St James' Park

[ponsaelius]

Just now, Strawberry said:

I know you will hate this idea but whats the ideal situation would be to demolish St James and build amazing stadium in the same place. Any modification will take forever and it will not make the stadium world class.

 

St James looked very different in the 1970's why does it matter if we lose the current look completely and build something better moving slightly to the parking area by the Leaszes?

 

 

Just can't see how it is viable as we'd have nowhere to play for years.

[Disco]

4 minutes ago, Wandy said:

No hyperbole, just 100% fact. It’s a relic from a time when architecture was at it’s very worst.

 

It’s mad how dewy-eyed people get about SJP. The location is stunning but the stadium itself is seriously flawed.

It’s a bang standard football stand from its era but the view from the corner of St James St and Terrace St is architectural hardcore porn.

 

Yes we’d all love it to bigger and better but absolutely zero people are embarrassed by it. Football grounds aren’t supposed to be cinemas. So long as sight lines are fine and you’ve got a clean seat/standing place that’s absolutely fine.

 

[Wandy]

1 minute ago, ponsaelius said:

Got to say I've never gone to SJP and felt like I was missing out by what was being offered. I turn up 5 minutes before kick off like any sensible person, having ate/drank in one of the thousands of other establishments in the city. I then stay in my seat and watch the match unless I'm bursting for a piss to the point I can't avoid it.

 

It genuinely amazes me that people are looking for anything else from their visits to a football stadium to be honest. 

The main problem with it is that the L7 extension killed the accoustics and offered pretty dreadful views, unless you are in the lower rows. I still miss 1990s SJP immensely.

[TheBrownBottle]

3 minutes ago, ponsaelius said:

Got to say I've never gone to SJP and felt like I was missing out by what was being offered. I turn up 5 minutes before kick off like any sensible person, having ate/drank in one of the hundreds of other establishments in the city. I then stay in my seat and watch the match unless I'm bursting for a piss to the point I can't avoid it.

 

It genuinely amazes me that people are looking for anything else from their visits to a football stadium to be honest. 

 

 

 

That was always my match day experience.  90mins + HT was literally the only interaction I ever had with the stadium, other than when you used to actually have to go to the ticket office for away game tickets

[Disco]

6 minutes ago, ponsaelius said:

Got to say I've never gone to SJP and felt like I was missing out by what was being offered. I turn up 5 minutes before kick off like any sensible person, having ate/drank in one of the thousands of other establishments in the city. I then stay in my seat and watch the match unless I'm bursting for a piss to the point I can't avoid it.

 

It genuinely amazes me that people are looking for anything else from their visits to a football stadium to be honest. 

Absolutely this. Even more so for Newcastle over pretty much any other club. As mentioned above the gains are good but financially are minor. No one is going to the ground any earlier and the Stack development would restrict this further. 

 

If you’re a Doncaster fan for example there’s nowt by their ground so you need amenities inside. For us there’s absolutely anything you could need bar some mad obscure cuisine bait holes to enjoy already within walking distance. 
 

We’re spoiled to fuck and it’s class.

[Wandy]

2 minutes ago, Disco said:

It’s a bang standard football stand from its era but the view from the corner of St James St and Terrace St is architectural hardcore porn.

 

Yes we’d all love it to bigger and better but absolutely zero people are embarrassed by it. Football grounds aren’t supposed to be cinemas. So long as sight lines are fine and you’ve got a clean seat/standing place that’s absolutely fine.

Have to disagree. A club’s stadium is all part of the bragging process for fans, and the East Stand is proper cringeworthy from the outside.

[ponsaelius]

I just don't get why would you want to eat/drink some overpriced shit when you simply don't need to? It really boggles the mind. Aye I can maybe understand it in some US stadium in the middle of nowhere surrounded by an enormous car park. Not at SJP.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

11 minutes ago, RS said:

Would there be complaints if the Reuben’s complete the purchase of the land  adjacent to Benton Asda in North Tyneside and build the new stadium there?  Serviced by Palmersville metro and close to the A19. It is the perfect venue for these new state of the art stadiums craved by the modern fan. 

