Eddie Howe: Newcastle leaving St James’ Park will feel like ‘betrayal’

Eddie Howe has said it will feel like a “betrayal” if Newcastle United decide to relocate to a new stadium rather than rebuild and expand St James’ Park.

As revealed by Telegraph Sport, Newcastle have been given detailed plans for the possible expansion of their current home, which would raise the capacity of St James’ Park to around 65,000, with the main focus on the construction of a new Gallowgate End and East Stand.

The plans would also allow for the modernisation of the existing Leazes End and the Milburn Stand, but the cost is estimated to be between £800 million and £1 billion depending on the final details of the project.

As a result, the board, led by majority owners Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, are still weighing up the pros and cons of redesigning, rebuilding and expanding St James’ Park over moving to a new purpose built stadium elsewhere in the city.

Howe knows the long term future of the club is the most important thing and acknowledges there could be far greater economic benefits in relocating to a new stadium, but he has always maintained that staying at St James’ Park would be his preference.

‘My natural instinct is to stay’

He said: “I think it’s a difficult one for someone like myself, who people want to know what my opinion is, but I’m not based with all the facts.

“I’m not sort of hearing the pros and cons behind all the decisions. I think my natural instinct was always to stay at St James’ Park. It’s an incredible place to play football. It’s our home. So to sort of think about moving somewhere else feels a little bit of a betrayal to somewhere that’s served us so well.

“But we are well aware that as a football club we need to increase our revenue. So people with more brain cells than me will make the decision for the benefit of the long-term future of the football club.

“That’s always the most important thing. So I could be swayed [to a new stadium], but just my natural instinct is to want to stay.”

Howe fell in love with St James’ Park the first time he went there as Bournemouth manager and, like many supporters, he has a strong emotional attachment to the famous old ground.

Much of that is to do with its location – sitting on a hill in the middle of the city, it is the focal point of the skyline for miles around.

“It’s a massive decision,” Howe continued. “Because it will affect the next however many years of the football club.

“It’s a decision where you won’t be able to please everybody. There will be different opinions. It’s truly only the people assessing the pros and cons that can really make the decision. You’ve got a huge thing on the cost [of rebuilding], the extra revenue you could get, so it’s a huge decision to make.

‘The club would lose something special’

“But what makes St James’ Park unique is the positioning where it is in the city. It is totally unique.

“I’d hate to see the stadium move from its current position because it dominates the eyeline of the whole city and you can see it from miles around. That’s really inspiring.

“Wherever you are in Newcastle, you get a glimpse and that’s so powerful.

“When you’re in it, I don’t know how it creates it, but the atmosphere, the look of the stadium, is a beautiful thing.

“I love being there, I love experiencing games there and I love winning there. That’s the best bit.

“St James’ Park the first time I managed there [with Bournemouth] I was like wow that’s... I’ve never managed in a stadium quite like that.

“I’m not lying here, this is me and my staff talking, and we’d been to every ground in the Premier League, near enough, by that point.

“St James’ Park was one of the last, I think, we’d been to and it blew us away. So if the club was to move, they would lose something special.

“That simplifies the decision [for me] but I can only imagine the detail they are going through to make the right decision for the long term benefit of the club.”