then

[TheBrownBottle]

It would be perfectly feasible to build a new stadium for £300-400m - especially at a site like that of the current arena

 

You don’t need to match the Spurs ground spec, and you’re not building in a confined working environment in London

[Whitley mag]

28 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

It would be perfectly feasible to build a new stadium for £300-400m - especially at a site like that of the current arena

 

You don’t need to match the Spurs ground spec, and you’re not building in a confined working environment in London

I know what you’re saying but let’s be honest I can only see the Saudi’s wanting any new stadium to be the best  around. I think that’s what attracts me to the new stadium idea, you just know it would be fucking spectacular and probably make the Spurs stadium look ready for Beamish.

[TheBrownBottle]

1 minute ago, Whitley mag said:

I know what you’re saying but let’s be honest I can only see the Saudi’s wanting any new stadium to be the best  around. I think that’s what attracts me to the new stadium idea, you just know it would be fucking spectacular and probably make the Spurs stadium look ready for Beamish.

 

Aye, you might well be right there

 

I’ll echo what others have said though - any new ground would need to be a city centre (or as close to it as possible) stadium.  

[Johnny]

The club : We wont move away from SJP

The fans : The club should abandon SJP

The club : The city center location of SJP is perfect for the club so we wont move away from SJP and look for a way to expand it

The fans : The club should move away from SJP