Newcastle United's next St James' Park upgrade 'ongoing' as key date rumoured

Newcastle United’s new fan zone remains a work in progress ahead of its official opening this summer.

Plans to construct the fan zone — known as St James’ Park Stack presented by Sela — were approved by the local authorities in September last year after Newcastle’s owners re-purchased the land at Strawberry Place seven months prior.

Building work started in January before the first of 56 shipping containers arrived at the back end of March. The framework has since been taking shape but the venue is set to miss its provisional Spring opening target.

Speaking to journalist at the beginning of the year, CEO Darren Eales said: “We're full steam ahead on that. Our plan is to get it open for that Spring, Summer time and we're looking to try and get it open for the end of the season, certainly by the start of next season to have that fully open.”

Spring will officially end on June 20 before summer begins. Stack is unlikely to be ready for the European Championships with England’s campaign getting underway against Serbia on June 16. Instead, the start of August has been suggested as a opening date when St James’ Park hosts the Sela Cup.

"To be clear it's not just on matchday, St James' Stack will be open seven days a week and we're excited because it gives us more of that footprint,” continued Eales. “It goes back to our fan base and we've got this amazing fan base which is twice the size of St James' Park.

"The ability for us to have a footprint with St James' Stack to do events there and make fans feel connected without a season ticket is part of how we're thinking about our ability to grow the club and make our supporters feel more connected. It's not just on a match day, it's about what else we can do around the club 365 days a year.”

The fan zone is expected to be given an initial lifespan of three years as Newcastle explore potential uses for the site, including possible expansion of the 52,000-seater stadium. A feasibility study is ongoing.

It’s been all systems go at St James’ Park in the last few weeks after building a temporary club shop while the main store undergoes an extensive refurbishment as part of Adidas’ return as official kit partner.