Top facts about St James' Park, the Castle of Magpies

In Newcastle upon Tyne, England, there is a football stadium called St James' Park.

plays their home matches there. It is England's eighth-largest football stadium, with a capacity of 52,305 spectators.

Newcastle United has called St James' Park home since 1892, and it has hosted football matches since 1880. The ambition to expand has been a source of contention with local people and the local government throughout the company's existence.

This prompted at least two relocation plans in the late 1960s, as well as a contentious 1995 relocation proposal to adjacent Leazes Park. Due to a lack of willingness to shift, the current stadium's uneven stands have a characteristic lopsided aspect.

Apart from club football, St James' Park has also hosted international fixtures, including the rugby league Magic Weekend, the rugby union World Cup, Premiership, and England Test matches, charity football events, rock concerts, and as a backdrop for film and reality television.

We are about to talk all about it in the upcoming sections of top facts about St James' Park.

A collective post of top facts about St James' Park, the Castle of Magpies

In this article of

top facts about St James’ Park

, we will first go over the history of this amazing stadium as briefly as possible, because if we want to explore all of its rich history, it will be a long voyage.

Then we'll go into the roots of its name. In addition, any information discovered concerning this stadium will be presented in separate parts later. Now without further ado let us hop into the article of top facts about St James' Park.

St James' Park history

As usual first take the time machine and warp back into the fundamentals to learn about the history of this field in this section of top facts about St James' park.

The location of St James' Park was originally a sloping pasture area surrounded by Georgian Leazes Terrace and close to the old Town Moor, held by the city's Freemen, both of which influenced the ground's growth, with the local council as the landlord.

Architect Thomas Oliver and builder Richard Grainger, two well-known Newcastle natives, designed and erected Leazes Terrace in 1830. It was formerly the home of Newcastle's high society, but it is now a Grade 1 listed property that is being utilized as self-catering postgraduate student accommodation by Newcastle University.

The Gallowgate End got its name from its proximity to the city's gallows, which were last used in 1844.

While the stadium is now associated with the Black and Whites, St James' Park was once home to Newcastle United, who wore red and white until 1904. A tripling of capacity to 60,000 in 1905, together with a primary stand on Barrack Road (now Milburn Stand) and several additional stands, resulted in a state-of-the-art complex including a swimming pool.

The venue hosted the second-ever rugby league test match, and Great Britain's first test triumph, against the touring Australian Kangaroos side on January 23, 1909.

Sir John Hall and Freddy Shepherd

When did the primary extension take part? The answer is in this section of top facts about St James’ Park.

Until the early 1990s, the stadium had only seen little expansion under several owners, with plans beset by disagreements and a lack of funding owing to poor on-field results. Sir John Hall, who had led the Magpie Group consortium in a hostile purchase of the club, was named as chairman in January 1992.

Sir John utilized his property development knowledge to get the stadium approved quickly, and he put a lot of money into it with the money he made during new manager

.

The Leazes End, which had been destroyed but not replaced, was ultimately restored for Newcastle's first season in the Premiership in 1993, and inaugurated as the Sir John Hall Stand.

A new pitch, drainage, and floodlights were added, as well as the Gallowgate End being reconstructed and the

being refurbished. By 1995, the stadium had attained its maximum capacity of 36,610 people, including seating in all four corners.

Sir John Hall stood down as chairman in 1997 (he remained a director until 2007, and is now the club's life president), and existing shareholder and board director Freddy Shepherd took over as chairman.

​Later development

In late 2003, the club negotiated an agreement with MGM Mirage to give over the site above St James Metro station, behind the Gallowgate End, in exchange for an equity investment, to create a jointly operated complex centered around a 1,000-square-foot (93 m2) Super Casino, ahead of the liberalization of UK gambling rules.

When the projected number of mega-casinos in the UK was lowered to one, the plans fell through, and the club refunded MGM £5 million in January 2008.

The Gallowgate was rebuilt in 2005, with a new bar named "Shearer's" after Newcastle star Alan Shearer being erected beneath the upper tier of the Gallowgate End.

The original stairs of the ancient Gallowgate End stand were discovered during construction work beneath the structure, which had been simply covered over when the stadium was entirely restored in 1993.

For Shearer's Bar, these stairs were deleted. Shearer's Bar, a larger club store, a club museum, and a new box office were all included as part of the Gallowgate's makeover.

A scoreboard was placed in the far corner of the Sir John Hall Stand in October 2014. On October 18, during a Premier League match versus Leicester City, the scoreboard was utilized for the first time. However, due to damage to the paneling surrounding the scoreboard caused by strong winds, the game was delayed by one hour.

"Supporter safety was of primary significance," Newcastle United subsequently declared on their website.

St James' Park name origin

Here is where things take a funny turn as we debate the origin of this stadium's name in this section of top facts about St James' Park.

The stadium is recognized by its initials, St James' Park (SJP), or the abbreviation, St James', regardless of its actual name. In honor of the site's early history, it's also known as Gallowgate, not to be confused with the similarly informally titled Gallowgate End, which is the name of the south stand.

As visible on the signage of the St James' Park stairs at the stadium's entrance and signs inside the neighboring Metro station, St James' Park is spelled with James' including one s and an apostrophe mark.

The apostrophe contrasts with the name of the Metro station, which is designated as St James Metro station, as well as the street signs of neighboring St James Street and St James Terrace. Furthermore, the use of one s and an apostrophe mark contrasts from the normal practice of adding a second s to monosyllabic possessives ending in s, as in the example of St James's Park, a well-known London public area.

