Early 2025. That is when Newcastle United hope to reach a decision on the long-term future of St James’ Park and architect Angus Campbell will be among those watching on with interest.
Campbell’s firm, Foster + Partners, are developing a masterplan for the land around Old Trafford and have previously overseen a host of high-profile projects, including Wembley Stadium and Lusail Stadium.
“We hope to be involved,” Campbell revealed to ChronicleLive in April. “We hope to be invited to put our hat in the ring and show our ideas and our approach, but we would look to reach out to the planners. What are the problems? What does the city need? Because managing a stadium on a match day takes a lot of effort.
“It’s important how you engage with the people and the fans. I know as I’ve been looking at this from afar – thinking how this is going to come to market – there are a lot of people out there with podcasts and very public views on what they think it should be and what they would like it to be for the fans. You have got to keep the heart in there.”
Wembley is a case in point. On the surface, this is a very different stadium to the Old Wembley, but the design team aimed to retain some of the ‘best bits’, including the pitch orientation and the size of the roof opening, during the £798m project. Despite FIFA’s recommendation for pitches in the northern hemisphere to be north-south oriented so that shadows fall on the halfway line, those behind the newbuild insisted on maintaining Wembley’s east-west orientation to reduce shadow casting on the south side of the stadium. This decision ultimately led to the creation of the world’s longest single spanning arched structure.
The overall stadium was also updated to meet modern standards at a time when the supporter experience had evolved significantly since its original construction a century prior and the outdated athletics track was removed along with the shallow seating bowl that kept fans distant from the action. While the iconic Twin Towers were eventually demolished, an initial design proposed incorporating them into the new Wembley. However, as Campbell put it, this would have reduced the towers to ‘little pimples in the landscape’ rather than the commanding features they once were.
A masterplan was also developed to improve the local area and enhance stadium accessibility. The entrance and loading bay of the nearby Wembley Arena were reconfigured to share a common approach with the stadium from the adjacent tube station, transforming the vicinity into a bustling mixed-use hub not just on game days but throughout the week.
“There are parallels, absolutely, between what’s happening at St James’ and what happened at Wembley,” Campbell said. “Wembley was the national stadium and England’s home was at Wembley. I would say, looking at this, you can’t move that stadium. St James’ belongs in that location. It’s unique because it’s truly part of the city.
“The site is amazing. Where else can you arrive in the city centre and walk to the stadium in five or 10 minutes? You can also see it from everywhere. Because it’s on top of a hill above the rooftops.
“That said, it causes congestion unless you manage it properly and one of the things we find is many of the stadium experts out there have a habit of looking at stadiums where their understanding ends when you go through the turnstiles so it becomes a spectator experience the moment you get inside. Then it’s about how much you can earn from the seats and it becomes a commodity when, actually, the big impact is what happens to the city.
“We have done quite a few studies with various clubs because what you find with a football stadium is it’s full of facilities for 50, 60, 70,000 seats but then it’s locked off when it’s not in use and they’re locked inside. You might as well have put a big fence around it. There’s a shop, but it’s not very facilitating. If you could open up the ground floor or terraces of it so on a non-event day it serves outwards, instead of serving inwards, it does both things. It can serve the community.”
Campbell has made it clear that anything within a mile of St James’ Park should be considered part of the stadium’s environment, likening it to an ‘outdoor concourse’. He reflected on a previous project, the Sage Gateshead, now known as the Glasshouse International Centre for Music, which serves as a prime example of how arenas can function as ‘public entities’.
“The Sage was a massive project for us,” he explained. “Think about that project. It was a project where the council was our client. They ran an international competition. They had this idea where they wanted to create a venue on the Quayside.
“The building was not that expensive in the overall scheme of things. It was done on a budget, but what we did was make a big effort to ensure the public could interact with it so that, in effect, there’s an internal street.
“You don’t need a ticket to go in the building. The facilities are on one side but there are public amenities in the street, and the street became part of the activation with the Baltic and the bridge. That’s a community project.
“The people have taken it and it’s become an icon they feel very fond of. That’s what you want out of these kinds of projects where it’s done for the betterment of the area. With the stadium, the owners just need to be careful that they don’t alienate the fans and the city by creating something that’s too expensive for them all to go to and that’s full of facilities for people who are not your average fan.”
For Campbell, the concept of opening up extends beyond merely having a museum or club shop. He envisions ‘smaller venues or things that can happen inside it’, citing the recent Miami Open tennis tournament held within the NFL’s Miami Dolphins’ home ground as a prime example.
Despite acknowledging ‘a lot of constraints’ at St James’, Campbell emphasised the potential to ‘create something unique that belongs in the place and responds and is built around the stadium’. The acquisition of land at Strawberry Place presents a ‘special opportunity’, he said.
From a distance, Campbell suggested there might be scope to add another 10,000 seats to the capacity, but admitted it would be ‘very tight’ as Newcastle weigh up two very different options: transforming the current stadium or building a new ground elsewhere, which has the potential to significantly boost revenues as well as adding a lot more seats.
When asked if he had any general advice for the club, Campbell advised: “Take your time and make sure you go through a proper selection process. Make sure that you consult the people who have got you to where you got to.
“You now have the backing that might take you to that next level one day, but don’t forget the fans. Now is a good time to be talking to the fans and those local communities, consulting them and making sure their requirements are understood.
“You need to be careful that this does not become a transaction where you have got someone thinking, ‘I’ve got to create a match day revenue of X to allow me to buy Y and therefore I need this amount of space’. If they get it right, it will embellish its position in the city and, therefore, you have to bring everyone along with it.”
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View news Source: https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/oversaw-798m-stadium-rebuild-hope-30514510
