Newcastle face stadium issue after new twist emerges – Stefan Borson
Newcastle United will face issues financing their potential new stadium development if they can’t sell the land at St James’ Park.
That is the view of finance expert Stefan Borson, who exclusively told Football Insider the Tyneside club could face a difficult challenge getting a return on their investment without a significant rise in ticket prices.
Newcastle are currently considering plans to either build a new stadium or expand St James’ Park, which has been their home since 1892.
A new facility is expected to give the north-east giants a capacity of more than 70,000, while a rebuild of the current stadium would limit the number of spectators to around 65,000.
The Athletic reported on 10 January there have been claims the club won’t be able to sell St James’ Park because the land is managed by the Freemen of Newcastle.
Newcastle stadium development needs to make financial sense
Borson suggested that will have an impact on Newcastle’s plans for a new stadium.
He told Football Insider: “If you build a stadium for let’s say £2billion, you have got a very difficult challenge on getting a return on that investment unless you can push prices very high.
“If you are saying one of your other routes is you can’t sell or can’t get full value for the land for St James’ Park, which is in a central location and has relatively high value, if you can’t get let’s say £250million in for the current site, at some point the economics don’t work on building a new stadium in Newcastle.
“I don’t know what that breaking point is.
“Newcastle have got super smart people around the table on this and I am not going to teach them anything about how to do that property deal.
“But they will be thinking about does this make a financial return and can it make financial sense.
“If you keep taking bits out and you are not getting a return in from this plot of land because you have got a problem selling it or a planning issue, it’s going to have an impact.”
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