Stadium mastermind gives Newcastle expansion hope after previous 60,000-seater and hotel plan
You would not recognise Russell Jones if he walked past you outside St James' Park. Yet you suspect that is just the way the unassuming 78-year-old likes it.
Jones may prefer to keep a 'very low profile', in his own
words, but the former executive director's stamp is all over the
cathedral on the hill. It was Jones who helped design and deliver
the stadium that we know today for Newcastle United. In fact, few
figures have a more intimate knowledge of the site - and whether
increasing the capacity at St James' really is feasible in the long
run.
"There are means of doing it," he told ChronicleLive. "There's
a saying in life: where there's a will, there's a way. Basically,
that's what you have got to adopt. I wish them well in doing
so."
Jones' comments are timely. The club agreed a deal last month
to buy back the long-term lease of the land at Strawberry Place
behind the Gallowgate End. This was land that Sir John Hall and
Freddy Shepherd's ownership purchased from Nexus during Jones' time
at the club before Mike Ashley later sold it to developers.
As complicated as any redevelopment would be, the Gallowgate
still appears the stand most ripe for expansion in the long-term
and reclaiming this land may yet prove significant. After all,
increasing the capacity was the main reason why the club bought it
in the first place a quarter of a century ago rather revisiting
plans to build a new stadium elsewhere.
"I always referred to the stadium as the cathedral on the
hill," Jones said. "People used to laugh at me when I said it, but
it is the only place I know that people come on a Saturday and
worship a team.
"The key to St James' is it's right in the middle of the city.
It's really the only one that's like that so it's easy to get to so
that was the key to leaving it where it was rather than ultimately
trying to move it elsewhere.
"It would be a mistake to move away. I think there are things
they can do to expand it if they want to. I'm sure the local
authority and Newcastle City Council would be very supportive in
terms of what they want to do. These days English Heritage are a
lot more compliant in terms of wanting to help people as
well."
Jones' words echo previous comments made by Sir John, who told
ChronicleLive that 'if you've got the time and the money, you can
probably solve the problems - but it's going to cost you'.
Christopher Lee, who was the architect behind the Tottenham Hotspur
Stadium, added that there were 'always solutions' when it came to
the potential expansion of St James'.
While supporters will naturally want specifics on what those
solutions could look like, stadium redevelopment has at least come
a long way. As has St James' for that matter.
Jones was part of the team who turned a crumbling St James'
into a 36,610-seater stadium in 1995 before the hierarchy quickly
realised the arena would not be big enough for their Entertainers
given the demand for tickets. It fell to Jones to head up plans to
build a new stadium at Castle Leazes, with the potential for 70,000
seats, only for the application to face stern opposition from
conservationists, so redevelopment on the current site was
revisited once more. Another tier was duly added to both the Sir
John Hall and Milburn stands at a cost of £42m in 2000 to enable
more than 52,000 supporters to attend games.
St James' capacity has not been touched since then, but there
had been plans to increase the size of the stadium to accommodate
at least 60,000 fans before Mike Ashley bought the club in
2007.
"We always had the idea of purchasing Strawberry Place,
extending the stand and bridging the hotel over the road," Jones
said. "That's what we were going to do there.
"The idea was that we could extend the stand back and build a
hotel that would be like a hotel for younger players and some of
the senior players where they would get looked after, and to also
provide some entertainment facilities there at the same time. That
was always the idea, to extend that way."
That idea did not come to fruition, but Jones' legacy lives on
at St James' beyond the structure of the stadium today. Ever wonder
who was responsible for away supporters being housed up in the gods
at Level 7? That was Jones' doing. That insatiable demand for
boxes? Jones and his colleagues had the foresight to predict it
when others doubted them.
"We had people like Man United and all the other teams being
insulting about things like that," he added. "They used to
criticise us and say, 'There's no way you will sell those boxes.'
We said, 'Yes we will' - and we did."
View the original article here