PREMIER LEAGUE
St James’ Park: what is the capacity of Newcastle’s stadium and how long has it been owned by the club?
Newcastle’s home is one of the oldest surviving stadiums in the Premier League. It is also the eighth largest in the top flight.
The first football match to be played on the site of St James’ Park was in September 1880. The recently-formed Newcastle Rangers moved from Drill Park in Gateshead to a vacant plot by Leazes Terrace, playing there until their demise later that season. When two other local teams Newcastle West End Football Club and Newcastle East End merged, the new club took over the ground, making St James’ Park their permanent base in May 1892 and before the year was out had changed its name to become Newcastle United.
St James’ Park could accommodate around 6,000 spectators during those early years - a sizeable crowd at the time (Arsenal were drawing between 4-5,000 at their Invicta ground). The first small stand was constructed at the Gallowgate end and by the turn of the century, St James’ Park’s capacity had risen to 30,000. Further redevelopments have taken place over the years - the main stand was erected on the Barrack Road in 1905 which doubled the capacity.
Expansion in the 70s
But the first major revamp didn’t take place until 1972 when the club approved a £1 million on building a new East stand. By the mid-80s, many of England’s stadiums were suffering from wear and tear over the passage of time and some were declared dangerous to public safety. Among them was St James’ Park, whose West Stand was now obsolete and falling into serious disrepair. It was pulled down in 1987 with a new structure - the two-tier Milburn Stand built in its place.
The ground continue to evolve with the Sir John Hall Stand built to replace the Leazes terrace in 1993 and other parts of the ground modified to increase capacity to 36,610. The next stage of the project took place after Freddy Shepherd replaced Hall as club chairman in 1997. Work was completed in the new millennium - £43 million had been invested to transform into a state-of-the-art stadium, one of the most modern venues in the Premier League.
What is St James’ Park maximum capacity today?
Today, St James’ Park can seat a capacity crowd of 52,305 - the all-time attendance record was set in January 1951 when 67,596 supporters crammed in to watch Newcastle beat Bolton Wanderers in 3-2 FA Cup Fourth Round.