St James' Park

[Guest]

Does anybody at the club understand the meaning of the word “imminent”?

[Keegans Export]

2 minutes ago, Jack27 said:

Does anybody at the club understand the meaning of the word “imminent”?

Do you not remember when our takeover was imminent for about a year and a half 

[Whitley mag]

Ground broken at Castle Leazes in 2027 and in a new 70k,  2.5 billion super stadium by 2029 is my prediction.

 

 

[Stifler]

17 minutes ago, Whitley mag said:

Ground broken at Castle Leazes in 2027 and in a new 70k,  2.5 billion super stadium by 2029 is my prediction.

3 year legal battle to build there?

I guess that maybe a realistic time frame.

 

I don’t think we’ll see the result of whatever we decide this side of 2030.

[Whitley mag]

Urban Green who were given contract for City’s Parks in financial trouble having previously been given funds by Council.

 

Story in Chronicle also says residents have accused Urban Green of using parks as cash cow by having music festivals.

 

Think any attempt to build stadium on park would meet with huge opposition, however building on Castle Leazes, turning SJP into a green space and paying for upkeep of newly expanded and refurbished Leazes Park might just swing any planning request.

 

At a time when councils are struggling this should be the infrastructure project and route PIF go down, would offer a real legacy to their ownership and improve the City.

[Ben]

I think Newcastle City Council could be bought very easily, didn't they ask us to pay for school dinners or something 

[Keegans Export]

9 minutes ago, Whitley mag said:

Urban Green who were given contract for City’s Parks in financial trouble having previously been given funds by Council.

 

Story in Chronicle also says residents have accused Urban Green of using parks as cash cow by having music festivals.

 

Think any attempt to build stadium on park would meet with huge opposition, however building on Castle Leazes, turning SJP into a green space and paying for upkeep of newly expanded and refurbished Leazes Park might just swing any planning request.

 

At a time when councils are struggling this should be the infrastructure project and route PIF go down, would offer a real legacy to their ownership and improve the City.

I don't know enough about who owns/runs each specific part of the land but there is (or should be) enough land between the buildings further up Barrack Road and the key features of Leazes Park (which I'm classing as the lake, bandstand, cafe, playground and the car park to the NE) to build a fairly substantial stadium.

 

If you could also promise the land SJP sits on currently back to the city once building work has been completed, I don't think there is grounds for too much push-back.

[Pancrate1892]

On 05/09/2024 at 01:20, TheBrownBottle said:

Yep - I've seen those daft videos online which make it all seem so simple: just raise the pitch level, move it 10m to the north west, then knockdown and extend the East Stand; rebuild the Gallowgate over Strawberry Place and SJ Metro; then extend the Milburn and Leazes backwards to finish the job.

 

Every one of those is a colossal undertaking, some of which may not even be possible, and would lead to significant disruptions to current ST holders including reduced capacity.

 

Then there is the lack of space for corporate etc.

 

This all boils down to what we want from the club, for me - do we want to fulfil the stated aims of PIF, or are we happy with being a top half side which challenges for Europe?  If the latter, then SJP and any possible extension would be sufficient for that.  But we cannot reach elite status at a brushed-up SJP - there would be far too much potential income left on the shelf for that.  An extension to SJP to 60,000 say would limit matchday revenues to well under 50m even if we were to have multiple cup runs including Europe.

 

For anyone wanting a comparison, matchday revenue for NUFC in 2022-23 (when we finished 4th and had a cup run to a final with multiple home ties including a SF) was 33m; that same season, Man Utd's was 126m, Spurs's was 125m, Liverpool 112m and Arsenal was 94m.  Other than Man Utd, their capacity is not that much different from ours - the difference is ticket pricing, corporate, commercial and sponsorship - which we cannot match at SJP.  (To show the difficulty, Man City's matchday revenue was 64m - pretty much same capacity, and they don't have the insane pricing of the others, but still double ours due to sponsorship and corporate).

