Journalist Ross Gregory has dropped a fresh claim on the NUFC Matters YouTube channel regarding Newcastle United moving to safe standing.
Newcastle revealed to fans earlier this week that a small section of St James’ Park would be redeveloped to allow for safe standing – something that has been trialled at several Premier League clubs since the start of the year.
This is mainly set to be in the away end, which situates the infamous blocks right at the very top of St James’ Park. The club confirmed that further discussions would take place with fans to potentially see more safe standing introduced by 2023.
While some may be worried about losing a seat they’ve had for years, Gregory claims Newcastle and PIF will be doing their research and having plenty of discussions before making any big decisions.
He said: “It goes back to what I said earlier – there’s got to be that consultation. There’s got to be a consultation process, which won’t happen overnight.
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“I think they’re setting their stall out now so that they potentially bring it in for the start of next season – the 2023/24 season, when they’ve had a good 12 months of consultation with the fans about what areas of the ground, how it would look, what the impact would be on existing season ticket holders who might still want to sit, but their area of the ground has been designated as a standing area. So there’s a lot of consultation that has to go into it.
“Their first port of call is to consult with the fans, to speak to them – not just say ‘right, it’s going in this area here, it’s going this area there, like it or lump it’.
“It’ll not be for everybody, it absolutely won’t be for everybody, but I think we’ve seen over the last few years that it would be a welcome addition to St James’.”
TIF Thoughts on safe standing at St James’ Park…
The fact that safe standing is now being offered to clubs this season would suggest that the recent trial period was a major success and ticked all the boxes from fans and in terms of the safety guidelines.
However, given St James’ Park is a very old ground now – with it last being majorly developed in 2000 – there will be a lot of fans who have had the same seat for decades and won’t be very happy being forced out of their seat so people can stand, so it’s far from a simple issue for PIF.