The case for adding an extra 's' to describe the site as "the park of St James" was investigated by BBC Look North in May 2008.

Although it was pointed out that the road sign for that street, as well as that of the nearby St James Terrace, did not have apostrophes, the club said that the stadium is named after its neighboring street, St James Street, which predates the ground.

Both The Evening Chronicle and The Journal, according to the BBC, write the name with a second's', largely in response to reader concerns following a period of publishing stories without it.

St James' Park structure

The Milburn stand is the stadium's primary stand, with a glass-fronted atrium holding the main entrance, lifts, and escalators.

The dugouts and players' tunnels are in the customary center of the main stand location. The Milburn/Leazes building has four concourse levels behind the seating terraces of the stands, the Gallowgate End has three concourse levels, and the East stand has two concourse levels.

Because of the height difference between the sides and ends of the ground, the stadium seems asymmetrical from the air and from some angles from ground level. Because of the height difference between the Leazes/Milburn complex and the East/Gallowgate stands, many seats inside the ground provide views of the city center.

Further development of the Gallowgate End might result in a more balanced horseshoe configuration of equal height stands, comparable to Celtic Park.

The East Stand and Gallowgate End are single-tiered, with boxes also at the top of the Gallowgate. The Milburn Stand and Leazes End are double-tiered, divided by a level of executive boxes; the East Stand and Gallowgate End are single-tiered, with boxes also at the top of the Gallowgate.

The Milburn Stand, Leazes End, and Gallowgate End, the three newest sides, are made of structural steel and pre-cast concrete. The conventional box-shaped stands were increased in the 1993 enlargement, as with many new or extended British football stadiums, by filling in the corners to maximize available seats, up to a uniform height.

The Milburn Stand and Leazes End are now higher than this, with a one-piece cantilevered glass roof covering them. Behind the Gallowgate End, a smaller stand portion rises above this level.

The 64.5-meter steel truss cantilever roof atop the Milburn/Leazes complex, erected in 1998, is Europe's biggest cantilever structure, surpassing Manchester United's 58-meter cantilevers.

St James' Park seats

Let us talk about the seat formation of this huge stadium in this section of top facts about St James’ Park.

All sectors of the stadium have an uninterrupted view of the pitch, according to the present stadium architecture. The directors’ box and press boxes are located on the Milburn stand, as well as the prime TV camera site for televised games.

Away spectators for league games were previously housed on the top level, in the northwest corner, which had a capacity of 3,000 people. At the end of the 2007–2008 season, however, plans were made to transfer the away fans to the far end of the top level of the Leazes End.

The poor view provided by being so far from the pitch due to the height of the stand, as well as the 14 flights of stairs to access the top level, has drawn criticism. The lowest half of the corner is also utilized for FA Cup matches.

The Gallowgate End, like The Kop for Liverpool F.C., is the traditional home of the loudest fans.

If the team wins the coin toss, the team will target the Gallowgate End in the second half. In recent years, there has been an unofficial fan movement to construct a singing section in the Leazes End top tier, partially to combat away fans and also to reintroduce some of the atmosphere lost with the recent expansion to over 36,000.

The 'Toon Ultras' are a group of fans that call themselves that. The official Family Enclosure is located on Level 7 of the Milburn Stand.

St James' Park facilities

The stadium has conference and banqueting facilities in addition to the standard Premiership football stadium amenities. There are six suites totaling 2,050 seats, including the 1,000-seat Bamburgh Suite with a stage, dance floor, and three bars, as well as the two-level New Magpie Room with a pitch outlook.

The stadium has premium seating spaces divided into clubs, each having access to a bar and lounge behind the stand that may be used before and after the game. The Platinum Club, Bar 1892, Sovereign Club, and the Black & White Club are in the Milburn Stand, and the Sports Bar is at the Leazes End

NINE, a sports bar and club located at the Gallowgate End, is basically another city center nightspot in Newcastle, accessible solely from the ground's outside. The pub is named after Newcastle United's renowned number nine shirt, which has been worn by legendary attackers like Alan Shearer throughout the years.

A huge club store and a police station are also located on the Gallowgate. The primary box office is located in the Milburn stand. A cafe and a club museum are also located in the southwest corner.

St James' Park other uses

Most of the stadiums are being utilized not only for football but also other sports and for other industries such as music. Let us talk about it in this section of

top facts about St James’ Park

.

The stadium hosted the Super League Magic Weekend on May 30 and 31, 2015. After the City of Manchester Stadium, which had hosted the event yearly since 2012, became unavailable, St James' Park was chosen to host the event.

The 2015 event was deemed a success, with single-day and overall attendance records being established. In 2016, the Magic Weekend returned to St James' Park, shattering the all-time attendance record, and it did so again in 2017 and 2018.

After being hosted at Anfield for the 2019 season and being canceled for the 2020 season, the magical weekend is expected to return to Newcastle in April 2021 for the 2021 season.

At St James' Park, two rugby league internationals have been played. The stadium will host the opening ceremony and first game of the 2021 Rugby League World Cup, the venue's first rugby league international in 110 years.

Another cool fact of top facts about St James’ Park is that The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, Queen, Bob Dylan, Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart, Kings of Leon, and, most recently, Ed Sheeran have all performed at the stadium.

The stadium has also been used as an audition location for the reality television program Big Brother and the television show The X Factor.

The final celebrity matches of the Sky television reality TV show The Match was also held at St James' Park. The stadium was utilized extensively in the film Goal!, which follows a fictitious player named Santiago Munez as he signs with Newcastle. A game between Newcastle United and Liverpool FC from 1901 is also shown on film.

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top facts about St James’ Park

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