I agree about the bondibot concept (the 2nd one) being absolute pie in the sky. It's just far too much work, and considering the concept sees the milburn and leazes losing capacity just to see it restored (and a bit extra) for purely aesthetics is just not worth the upheaval, and cost may I add.

 

I can't decide which of the other options is more likely, maybe castle leazes, but that would probably take 15 years as a process, which would be great for our kids but not us. 

 

The gallowgate option is a monstrous size considering the elevation of the pitch v strawberry place. Maybe they could do that and do a Dublin Aviva wrap around the whole thing which gains a bit more on the east stand corners?

I can understand why no public decision has been made in the circumstances 

[Pancrate1892]

1 hour ago, Keegans Export said:

I don't know enough about who owns/runs each specific part of the land but there is (or should be) enough land between the buildings further up Barrack Road and the key features of Leazes Park (which I'm classing as the lake, bandstand, cafe, playground and the car park to the NE) to build a fairly substantial stadium.

 

If you could also promise the land SJP sits on currently back to the city once building work has been completed, I don't think there is grounds for too much push-back.

I agree, surely the idea of st james' park as a public space would be a very exciting project for them? Move the bandstand and all that other shit into it, unhindered views of leazes terrace. You'd need a big bucket for the upcoming wankathon 

[Keegans Export]

3 minutes ago, Pancrate1892 said:

I agree, surely the idea of st james' park as a public space would be a very exciting project for them? Move the bandstand and all that other shit into it, unhindered views of leazes terrace. You'd need a big bucket for the upcoming wankathon 

You wouldn't even have to move the bandstand. You could use this area here without touching any of the lake, bandstand etc. You'd then be able to keep everything where it is, plus increase the size of the park by about another 50% or so by using the land SJP sits on now. As I say, I don't know anything about this land so I'm just looking at Google Maps and hypothesising.

 

[Stifler]

3 minutes ago, Keegans Export said:

You wouldn't even have to move the bandstand. You could use this area here without touching any of the lake, bandstand etc. You'd then be able to keep everything where it is, plus increase the size of the park by about another 50% or so by using the land SJP sits on now. As I say, I don't know anything about this land so I'm just looking at Google Maps and hypothesising.

 

The only problem is that the listed park status follows the tree line, and it’s unknown if the trees themselves have any protection. That may make it tight at 1 section to fire the stadium in, but there might be leeway. The tree preservation society will certainly kick up a fuss.

[Keegans Export]

13 minutes ago, Stifler said:

The only problem is that the listed park status follows the tree line, and it’s unknown if the trees themselves have any protection. That may make it tight at 1 section to fire the stadium in, but there might be leeway. The tree preservation society will certainly kick up a fuss.

 

That would certainly present a challenge. Having said that, seeing what ended up happening to both the Odeon and the majority of Carliol House, I imagine Grade II Listed Status would only prove a relatively small hurdle to the Reubens...

[Ben]

With the Saudis money and the Ruebens know how we should build an amazing monument of a stadium 

[RodneyCisse]

9 hours ago, Keegans Export said:

You wouldn't even have to move the bandstand. You could use this area here without touching any of the lake, bandstand etc. You'd then be able to keep everything where it is, plus increase the size of the park by about another 50% or so by using the land SJP sits on now. As I say, I don't know anything about this land so I'm just looking at Google Maps and hypothesising.

 

Could imagine a SoFi type stadium in that space.

[Whitley mag]

If the East Stand would end up looking anything like that monstrosity behind the goal at the Aviva Stadium, it’s got to be a new stadium.

 

Even the redeveloped Leazes and Milburn stands need significant modernisation now, it would take a Bernabeu style redevelopment ripping the roofs off all 4 stands to bring St James up to spec.

 

 

Edited September 7 by Whitley mag

[Danh1]

2 hours ago, Whitley mag said:

If the East Stand would end up looking anything like that monstrosity behind the goal at the Aviva Stadium, it’s got to be a new stadium.

