Newcastle United looking at alternative city centre site for new stadium

We are still waiting for an official update from Newcastle United over what it plans to do with regard to St James' Park, and it looks like there's no end in sight just yet.

The stadium saga is dragging on longer than The Lord of the Rings, as we still don't even have a decision on whether we are going to expand the existing site or build a new purpose-built stadium elsewhere.

There was a feeling that a new state-of-the-art stadium would be built on Leazes Park next to the existing stadium, but there are many hurdles to jump to get clearance to do that, not least of which is the new revelation that there's a substantial bat population in the park that would make construction tricky as it's a criminal offence to deliberately disturb or kill bats.

This summer will see the club make some big improvements to St James' Park, which suggests we're going to be there for a while longer yet.  Of course, even if construction on a new stadium were to start immediately, we'd still be a few years away from moving anyway, so it makes sense to keep the current site up to date.

Newcastle eyeing a second site inside the city

With the issues facing the Leazes Park site, the Daily Mail has claimed that Newcastle are now set to look at a potential alternative site within the city centre, with a PIF delegation set to visit later this month.

As part of that visit, the delegation will meet with CEO David Hopkinson and his board at Matfen Hall, where it's expected the stadium will be top of the agenda.

There will be plenty of other things to discuss beyond the stadium, too, after such a sub-par season and with the transfer window coming up.

Additionally, there's still a decision to be made on the relocation of the club's training facilities, which, as far as we know, is set to go ahead on the Woolsington site near Newcastle Airport.

Back up your 2030 claims, Hopkinson!

Even with all the top brass meeting later this month, we'd be surprised if we, the lowly fans, hear any update on the stadium plans anytime in the near future.

The lack of communication on these big projects is extremely frustrating, especially when you have David Hopkinson making bold claims around being title challengers by 2030. 

We can all say fanciful things and provide unrealistic targets if we're not going to back up our words with an actual plan, and right now that's what Hopkinson's 2030 vision is. A bold claim with no basis in reality. At least from the outside. Prove us wrong, David.