Newcastle United have come under fresh pressure from football media figures to accelerate plans for a new stadium that would match the club’s growing ambition on the pitch.
On talkSPORT’s White and Jordan show, former Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan has urged the club’s Saudi-led owners to stop delaying and commit to a landmark new ground rather than continue “feasibility studies” while rivals leap ahead.
Speaking on the White and Jordan show, Jordan argued that Newcastle’s Saudi-backed owners have so far kept within the boundaries of the game’s regulations, but must now act decisively to elevate the club.
“The one thing we’re not talking about here, and should be talking about, is that the Saudis have played nicely with the football establishment,” Jordan said.
“They’ve played by the rules. They haven’t pushed the envelope or created major issues around their ownership model or demanded special treatment.”
Jordan did, however, reference the political backdrop to the takeover of Newcastle United, adding; “In the same way they attempted to influence government involvement around the purchase in the first place, which we all know happened with Boris Johnson.”
Turning his focus to the club’s future ambitions, Jordan insisted the most effective way to strengthen Newcastle’s position among the elite would be through infrastructure investment.
“The one thing they can do that enhances Newcastle United and gives them the chance to sit at the top table, without breaching PSR, is build a new stadium,” he said.
“Get on with it. Build a new stadium,” Jordan concluded.
Growing frustration among Newcastle fans
There is a rising frustration that four and a half years after the Saudi Public Investment Fund’s takeover in October 2021, little visible progress has been made beyond talk.
On another Talk Sports Show, Inside The Toon, journalist Craig Hope had told listeners that earlier plans once pointed firmly to a new 65,000-seat stadium modelled on Bayern Munich’s Allianz Arena, a vision that promised to catapult Newcastle into Europe’s elite.
“All the information… was that all roads led to a new 65,000-seater ground,” Hope said, adding that feasibility work and a supposed imminent announcement never materialised as the owners held back despite internal support for the project.
These revelations, the progress of Newcastle’s rivals and failure to fulfil their promises, have all contributed to the growing frustration among Magpies, directed at their Saudi owners.
FGG Says
Newcastle’s remarkable revival on the pitch under Saudi ownership has reinvigorated hope among the Toon Army, but without infrastructure to match, a world-class stadium and training facilities, that hope risks feeling incomplete.