A multitude of quotes have filtered out today from CEO David Hopkinson and sporting director Ross Wilson, who have been speaking openly to the local press about all things Newcastle United.
We’ve already covered Hopkinson’s bold claims on our vision for 2030, along with Wilson’s hint towards more overseas signings arriving on Tyneside, but the stadium situation has also been addressed in depth.
Hopkinson was keen to make it “really clear” that the club have NOT decided yet on what’s next for St James’ Park, whether that’s expanding the current stadium or building a new ground close by.
However, what the Canadian could say with absolute clarity was that either move will take “years and years” to complete to due to complex nature of permits, planning, finance and construction:
“I want to be really clear on this. We have not taken a decision on what we’re going to do. We’re modelling a multitude of different scenarios.
“But even if we were to make a decision tomorrow, which we’re not going to do, it still takes years of permits, planning, finance, construction etc. That’s the case whatever we choose – reimagining St James’ Park or building a new stadium.
“Either takes years and years. I lived through the total transformation of the Bernabeu. I was around through years of work. I love what they’ve built – I think we’ve learned a lot from studying what they’ve built – but these projects are years long.”
Discussing the revenue benefits up for grabs, Hopkinson explained why a stadium move wouldn’t create an immediate boost, but did hint that tweaks to St James’ Park could be made in the interim, also talking up our need to go out and strike more major sponsorship deals:
“Even if we could wave a wand right now, and wake up tomorrow morning with a decision over a brand new stadium, those revenues would still not show up for five years.
“But if you look at something like global partnerships and global sponsorships, which I’ve talked about a lot, then we can do that today. We can literally wake up tomorrow morning and get cracking on closing some of those obvious and less obvious opportunities.
“So much of this is self-help, and so much of our ability to increase our revenues, and therefore our competitiveness, is within our purview right now. They’re right in front of us, right now.
“I don’t know to what extent that that will sustain us beyond 2030, without a major inflection – stadium renovation or rebuild, other major changes. But what I’m focusing on is what we do need to change between now and 2030? Our plan is to set us up to succeed in these next four or five years, and then it’s also about what steps are we taking to make sure we succeed beyond 2030?
“But recognising that we are going to be at St James’ Park in pretty much its current format for years to come is important. We’re thinking through what improvements should we make in that intervening period? We could make tweaks and changes to improve the here and now.”
Where the new training site will be located is still not clear, although a plot of land in Seaton Burn, just eight miles north of Newcastle, has been scouted, with the area around the Newcastle Racecourse (Woolsington) also considered.
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