Unique St James' Park feature to remain despite £30m investment

On Wednesday, Newcastle United announced that £30 million worth of investment will be made to St James Park and the training ground over the summer.

While the hierarchy continues to debate what to do in the long term, they've wasted no time in green-lighting upgrades to the current stadium.

A new safe standing area, new screens inside the stadium, new floodlights and a brand new pitch will be installed ahead of next season.

Part of the work on the new pitch will see the pitch level lowered by three feet, according to journalist Dominic Scurr.

The slope will remain

With the pitch level changing, one question fans have wondered is whether the famous slope towards the Gallowgate End will remain.

It's a feature that sets St James' Park apart from other top-tier pitches and is a big reason why Newcastle prefer to shoot towards the Gallowgate in the second half.

It seems like the slope will remain, but it may not be as pronounced as it is right now, so we'll have to see if it offers any kind of advantage at all.

Away fans are going to be fuming

As someone mentioned in the replies to Dom Scurr's post, the away fans are going to be absolutely livid now that they're going to be another three feet further away from the pitch. Oh, the humanity!

We have to wonder the reason behind keeping the slope if they're digging up the pitch and laying it from scratch. I've never played on the St James' Park pitch, so I don't know just how much of an advantage it actually creates to the side shooting towards the Gallowgate, but at this point, it's just a quirk that we don't really need, right?

I know how much our fans loathe the idea of change, so maybe they're keeping it to avoid backlash. Who knows?