Eddie Howe gives honest thoughts on Newcastle leaving St James' Park - 'I could be swayed'

Newcastle United are deep into planning how to redevelop or move from St James' Park, and are assessing the economic case for extending or rebuilding the famous city centre stadium

Eddie Howe has likened moving from St James’ Park to a “betrayal” but also said he “could be swayed.”

The Newcastle coach has weighed in on the debate over whether to rebuild St James’ Park or relocate and build a new stadium. Howe reckons the demand for tickets on Tyneside and around the world is there for Newcastle to fill whatever size arena they end up with.

But with a debate raging on Tyneside over how to increase capacity from 52,000 to at least 65k or to 80k with a rebuild, Howe has outlined how special the atmosphere and history of St James’ Park is to him.

He said: “I think my natural instinct was always to stay at St James’ Park. It’s an incredible place to play football. It’s our home, so to think about moving somewhere else feels a little bit of a betrayal. But we are well aware that as a football club we need to increase our revenue so people with more brain cells will make the decision for the benefit of the long term future of the football club and that’s always the most important thing so I could be swayed but just my natural instinct is to want to stay.”

Asked how big a revamped St James’ should be, Howe said: “I think conjuring a figure is difficult but you can see the demand is there. I think you could have any size stadium you want to a degree and it would be full.

“Which I think it would. When you build a stadium you don’t want to see empty seats. You want it full of people. Go back to the Wimbledon game and you see a sold out venue.

“That is the appetite from fans here and all over the world to come and watch the team play, which is a magnificent starting point. It is such a difficult decision to say that is the blueprint of the ambition. That simplifies the decision but I can only imagine the detail they are going through to make the right decision for the long term benefit of the club.

“Of course there's a lot of work going on with stadiums and discussions about taking the club into sort of a next phase of that takeover I think. The next phase of investment, which will be the long-term growth of the club and that's really the key decisions and I know that's why everyone's taking the time to try and make sure those decisions are right.”

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