Welcome to Newcastle
United Football Club
S T A D I U M
Throughout Newcastle United's history, their home venue has been St
James' Park, the oldest and largest football stadium in North East
England, as well as the sixth-largest football stadium in the United
Kingdom. It has hosted ten international football matches at senior
level, the first in 1901 and the most recent in 2005. It was used as
a venue for both the 2012 Summer Olympics and the 2015 Rugby World
Cup.
Football had been played at St James' Park as early as 1880, the
ground being occupied by Newcastle Rangers, before becoming the home
of Newcastle West End F.C. in 1886. Its lease was then bought by
Newcastle East End F.C. in 1892, before they changed their name to
Newcastle United. At the turn of the 19th century, the ground's
capacity was given as 30,000 before being redeveloped between 1900
and 1905, increasing the capacity to 60,000 and making it the
biggest stadium in England for a time.
For most of
the 20th century, the stadium changed very little, despite various
plans for development of the ground. The old West Stand was replaced
with the Milburn Stand in 1987, the Sir John Hall Stand replacing
the Leazes End in 1993, and the rest of the ground renovated making
the ground a 37,000 capacity all-seater stadium. Between 1998 and
2000, double tiers were added to the Milburn and John Hall stands to
bring the venue up to its current capacity of 52,420.
There were plans to
build a new 90,000 seater stadium in Leazes park, just behind St
James' with Newcastle Falcons taking over St James' Park, but due to
protests the plans were dropped. St James' Park currently seats
52,420 people, but club owner Mike Ashley would consider taking the
roof off The Gallowgate end and adding another 6,000 seats making
the total capacity to 58,420, but only if the team manage to finish
in the top six places of the Premier League.
In October 2009,
Mike Ashley announced that he planned to lease the name of the
ground in a bid to increase revenue, and in November the stadium was
temporarily renamed sportsdirect.com @ St James' Park Stadium. This
name was only supposed to be used until the end of the 2009–10
season, but lasted until November 2011.On 10 November 2011, the club
officially changed the name of the stadium to the Sports Direct
Arena, although this will most likely be an interim name, as it is
only being used to showcase the sponsorship capabilities of the
stadium.
The company, owned
by Ashley, are not paying anything for the deal. However, if another
company purchases the naming rights, they will be expected to pay
between £8 million and £10 million. Many fans voiced their anger at
the renaming, but Managing Director Derek Llambias has said that it
is necessary to give Newcastle extra money so that they compete with
the bigger clubs in the league.Since 1982, the stadium is served by
St James Metro station on the Tyne and Wear Metro. The station is
decorated in a black and white colour scheme, with archive
photographs of the club's players.The club's current training ground
is located at Darsley Park, which is north of the city at Benton.
The facility was opened in July 2003 and is also used by the
Newcastle Falcons rugby team.
