00:00 With a capacity of just over 52,000, St James' Park in Newcastle is the eighth largest football
00:08 stadium in England. In recent years it has dropped down that list as other clubs have
00:13 either expanded their grounds or moved to new venues entirely. And given the demand
00:19 for tickets at Newcastle United under their new ownership, enabling more fans to enter
00:23 the stadium has become a priority. The expansion of St James' Park has always been fraught
00:29 with difficulties however because of listed buildings nearby, roads and metro lines, as
00:36 comes with the stadium being in the city centre. However, Luke Edwards of The Telegraph has
00:42 confirmed that the club's study does believe that staying at the venue and expanding should
00:48 be possible. The actual architectural plans are remaining very secret at this stage but
00:55 from what I'm led to believe, the Gallagher end, they can do something with that. I think
01:01 they can probably, and this is more complicated, do something with the East Stand as well.
01:07 But they're going to be working through all this. I'm led to believe it's going to be
01:10 very expensive to do. We're talking hundreds of millions of pounds worth of investment
01:15 in the stadium. I think they'd also like to modernise the Milburn Stand and the Leazy
01:19 Stand as well. So it's some project. I just think we're quite a long way from actually
01:24 seeing spades in the ground as it were. There's a lot still to go through. They've got to
01:28 negotiate the extension of the lease with Newcastle City Council. They've obviously
01:32 then got to get planning permission. So we could be sort of 18 months, even two years
01:37 away from any work starting. Given the difficulties regarding St James' Park's expansion, some
01:43 would argue that moving entirely might be easier. But Edwards explained why the preference
01:48 from the club is to remain where they are. I think people are very aware of the emotional
01:54 attachment it has, its geographical location, right in the heart of the city centre. It
01:59 makes St James' Park the most popular ground to visit for away fans. And I think that's
02:04 also important. I think if you have it in the city centre, which is actually quite unique
02:08 now, if you look at the other major clubs in England and even Europe, to have a stadium
02:12 right in the heart of the city is unusual. Part of the romanticism of St James' Park
02:19 and Newcastle United as a football club is to do with the fact that the stadium really
02:23 is the heartbeat of the city. So I think there is another option on the table. It's a fallback
02:29 option at the moment, which would be to build an entirely new stadium on Leazes Park, sort
02:34 of slash where the Castle Leazes Halls of Residence, where Newcastle University land
02:40 is there. Now, I think that would be a planning nightmare, personally, and I think that would
02:44 get bogged down in all sorts of opposition and appeals and all that sort of stuff. So
02:49 I think they've looked at that. That does remain on the table, but at the moment the
02:54 priority is to stay at St James' Park. And I think that's the right decision.
02:57 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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