 

Even the redeveloped Leazes and Milburn stands need significant modernisation now, it would take a Bernabeu style redevelopment ripping the roofs off all 4 stands to bring St James up to spec.

 

 

 

Agree re the East Stand. Absolute eyesore that. 

[WilliamPS]

25 minutes ago, Danh1 said:

Agree re the East Stand. Absolute eyesore that. 

How dare you

 

EAST STAND, EAST STAND, EAST STAND

 

(I reckon you’ve got to be at least over 40 to recognise that)

[Danh1]

20 minutes ago, WilliamPS said:

How dare you

 

EAST STAND, EAST STAND, EAST STAND

 

(I reckon you’ve got to be at least over 40 to recognise that)

I meant the Aviva Stadium

 

Nowt wrong with the East Stand, other than it’s size 

[timnufc22]

3 hours ago, Whitley mag said:

If the East Stand would end up looking anything like that monstrosity behind the goal at the Aviva Stadium, it’s got to be a new stadium.

 

Even the redeveloped Leazes and Milburn stands need significant modernisation now, it would take a Bernabeu style redevelopment ripping the roofs off all 4 stands to bring St James up to spec.

 

 

 

 

That cantilevered roof looks a millions times better than even Everton's new stadiums roof being built right now, which even in the finalised computer videos look like construction sites.

[TomYam]

15 hours ago, Keegans Export said:

 

That would certainly present a challenge. Having said that, seeing what ended up happening to both the Odeon and the majority of Carliol House, I imagine Grade II Listed Status would only prove a relatively small hurdle to the Reubens...

True - but The Odeon wasn't listed due to having been stripped of all it's glorious Art Deco detailing by a previous unscrupulous owner. 

 

[nufcjb]

19 hours ago, Keegans Export said:

You wouldn't even have to move the bandstand. You could use this area here without touching any of the lake, bandstand etc. You'd then be able to keep everything where it is, plus increase the size of the park by about another 50% or so by using the land SJP sits on now. As I say, I don't know anything about this land so I'm just looking at Google Maps and hypothesising.

 

That's it. Our new stadium will be shaped like the bat signal! 

 

 

Edited September 8 by nufcjb

[manorpark]

8 hours ago, Danh1 said:

I meant the Aviva Stadium

 

Nowt wrong with the East Stand, other than it’s size 

 

The new East Stand, opened in 1972/1973 . . . 

[Groundhog63]

3 minutes ago, manorpark said:

 

The new East Stand, opened in 1972/1973 . . . 

Same people in those photos are still sat there only they've all put on 20 clem

[Jackie Broon]

22 hours ago, Stifler said:

The only problem is that the listed park status follows the tree line, and it’s unknown if the trees themselves have any protection. That may make it tight at 1 section to fire the stadium in, but there might be leeway. The tree preservation society will certainly kick up a fuss.

 

The trees don't have a Tree Preservation Order, although Councils don't usually TPO trees on land they manage, but they are protedcted by the Conservation Area designation.

 

Even TPO'd trees are often allowed to be felled to make way for developments if they are replaced by new trees. Whether that would be allowed in this case would be a matter of judgment.

 

 

Edited September 8 by Jackie Broon

[Stifler]

1 minute ago, Jackie Broon said:

The trees don't have a Tree Preservation Order, although Councils don't usually TPO trees on land they manage, but they are protedcted by the Conservation Area designation.

 

Even TPO'd trees are often allowed to be felled to make way for developments if they are replaced by new trees. Whether that would be allowed in this case would be a matter of judgment.

A member of SSC is fairly on the ball with TPO’s. He is constantly identifying trees that Newcastle City Council have felled that have TPO’s on them.

NCC obviously seemingly do not care, however the spotlight would be on them if NUFC are planning on building a new stadium at Castle Leazes, so they would have less scope of being able to get away with it.