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Is the Murrayfield friendly a 'dry run' for a St James' Park expansion? 🏴🤔
With the friendly at Murrayfield confirmed, I can?t help but look past the ninety minutes of football and focus on the much bigger picture. We?ve all heard the whispers over the last couple of years that if PIF finally gets the green light to expand St James' Park, we are going to need a temporary home while the construction crews do their thing. Moving out for a season or two seems practically inevitable if we want to get the capacity up past 60,000, as they can't easily rebuild the Gallowgate or East Stand with fifty thousand people sitting under them every week.
Because of that, I'm starting to wonder if this trip to Edinburgh is actually a massive logistical dry run masquerading as a pre-season friendly. It feels like the perfect opportunity for the club to test the waters on multiple fronts without committing to anything just yet.
From a fan perspective, it lets the board see exactly how easily thirty or forty thousand Geordies can get up the East Coast Main Line and how well a 'neighboring' city handles our numbers. At the same time, it allows the players, training staff, and commercial operations to see how they adapt to a completely different matchday routine.
Murrayfield has been rumored previously as a serious fallback option, and frankly, it makes a weird amount of sense. It holds over 67,000 people, it is a world-class arena, and the travel time from Newcastle is only about an hour and a half on a direct train. Let's face it, moving to Sunderland or Middlesbrough is an absolute non-starter for obvious reasons and the only other possible alternative is the 25,000 capacity white elephant stadium in Darlington.
It feels highly likely that the board are quietly assessing whether Scotland could actually work as our home away from home for a brief period. What is everyone?s thoughts on this? Would you be happy traveling up to Edinburgh for home games if it meant we finally got the rebuilt, world-class St James' Park we all want, or is the regular commute just too much of an ask for a full league campaign?
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Saw this - interesting point of view.
Certainly not without merit.
I don't disagree with author either really, could well be a dry run. Fact it's against a prem opposition as well makes it more likely to my mind.
With the friendly at Murrayfield confirmed, I can?t help but look past the ninety minutes of football and focus on the much bigger picture. We?ve all heard the whispers over the last couple of years that if PIF finally gets the green light to expand St James' Park, we are going to need a temporary home while the construction crews do their thing. Moving out for a season or two seems practically inevitable if we want to get the capacity up past 60,000, as they can't easily rebuild the Gallowgate or East Stand with fifty thousand people sitting under them every week.
Because of that, I'm starting to wonder if this trip to Edinburgh is actually a massive logistical dry run masquerading as a pre-season friendly. It feels like the perfect opportunity for the club to test the waters on multiple fronts without committing to anything just yet.
From a fan perspective, it lets the board see exactly how easily thirty or forty thousand Geordies can get up the East Coast Main Line and how well a 'neighboring' city handles our numbers. At the same time, it allows the players, training staff, and commercial operations to see how they adapt to a completely different matchday routine.
Murrayfield has been rumored previously as a serious fallback option, and frankly, it makes a weird amount of sense. It holds over 67,000 people, it is a world-class arena, and the travel time from Newcastle is only about an hour and a half on a direct train. Let's face it, moving to Sunderland or Middlesbrough is an absolute non-starter for obvious reasons and the only other possible alternative is the 25,000 capacity white elephant stadium in Darlington.
It feels highly likely that the board are quietly assessing whether Scotland could actually work as our home away from home for a brief period. What is everyone?s thoughts on this? Would you be happy traveling up to Edinburgh for home games if it meant we finally got the rebuilt, world-class St James' Park we all want, or is the regular commute just too much of an ask for a full league campaign?
------------------
Saw this - interesting point of view.
Certainly not without merit.
I don't disagree with author either really, could well be a dry run. Fact it's against a prem opposition as well makes it more likely to my mind.
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