Newcastle United are progressing with plans to expand St James’ Park after conducting a feasibility study that confirmed what could be done on the site.
The club are looking to expand St James’ Park to have a capacity of more than 60,000 with state-of-the-art upgrades. A six-month feasibility study from experts and world-leading architects provided a logistical green light for the club to commence with plans to expand the current stadium.
But any construction work at the stadium is likely to be subject to the club extending its current leasehold, which expires in 2097.
Expanding St James’ Park is thwarted by the stadium’s city centre location close to listed buildings and the Leazes Conservation Area. But the feasibility study has shown to the club what is possible to expand St James’ Park to a capacity in excess of 60,000.
The time frame for the expansion or officials plans and details have not been made public. But that hasn’t stopped concept designers from sharing their takes on what a proposed expansion could look like.
Last month, stadium concept designer and 3D animator Damián Bosio propsed three stadium expansion suggestions via his YouTube channel, Bondibot.
One option involves expanding the Gallowgate Stand and Gallowgate West Corner to the same level as the current Milburn and Leazes Stands. It involves building over the Strawberry Place street and onto the land above the St James’ Metro Station.
To the untrained eye, this would be seen as the most feasible option with the club purchasing the Strawberry Place land last year.
The second option involves raising the St James’ Park playing surface and moving the pitch north west to allow more space to expand the East Stand and Gallowgate Stand. While it will mean losing capacity from the Milburn Stand and Leazes Stand, the design goes on to expand the East Stand and Gallowgate Stands so that all four stands are of a similar height.
This design won’t be viewed as realistic in its current guise due to the properties on Leazes Terrace and the ‘right to light’ easement that gives the landowners a right to receive sunlight on their buildings.
However, advances in technology could allow light to pass through an expanded East Stand and is something that was raised as part of the feasibility study.
A complete stadium rebuild has previously been considered on nearby Leazes Park. But that would only resurface as a possibility if the club were unable to reach an agreement with Newcastle City Council regarding a leasehold. But this is where the most intriguing concept designs come from with a partial deconstruction of St James’ Park and a rebuild next to the current site on Leazes Park. This allows for a new state-of-the-art stadium to be constructed without any major capacity or further expansion restrictions.
However, any construction on the Leazes Conservation Area would likely face significant backlash even if an agreement was to be reached.
1. Expanding the Gallowgate Stand
This would involve building over the road and into Strawberry Place.
2. Removing the roof
The concept design involves removing the Gallowgate Stand roof and starting the expansion across the road to allow traffic to continue passing through.
3. One stand expansion
The East Stand, listed buildings and Leazes Conservation area would remain undisturbed by this expansion.
4. A significant expansion
The Gallowgate expansion concept would raise the stand to the same level as the Milburn and Leazes stands.