Yes, lots

[Disco]

1 minute ago, Wandy said:

Have to disagree. A club’s stadium is all part of the bragging process for fans, and the East Stand is proper cringeworthy from the outside.

I’ll agree to disagree but let’s hope we can keep improving the stadium and capacity regardless.

[Disco]

12 minutes ago, RS said:

Would there be complaints if the Reuben’s complete the purchase of the land  adjacent to Benton Asda in North Tyneside and build the new stadium there?  Serviced by Palmersville metro and close to the A19. It is the perfect venue for these new state of the art stadiums craved by the modern fan. 

Absolutely everyone bar people who live 5 mins walk away would lose their shit with 100% right to do so. 

[cubaricho]

3 minutes ago, Disco said:

So long as sight lines are fine and you’ve got a clean seat/standing place that’s absolutely fine.

 

For local fans, absolutely. But we've gone through the ether on that and now we're into the corporate world where a stadium needs to offer far more than that.

 

Also as an aside for fans, we're about to become a world wide club and people are going to travel from all over the world to come see us play on our patch and it needs to offer more than what the normal match day experience is for locals. It may feel wrong but it's the reality of the situation now unfortunately. The way I personally travel is that I would do my utmost to have an authentic matchday experience in line with what y'all do (and hopefully with y'all) - the drinking in a local until ten minutes before KO and then getting to my seat - but is that what someone who is flying in from Tokyo craves? Someone from the Middle East?

 

It's hard to accept but we're going to have to eventually, the club is going to become a brand ala Man U/Tottenham/etc and not just for us.

[ponsaelius]

I took a mate from Korea to the match a few years back and we were genuinely in the Strawberry at 2:45. 

 

Personally when I travel somewhere I want the authentic experience. Football fans are no different.

[Tiresias]

I am full of contradictions. I hate the modern spaceship bland stadiums (not that i've been to many in reality lol) but also think madder the shit the funner. Spurs chickened out of their cheese tasting tunnel or whatever it is. Mad silly shit gives character, copy paste could be anywhere architecture and chain stuff is the enemy. I want silly design and I want silly gimmicks. 

[Wandy]

Whatever changes happen to the club under this ownership, the only thing that is sacrosanct is the city centre location. Pretty much everything else though there can be a conversation about.

 

If someone with a crystal ball offers me a state of the art stadium outside of the city centre and Man City’s last 15 years of success, or a moderate upgrade of SJP on it’s current footprint with zero trophies won in the same 15 years, then I take the latter every time.

[cubaricho]

1 minute ago, Wandy said:

Whatever changes happen to the club under this ownership, the only thing that is sacrosanct is the city centre location. Pretty much everything else though there can be a conversation about.

 

Totally agree.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

I would love modern stadium with nice facilities TBH. As I’ve said before, Spurs stadium is probably the best in Europe. But it’s the location that NUFC and the city of Newcastle can’t afford to lose. 

[JLC]

The more I've thought about this, the more I think chucking a billion dollars at a new stadium is what's going to happen. It's the Saudi way. Build the best. Money is literally no object. They want to make a massive impact and this will be the way to do so. I'm a ST holder and love SJP, but I feel for those who can't get in currently. Also we are about to take on 1000s of new fans - local kids particularly. I've been going since late 70s but progress is inevitable.

[Strawberry]

Can't we play at the Smoggies for couple of season?

27 minutes ago, ponsaelius said:

 

Just can't see how it is viable as we'd have nowhere to play for years.

 

[Superior Acuña]

I don't think there's the same incentive to provide all the stuff in the stadium as other club's because we're bang in the city, it wouldn't make as much as at other clubs where people are lacking in options. And I'm sure they could spruce it up from what it is now anyway. In terms of 'matchday experience' for foreign fans and that - can't some of that be offered through things like the 'fan zone', and also is part of our brand not the 'authenticity'? Just from a money making perspective sounds like a monumental cost for a relatively small gain.

