St James' Park

[Novocastrian]

Just slapping an extra tier on the Gallowgate and tarting up the East Stand would seem like an opportunity lost but do we really believe PIF are going to invest upwards of a billion quid for a state of the art stadium?

[madras]

11 minutes ago, Novocastrian said:

Just slapping an extra tier on the Gallowgate and tarting up the East Stand would seem like an opportunity lost but do we really believe PIF are going to invest upwards of a billion quid for a state of the art stadium?

Do you think that's all it will be ? The Stack is temporary and they own that land, could it be a 7 day use facility of which match day use and capacity is only part of it. Shepherd/Halls idea of a casino/hotel adjoining the stand idea may be nearer the mark.

[gjohnson]

18 minutes ago, Novocastrian said:

Just slapping an extra tier on the Gallowgate and tarting up the East Stand would seem like an opportunity lost but do we really believe PIF are going to invest upwards of a billion quid for a state of the art stadium?

Even doing that won't leave too much change from half a billion. Might as.well go the whole hog and sit on the investment for the 40/50 years it'll take to pay for itself

[Jackie Broon]

1 hour ago, Thumbheed said:

 

I get the sense they're looking to have it fitter for bigger events and will pull in revenue that way as well and tbf +15% of say 400m revenue is a decent chunk of money. 

 

Every bit counts and I'm not saying a stadium expansion or new stadium isn't worthwile, but it probably isn't going to be the differnce between us breaking into the top tier finacially or not. 

[LFEE]

56 minutes ago, Novocastrian said:

Just slapping an extra tier on the Gallowgate and tarting up the East Stand would seem like an opportunity lost but do we really believe PIF are going to invest upwards of a billion quid for a state of the art stadium?

They spent £1 billion + £300 million to get their hands on us. So yes I can see them building a state of art stadium to replace SJP.

[Novocastrian]

1 hour ago, LFEE said:

They spent £1 billion + £300 million to get their hands on us. So yes I can see them building a state of art stadium to replace SJP.

I hope so because it would be spectacular, I’m just wondering where their thinking is. A total rebuild on the same site or an extension to Gallowgate and a clever re-design of the East Stand to take us to 60k+.

[ponsaelius]

I still think an expansion could be 'state of the art' if done in phases.

 

Strawberry Place has already had huge mix used developments approved on it in the past as we all know. If you can get over the Metro issue then you could do a pretty significant cohesive development including a East Stand/Gallowgate rebuild across that whole area which included numerous money making elements for the club (hotel, conference facilities, expanded club shop, museum etc). 

 

You eventually then get round to rebuilding or re-developing the Milburn and Leazes to cohesively join it all together. The only issue would be how lopsided it could look in the interim - but it's hardly cohesive at the moment anyway.

 

You're probably limited to an absolute maximum of 65k too even if you got really creative with the rebuilds - but I still think that would be enough.

[LFEE]

Just now, ponsaelius said:

I still think an expansion could be 'state of the art' if done in phases.

 

Strawberry Place has already had huge mix used developments approved on it in the past as we all know. If you can get over the Metro issue then you could do a pretty significant cohesive development including a East Stand/Gallowgate rebuild across that whole area which included numerous money making elements for the club (hotel, conference facilities, expanded club shop, museum etc). 

 

You eventually then get round to rebuilding or re-developing the Milburn and Leazes to cohesively join it all together. The only issue would be how lopsided it could look in the interim - but it's hardly cohesive at the moment anyway.

 

You're probably limited to an absolute maximum of 65k too even if you got really creative with the rebuilds - but I still think that would be enough.

 

Very surprised you think 65k is enough. You’d be basically back at square one once built so no room for growth at all without raising ticket prices year in year out.

[madras]

2 minutes ago, LFEE said:

 

Very surprised you think 65k is enough. You’d be basically back at square one once built so no room for growth at all without raising ticket prices year in year out.

Can you only grow through capacity ?

[ponsaelius]

Just now, LFEE said:

 

Very surprised you think 65k is enough. You’d be basically back at square one once built so no room for growth at all without raising ticket prices year in year out.

 

I think there's a sweet spot to capacity of any European club in terms of demand/atmosphere and somewhere between 60-70k is probably about it IMO. I don't think demand is insatiable/endless.

 

There's only a handful in Europe bigger, and most of them are actual or de-facto national stadia.

[LFEE]

25 minutes ago, madras said:

Can you only grow through capacity ?

