Has fan perception changed over St James' Park? - A quick poll taken at STACK last night suggests it has

Newcastle United fans have their eyes set on the horizon of 'early 2025' to find out what the club plans to do with St James' Park.

Fans have been consulted several times both officially and unofficially whether they'd be in favour of a move to a new stadium or if they'd prefer to stay at St James' Park and the responses have always overwhelmingly pointed towards the latter.

St James' Park is iconic and unique, sitting at the top of the hill in the middle of the city, it looks out across Newcastle and is one of the first things you see when you enter the city from pretty much every direction.

However, it is starting to show its age, and its 52000 capacity simply isn't enough to meet demand. Therefore if Newcastle were to stay at St James' Park, there'd need to be some serious work done to bring it into the modern era.

Brad Miller has hinted that Leazes Park could be an option for a new stadium

We're all well versed on the issues surrounding expanding the stadium which is why it is taking so long for the PIF and everyone they've brought on board to come up with a solution.

However, at the "We Are United" event held at STACK last night, Chief Operating Officer Brad Miller spoke about where things currently are with the stadium plans and outlined the benefits of moving to a new stadium, saying it could double revenue for the club which would then go to Paul Mitchell for player recruitment, and that seemed to convince those in attendance that maybe a move isn't the end of the world.

Miller was keen to emphasise that if the club were to move to a new ground, they don't want to move too far from the current site which suggests that Leazes Park is an option which could see the build taking place in two phases as imagined in the Bondibot video that did the rounds a few months ago.

Are you warming to the idea of a new stadium?

Here's what Brad Miller said (h/t The Chronicle) - Has he convinced you that a move could be worthwhile?

"We have also taken the opportunity to look at what will a new stadium look like. It's not comparing apples with apples, they are not like for like. It's comparing apples with pears. The brilliant thing about St James' is it is an iconic location, the atmosphere and the competitive edge it gives the team on the pitch - and it has 52,000 seats already.

"But a new stadium doesn't have that and we'd have to pay for all those seats again. A new stadium has the potential to earn a lot more, both on match days, and non-match days, a bit like STACK, - it is giving us an indication that we can actually contribute even more to the football club and football side if we had a new stadium.

"I don't know how you are all feeling or whether it has warmed you up. Can I dare to ask if you are up for some audience participation? I won't hold you to any of it, and it won't go into a planning application. It is a little bit of fun."

"Option two is if we were to move away, and not too far away as we aren't going to stretch the elastic band to the point of breaking. The second option we are looking at it seriously as it does have the potential to earn more than twice as much in terms of revenue, compared to a transformation of St James' Park. And more seats, a lot more seats potentially."

"Wow, wow. As you may have contributed to last year, there was a survey. At that time 71% of everybody that responded said stay at St James' Park.

"Only 29% were open to moving. I think it is credit to everybody that they are open-minded. Everybody now understands the importance of PSR."