Mike Ashley points the way to why ideal site for new Newcastle United stadium will be possible | OneFootball

Mike Ashley cast a huge dark shadow over Newcastle United for a decade and a half.

The absent landlord creating a nightmare scenario that most of us thought we would never be able to wake up from.

Running our football club purely for the benefit of himself and his retail empire, Newcastle United fans at a loss when it came to how to get rid of him.

Thankfully, Mike Ashley reached a point where he knew the game was up, finally enough fans sickened that Ashley had to give away 10,000+ free season tickets to fill what had become embarrassing banks of empty seats next to his tat empire (free!) adverts.

Perfectly summing up how his ownership of Newcastle United had always solely been about his personal benefit and not the long-term health of the football club. Mike Ashley sold for personal profit to developers, the land that had been acquired by the Hall/Shepherd NUFC ownership opposite the Gallowgate end, land that was deemed crucial if in the future Newcastle United wanted to seriously expand St James’ Park to any significant degree.

We now of course are in a very different era/scenario, the Newcastle United owners set to make possibly their biggest ever decision in the new year, whether to expand St James’ Park the best they can, or build a brand new stadium on a new site.

Whilst everybody has their own personal view on the whole stadium debate, one thing I think we can all agree on.

If the decision is to build a state of the art brand new stadium on a new site, that site HAS to be within walking distance of the city centre.

Something which of course very much limits the potential options when it comes to possible sites.

Down near the current Newcastle Arena, towards the river, has been speculated by some. However, that area appears destined for others uses/developments, at least as far as I am aware.

Regardless of that, the really obvious and most workable site in terms of siting a new stadium to change as little as possible the current St James’ Park experience, is… next to St James’ Park.

Fans walking up from the city centre walking past the current SJP site a couple of hundred yards to potential new stadium using Leazes Park and/or Castle Leazes land.

Back in the late 1990s this idea was explored by the Hall/Shepherd ownership, before deciding instead to expand the then 36,000+ capacity St James’ Park to 52,000+.

Which is where we now find ourselves today.

Back when that alternative site was proposed just up from the SJP site, it met with opposition from some people. Concerns about losing Leazes Park, the affect on local residents and so on.

This has then led to many Newcastle United fans and those in the media thinking that this automatically means that now in the 2020s, a brand new stadium using land at Leazes Park and/or Castle Leazes would be impossible.

Personally, I don’t subscribe to this.

For starters, back in the 1990s it was never really tested, whether the opposition of some people could/would have stopped that new stadium on a new Leazes Park/Castle Leazes site being built.

The vocal opposition from some people obviously didn’t help but the Hall/Shepherd administration didn’t push it to that point.

I think that all kinds of factors were in play and with the option of being able to expand the then current St James’ Park capacity of 36,000 to 52,000, then maybe that option was always going to win through in the end, when it came down to what was really the best way forward. Going up to 52,000 in the year 2000, gave Newcastle United easily the second highest capacity behind only Man U.

Time has moved on though and now numerous Premier League clubs have a bigger capacity than Newcastle United.

If it is a case of expanding the current St James’ Park site, that would be a huge, complicated and very expensive task. It would lead to massive city centre disruption and there would be a lot of objections from local businesses and residents etc etc as well.

It would also for sure mean for a significant time the current 52,000+ capacity would be much lower, for a season or two at least I would guess.

With then, even at most ambitious estimates, leading to an eventual increased capacity to somewhere between 60,000 and 65,000.

Back to Mike Ashley

Like many of you, I found myself for many years spending a ridiculous amount of time reading about his retail empire, loving any negatives as I hoped for a collapse and Ashley’s fortune plummeting, forcing him to sell Newcastle United.

Of course, he just kept getting richer and richer, just about a billionaire when he bought NUFC, Mike Ashley was a multi-billionaire when he sold our club. The free Newcastle United assistance to his retail empire having been a key component in driving that increase in Ashley’s billions.

Thankfully, I no longer feel a need to check the Sports Direct (now Frasers Group) share price.

However, on my social media, Mike Ashley and his retail empire do still occasionally catch my attention.

It turns out that tomorrow (Wednesday 18 December) is not just a very important date for Newcastle United fans, as we dream of taking another major step towards visiting Wembley, two years after Eddie Howe last led us there, the first time in a final for 24 years!

For Mike Ashley and the Frasers Group it is also a huge day.

Though whilst the NUFC v Brentford result is still very much in the balance, for Ashley and Frasers it already appears to be a certain victory.

Mike Ashley and the Frasers Group have planned a brand new mega HQ in the West Midlands.

It would be a new 275 acre headquarters in Ansty in Rugby, Warwickshire.

The Rugby site would span 3.3 million sq ft and is set to include a logistics area, offices and research and development departments, as well as hotel and leisure facilities.

The plans will be discussed and voted on at a council meeting tomorrow (Wednesday 18 December) but it looks a foregone conclusion.

The Mike Ashley/Frasers Group proposals have been recommended for approval by the planning officers at Rugby Borough Council.

The planning committee providing a massive report comprising of 208 pages.

It would be astonishing if the full council meeting does not confirm approval for this development.

The key part of the 208 page report contains this, which I think is massively relevant for Newcastle United fans as well, regarding a potential new site and brand new massive (80,000 hopefully for me) stadium.

“Overall, the totality of the economic, environmental and social benefits have been considered and the totality of the benefits clearly outweigh the combined weight of the harm to the green belt and any other harm, including the retail and landscape harm, heritage harm and harm in respect to the failure to satisfy the sequential test.

“Consequently, the very special circumstances necessary to justify the development do exist and the application should be approved.”

This is where I believe we are at with Newcastle United and our own brand new stadium issues, if/when the NUFC owners go down this route.

Man U are talking about a future 100,000 stadium capacity, Arsenal talking about 80,000, West Ham want to go up to 68,000 as their next step.

Both for the fans AND Newcastle United as an ambitious club, on and off the pitch, this brand new state of the art 80,000+ seater stadium on a new site, at Leazes Park and/or Castle Leazes, has to become a reality.

Those arguments for allowing the new huge Mike Ashley/Frasers Group development apply just as much, actually far far more, when it comes to Newcastle United and this new stadium.

It is a one-off chance to take Newcastle United, Newcastle City Council and Newcastle City Centre to a whole new level.

If the Newcastle United owners, Newcastle City Council, Newcastle Freemen, Newcastle United fanbase, the city/region as a whole are all behind this, the game-changer brand new stadium at Leazes Park and/or Castle Leazes can and will become a reality.

There will be some who object, of course there will be, it happens with every single major development.

However, if so many key partners are United behind the brand new stadium, I believe it will definitely happen.

The social and economic benefits for the football club, the fans, the council, the local population, will be overwhelming.

A serious number of extra jobs created, both in building the new stadium and then once it is up and running, all of the extra visitors and cash coming into the city/region, plus of course the added impetus and finance for Newcastle United to be successful AND tens of thousands more fans each match to be able to be inside the new stadium to see it.

The recently elected Government have already stated that they are prepared to back major developments wherever possible, that drive growth, jobs and money flowing into the economy. I find it difficult/impossible to believe that if all major local partners (club, council, fans, freemen, overwhelming majority of Tyneside residents) are in agreement behind the new stadium, that the Government would favour a relative handful of protestors wanting to prevent this going ahead.

As Newcastle United fans, we want our football club AND local economy to be thriving, a small handful of people won’t be allowed to prevent this project going ahead.