No like I said they can keep increasing current prices… Yes there are other areas of growth but no point capping  the obvious one immediately and the one thats the biggest to the fan also. 

 

What kept us in the conversation for many years was the fact we always had the 2nd biggest stadium in the English football. Was a great pull for signing players also never mind growth. Now we sit behind Man Utd Man City Arsenal Liverpool Spurs. Not long before we are behind Villa and probably Everton. Forrest looking like moving to 50k also.

 

Build a 80+k stadium with a full closing roof. Even add possible option to lower roof a tier for certain games if need be reducing capacity to 65k. Price it sensibly and if built people will come. 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

I'd personally be disappointed if it's only 65k. We could fill that easily every week now, and we're not even 'that' good yet. 

 

 

Edited May 9, 2024 by AyeDubbleYoo

[r0cafella]

1 minute ago, LFEE said:

No like I said they can keep increasing current prices… Yes there are other areas of growth but no point capping  the obvious one immediately and the one thats the biggest to the fan also. 

 

What kept us in the conversation for many years was the fact we always had the 2nd biggest stadium in the English football. Was a great pull for signing players also never mind growth. Now we sit behind Man Utd Man City Arsenal Liverpool Spurs. Not long before we are behind Villa and probably Everton. Forrest looking like moving to 50k also.

 

Build a 80+k stadium with a full closing roof. Even add possible option to lower roof a tier for certain games if need be reducing capacity to 65k. Price it sensibly and if built people will come. 

Love the ambition.

[LFEE]

26 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

Love the ambition.

 

Just get frustrated that people are thinking this will a football stadium only when it won’t be. The attendances for some alternative venues could be massive if we built the Wembley of the TRUE north.

 

Like @AyeDubbleYoo points out. We aren’t even that good yet. We haven’t even come close to breaking the transfer record or anything like that yet. This stadium is for the next 25 years not 2 and half years…

[Miggys First Goal]

Option C!!!

[Thumbheed]

2 hours ago, Jackie Broon said:

 

Every bit counts and I'm not saying a stadium expansion or new stadium isn't worthwile, but it probably isn't going to be the differnce between us breaking into the top tier finacially or not. 

 

Guess it depends on how you want to look at it. It'll be akin to *finger in the air* say, 20m (on top of what we currently get out of it) per year sponsorship deal which in itself is a signifcant sum of money in terms of amortisation. 

 

[madras]

1 hour ago, LFEE said:

No like I said they can keep increasing current prices… Yes there are other areas of growth but no point capping  the obvious one immediately and the one thats the biggest to the fan also. 

 

What kept us in the conversation for many years was the fact we always had the 2nd biggest stadium in the English football. Was a great pull for signing players also never mind growth. Now we sit behind Man Utd Man City Arsenal Liverpool Spurs. Not long before we are behind Villa and probably Everton. Forrest looking like moving to 50k also.

 

Build a 80+k stadium with a full closing roof. Even add possible option to lower roof a tier for certain games if need be reducing capacity to 65k. Price it sensibly and if built people will come. 

There's other ways of invreasing revenue from the ground making a 7 day facility for one. Better quality on match days (food and drink rather than the crap beer and pie we currently have) and in more space so more people use it.

 

I know these should be done even with a new and bigger stadium but for me personally a new ground ultimately would be that, a new ground that I have little attachment to. I've been going to SJP since the early 70s and seen it evolve.

 

Re your 2nd paragraph, I disagree, the size of the ground wasn't much of a draw, the potential of the fan base was the draw.

[Guest]

 

[Ikon]

I like the sound of ”wow” and ”different” to anything else. 

[STM]

I do wonder why, myself included, thinks that the PIF are going to do some touch up job or half a job. 

 

They are clearly going to go "all in".

[Miggys First Goal]

They’re going to give it a lick of black paint like Ashley did. 

[Guest]

That lot has some serious experience, get them in

 

https://www.hksinc.com/what-we-do/practices/sports-and-entertainment/

[Ikon]

1 minute ago, Jack27 said:

That lot has some serious experience, get them in

 

https://www.hksinc.com/what-we-do/practices/sports-and-entertainment/

I think Stifler doing it instead would offer us more value for money. It would look different to anything else. 

[Dr Jinx]

So ambitious they had to cull “The Line” project.

[PauloGeordio]

Just now, Dr Jinx said:

So ambitious they had to cull “The Line” project.

So they could focus on St James’