Newcastle United fans could fill an 80,000 capacity new stadium – Have a look at this | OneFootball

The big debate for Newcastle United fans.

Arguably the biggest of all.

Newcastle United fans discussing the respective merits of redeveloping St James’ Park, or building a brand new stadium on a different site.

A lot of daftness enters this debate, much of it thanks to the media.

Asking Newcastle United fans, whether they would rather stay at St James’ Park or move to a brand new stadium, is a totally pointless question.

It only makes any sense whatsoever, if you are giving supporters some semblance of a proper question to answer.

If the alternative to redeveloping St James’ Park was say a brand new stadium 100 or two yards away at Leazes Park/Castle Leazes, then that is a very different question to say a brand new stadium on an industrial estate in Gateshead, or indeed anywhere outside walking distance of Newcastle Upon Tyne city centre.

You then of course have the question of what potentially the respective new capacities could/would be.

For example, if the choice was an expanded 60,000 St James’ Park or a 65,000 new stadium, that would be very different to say asking Newcastle United fans if they would be in favour of a 57,000 redeveloped SJP or an 80,000 brand new state of the are stadium.

For this article, I want you to imagine that the Newcastle United owners decide on the brand new state of the art 80,000 capacity new stadium, to be built on Leazes Park/Castle Leazes and that any obstacles/objections can be overcome to make this site and 80k stadium possible.

Could that size of stadium be filled?

This is my very strong belief…

Newcastle United fans could fill an 80,000 capacity new stadium – Have a look at this:

These are the average Premier League attendances from 1992/93, the first year following the rebranding (all stats via World Football):

As you can see, not anything like what we see in the Premier League in the modern day, they were different times. Man U were redeveloping Old Trafford back then, which partly explains why they were averaging 35k. However, reality is that this wasn’t a million miles away from their norm back then, as the previous two seasons (before the redevelopment work), they had averaged 43k and then 44k.

This first Premier League season of course saw Newcastle United still in the second tier, their fifth year in a row in that division. Despite that, Newcastle United averaged 29,048 in the second tier that season, filling St James’ Park ever week. That average would have been far higher but SJP was also getting redeveloped that season.

Despite that, only four Premier League sides had a bigger average than Newcastle United that 1992/93 season.

After promotion and Newcastle United adding over 4,000 more seats to their capacity, these were the average Premier League attendances in 1993/94:

As you can see, Newcastle United fans easily filling the new increased SJP capacity and despite the limitations of that roughly 33k capacity, NUFC had the fourth highest attendances.

For anybody naive enough to believe that Chelsea have ever been a ‘big’ club, maybe you should note that this season, which was the norm for Chelsea, they had lower attendances than BOTH Sheffield clubs. Yet in this twisted distorted new world, where Chelsea still average less than 40,000 crowds in the modern day, we are all supposed to believe/pretend that the West London pretenders are this huge well supported club…

Everton fans are always quick to claim that their inferior crowds compared to Newcastle United and others, are simply because they have been restricted by their capacity, yet their average PL attendance of 22.868 in the 1993/94 season doesn’t exactly prop this misleading scouse mackem claim up.

Moving on to 2005/06 and this is how the Premier League average attendances looked:

Newcastle United fans as in all the Premier League seasons previously, filling a far bigger capacity, only Man U higher.

Going back 18 years, only four other PL clubs average 40,000+ fans, that included Chelsea! Their disgraced Russian sugar daddy had arrived by then, buying the West London club trophies and fans! This 2005/06 season they won the Premier League for a second season in a row.

Now I want to take you forward all the way through to the most recent table of average Premier League attendances in the 2023/24 season:

As you can see, by this point, Newcastle still filling their 52k capacity St James’ Park every home match.

However, time and football have moved on by now. A wasted decade and a half of Mike Ashley had seen Newcastle United fail to progress in any aspect, standing still, though in reality going rapidly backwards. As all the other major Premier League clubs have ridden the Premier League tiger that brought ever increasing riches via commercial revenue, TV revenue and indeed matchday revenue.

