St. James' Park

The SportsDirect.com @ St James' Park Stadium, usually St. James' Park, is a football stadium in Newcastle. The stadium was first used by Newcastle United in 1891 after the East End and West End were merged. However, it was all played football since 1880 .

Extensions
Until the early 90s were made ​​only minor alterations. From 1991 invested businessman John Hall in the club, which resulted in a stadium capacity of 36,000 places in1995 . But this was still not enough for the huge grassroots . Plans were designed for a new stadium at nearby Leazes Park, but the church did not agree with it. So it was decided to expand the stadium by adding an extra ring on the Leazes stand and the Milburn Stand.

The upper ring on the west and north side of the stadium were finished in July 2000, including seats and skyboxes.

The skyboxes on the East Stand was demolished and replaced by seats, increasing the capacity increased to 52 387 seats.

The cost of the expansion was estimated at approximately £ 42 million, much higher than the cost of a new stadium in Leazes Park. Although it appears from the outside as if the stadium has four separate stands, constitute the lower rings a large rectangle around the stadiums, while the expansions towering above it. It is impossible to expand further, as there is a road behind Gallowgate End is and buildings behind East End.

The club has also bought the land around and above the St. James' Metro Station, with the possible aim there build a hotel and conference rooms. In 2005 they added a new bar under the top ring of Gallowgate End, called Shearer's, the club legend Alan Shearer .

Trivia

 * The stadium has three matches of Euro 1996 place. Together with the stadium of Leeds United , Elland Road was designated for the games of the teams in group B:France , Spain , Romania and Bulgaria .


 * In St. James' Park were also a few football matches of the 2012 Olympics played.


 * Formerly St. James' Park written as St. James's Park, with an s after the apostrophe. At the end of the 40s it's been abolished.


 * In November 2009 the stadium has been renamed to sportsdirect.com@St. James Park Stadium.