 

(Personally I've zero interest in nice modern facilities, apart from a nice toilet maybe... They could be fuckin lovely, I'd still always rather be in the city beforehand rather than a posh stadium area)

 

 

Edited August 9, 2023 by Superior Acuña

[Kanj]

You don’t have to out true football fan one another. If the match day experience is being in a local until 10 mins until kick off, great, if you want to spend the money and take in what the club is offering, then that’s a market / need that will be filled. It should be no skin off your back if you are on the other side of it. Just be thankful people are traveling and genuinely wanting to see this club live. 

[Pancrate1892]

You've got to think why the club moved to the city centre first place and how it united 2 sides of the city.

It might be different times now but moving out to Benton or somewhere similar would effectively kill the club we know today. It's not inter Miami, there's 140 years of history and there's a reason the club is in the strongest point it's ever been. 

Leazes park/castle leazes/ nuns moor was probably the only other solution other than stay, but I think given what's been said it's unlikely. 

[NE27]

I'm with @ponsaelius on all points tbh.

 

St James' is a class traditional stadium and nothing else, no hotels or casinos attached, no gimmicks etc. You turn up to watch football and go daft for 90 minutes every other week and it's absolutely fine.

 

We benefit hugely(as fans) from our location to the point it's almost an impossible sell to bring people in early doors as there is just no need to whatsoever. How the club change that outlook I honestly have no idea, do they need too?

 

Yes I'd like a symmetrical stadium with class acoustics, and I'm still hopeful that can sort of be done in the current spot with some magic touches. 

 

I really don't want to leave the city centre for the sake of a gigantic megastore and a nandos built into the stadium mind. I'm sure if we got bigger and more fans got interested from around the globe that they could also buy into what makes Newcastle Newcastle really, and not be disappointed that their pint didn't fill from the bottom when in the concourses.

[Pancrate1892]

I think ideally they do want to flatten the east stand and the gallowgate. 

I don't see the gallowgate as a simple extra tier above the existing structure but a brand new superstructure with brand new internal facilities inc bars, hotel, museum, club shop etc. 

You can probably flatten the east stand and put ST holders in other parts of the ground but the same can't be done with the gallowgate, that's why they've probably chose to look at that first. 

[Disco]

39 minutes ago, cubaricho said:

 

For local fans, absolutely. But we've gone through the ether on that and now we're into the corporate world where a stadium needs to offer far more than that.

 

Also as an aside for fans, we're about to become a world wide club and people are going to travel from all over the world to come see us play on our patch and it needs to offer more than what the normal match day experience is for locals. It may feel wrong but it's the reality of the situation now unfortunately. The way I personally travel is that I would do my utmost to have an authentic matchday experience in line with what y'all do (and hopefully with y'all) - the drinking in a local until ten minutes before KO and then getting to my seat - but is that what someone who is flying in from Tokyo craves? Someone from the Middle East?

 

It's hard to accept but we're going to have to eventually, the club is going to become a brand ala Man U/Tottenham/etc and not just for us.

 

From my experience 100% yes. It’s why even having PL games outside the UK isn’t uniformly popular with international fans as it’s not authentic. I get building the corporate and ripping them off to fuck but for standard attendees the experience increase is negligible especially when it’s a popular product with little to no competition.

 

Also having to been a game in Tokyo bar the stadium being a bit out of the way so it had a few concession stands outside in walk to the ground from the train inside it was no different to here.
 

Also if you’re planning to travelling to Newcastle the lack of facilities in the ground isn’t putting you off. And to use your example of Man Utd still packed with tourists and the ground is as dated as SJP but with way less round it. 

[Disco]

17 minutes ago, Strawberry said:

Can't we play at the Smoggies for couple of season?

 

Darlo Arena.