Eleven Premier League clubs that were in the top tier last season, were also in the 2005/06 Premier League campaign.

In 18 years, the Newcastle United average attendance increased by 121, when comparing 2005/06 and 2023/24.

For the other ten clubs you saw increases from 2005/06 to 2023/24 of (to the nearest full thousand):

5,000 Man U

34,000 Tottenham

22,000 Arsenal

12,000 Liverpool

12,000 Man City

2,000 LESS Chelsea

8,000 Villa

2,000 Everton

4,000 Fulham

If we then repeat this and compare average attendances of those clubs who were in the very first season of the Premier League in 1992/93 and the most recent Premier League season of 2023/24, the increase is (to the nearest full thousand):

39,000 Man U

29,000 West Ham

25,000 Tottenham

36,000 Arsenal

19,000 Liverpool

29,000 Man City

21,000 Chelsea

12,000 Villa

19,000 Everton

7,000 Forest

11,000 Sheffield United

9,000 Crystal Palace

Conclusions

I know it is stating the obvious BUT the Premier League era has seen a massive increase in the number of fans going to matches.

Clubs getting 10,000 more 20,000 more, 30,000 more…

Just look at the increases between 2005/06 and 2023/24, as almost all major Premier League clubs have significantly increased their capacities and are filling them AND have waiting lists and tens of thousands who can’t get in, you have Newcastle United that have the same capacity as 2000/01 when the capacity was increased from approximately 36,000 to 52,000.

For those who still want to believe that Newcastle United fans couldn’t fill an 80,000 capacity new stadium, a couple of interesting comparisons.

Tottenham

Tottenham were averaging PL home crowds of 27,000 in both 1992/93 and 1993/94, in 2005/06 it was 36,000 and in 2023/24 it is over 61,000. Increasing crowds by some 34,000 compared to the early years of the Premier League and by 25,000 compared to 2005/06.

Spurs could sell many more tickets as well, this is just how things are now in football.

Meanwhile, Newcastle United still currently restricted by a capacity that is the same as almost a quarter of a century ago.

West Ham

In the 1993/94 Premier League season, West Ham averaged 20,453 at home, by 2005/06 they were getting 33,743, then in 2023/24 it was 62,569. The Hammers are getting crowds more than 42,000 higher than they did 30 years ago in the Premier League and just a shade under 30,000 more than they did in 2005/06.

Why do so many Newcastle United fans believe that our club and fanbase is any different to these other clubs that are getting tens of thousands more fans they they previously got in this Premier League era?

Transport links are better, more people have more money, more people travel for events – whether sport, music, whatever. The demand for tickets to see the most popular Premier League clubs has gone through the roof.

Here is another stunning stat comparison.

In 2004/05, West Ham got promoted to the Premier League, they averaged home crowds of 27,403.

In 2016/17, Newcastle United (still with Mike Ashley as owner!) got promoted to the Premier League, NUFC averaged 51,106.

No other club dropping down to the second tier has got crowds anywhere close to Newcastle United. As I say, we still had Ashley then as well! St James’ Park full every week in the 2016/17 Championship season, simply because Rafa Benitez give us a little bit of hope, by saying he would stay…

Never mind serious numbers of football tourists who want to come to St James’ Park, nor all the extra corporates that will buy these days at SJP, what about the tens and tens of thousands of Newcastle United fans who are currently locked out of St James’ Park.

Ask anybody who is a Newcastle United member, just how soul destroying it is to enter every home ticket ballot and get such rare success.

The club still refuse to say how many memberships they are selling.

Reported estimates of well over 100,000 Newcastle United members aren’t difficult to believe, when you are a member and lucky to get more than a couple of Premier League matches each season.

So if say another 20,000+ season tickets were available, do you honestly believe that they wouldn’t be snapped up???

Our fanbase is massive and that is before you get to all the neutrals who would like to watch Newcastle United.

We have a massive region where the closest Premier League currently is Manchester!

Newcastle United have the whole of Scotland to market to as well, when it comes to normal tickets and corporate ones for any NUFC fans who honestly think our own supporters wouldn’t buy up the additional tickets.