Mike Ashley cast a huge dark shadow over Newcastle United for a decade and a half.

The absentee landlord creates a nightmare scenario that most of us thought we would never wake up from.

Running our football club solely for his own benefit and that of his retail empire, Newcastle United fans didn’t know how to get rid of him.

Fortunately, Mike Ashley reached a point where he knew the game was over, and eventually enough fans were sickened that Ashley had to give away more than 10,000 free season tickets to fill what had become embarrassing banks of empty seats next to his (free!) tattoo empire.

Perfectly summing up that his ownership of Newcastle United had always been solely focused on his personal benefit and not the long term health of the football club. Mike Ashley sold for personal profit to developers the land which had been acquired by the Hall/Shepherd NUFC property opposite the Gallowgate end, land deemed crucial if in the future Newcastle United were serious about expanding St James ‘ Park to a significant extent. .

We are of course now in a very different era/scenario, the owners of Newcastle United are about to make perhaps the biggest decision in their history in the new year, whether it be expand St James’ Park as best they can, or build a whole new stadium on a very different piece of land. new site.

While everyone has their own personal perspective on the whole stadium debate, I think we can all agree on one thing.

If the decision is to build a brand new state-of-the-art stadium on a new site, that site MUST be within walking distance of downtown.

Which obviously greatly limits the potential options in terms of possible sites.

Some have speculated near the current Newcastle Arena, towards the river. However, this area appears to be intended for other uses/developments, at least to my knowledge.

Regardless of this, the really obvious and most feasible site in terms of locating a new stadium to change as little as possible the current St James’ Park experience is… next to St James’ Park.

Supporters traveling from the city center past the current SJP site for a few hundred meters to the potential new stadium using the grounds of Leazes Park and/or Leazes Castle.

In the late 1990s this idea was explored by the Hall/Shepherd estate, before deciding to expand the capacity of St James’ Park, then from over 36,000, to over 52,000.

This is where we find ourselves today.

When this alternative site was proposed right after the SJP site, it was opposed by some people. Concerns over loss of Leazes Park, impact on local residents, etc.

This has subsequently led many Newcastle United fans and the media to believe that this automatically means that, in the 2020s, a completely new stadium using land at Leazes Park and/or Castle Leazes would be impossible.

Personally, I do not subscribe to it.

To begin with, in the 1990s it was never really tested whether opposition from some people could/would have prevented this new stadium from being built on the new Leazes park/castle site.

The vocal opposition from some people obviously didn’t help, but the Hall/Shepherd administration didn’t push things to that point.

I think all sorts of factors were at play and with the option of being able to increase the current capacity of St James’ Park from 36,000 to 52,000, then perhaps that option would still come out in the end, when it would show up. to what was truly the best way forward. Rising to 52,000 in 2000, this gave Newcastle United easily the second highest ability behind Man U.

However, time has passed and many Premier League clubs now have greater capacity than Newcastle United.

If it comes to expanding the current St James’ Park site, it would be a huge, complicated and very expensive task. This would cause massive disruption to the city center and would also cause many objections from local businesses and residents etc.

It would also mean that for a significant period the current capacity of over 52,000 would be much lower, for a season or two at least I suspect.

With then, even the most ambitious estimates, leading to a possible increase in capacity between 60,000 and 65,000 people.

Return to Mike Ashley

Anyway, back to Mike Ashley.

Like many of you, I found myself for many years spending a ridiculous amount of time reading about his retail empire, loving all the negatives while I hoped for a collapse and fall in his fortunes. Ashley, forcing him to sell Newcastle United.

Of course he kept getting richer and richer, almost a billionaire when he bought NUFC, Mike Ashley was a multi-billionaire when he sold our club. Newcastle United’s free help to his retail empire was a key part of Ashley’s billions.

Fortunately, I no longer feel the need to check the Sports Direct (now Frasers Group) share price.

However, on my social networks, Mike Ashley and his retail empire still occasionally catch my eye.

It turns out that tomorrow (Wednesday December 18) is not just a very important date for Newcastle United fans, as we dream of taking another major step towards visiting Wembley, two years after Eddie Howe us drove there for the last time, the first time in the final. for 24 years!

For Mike Ashley and the Frasers band, it’s also a big day.

Even though the NUFC vs Brentford result is still in the balance, for Ashley and Frasers it already seems like a certain victory.

Mike Ashley and the Frasers Group have planned a brand new mega-headquarters in the West Midlands.

This would be a new 275-acre headquarters at Ansty in Rugby, Warwickshire.

The Rugby site would span 3.3 million square feet and is expected to include a logistics area, offices and research and development departments, as well as hotel and leisure facilities.

The plans will be discussed and voted on at a council meeting tomorrow (Wednesday, December 18), but that seems a foregone conclusion.

The Mike Ashley/Frasers Group proposals have been recommended for approval by Rugby Borough Council planning officers.

The planning committee provided a massive 208-page report.

It would be surprising if the full council meeting did not confirm approval of this development.

The key part of the 208 page report contains this, which I think is also extremely relevant to Newcastle United fans, regarding a potential new venue and a massive (hopefully 80,000 for me) brand new stadium.

“Overall, the full economic, environmental and social benefits have been taken into account and the total benefits clearly exceed the combined weight of the damage to the green belt and any other damage, including damage to the trade of detail and landscape, damage to heritage and damage. regarding non-compliance with the sequential criterion.

“Therefore, the very special circumstances necessary to justify the development exist and the application should be approved.”

This is where I think we are with Newcastle United and our newest stadium problems, if/when the NUFC owners go that route.

Man U are talking about a future stadium capacity of 100,000, Arsenal are talking about 80,000, West Ham want to go to 68,000 as the next step.

Both for the fans and for Newcastle United as an ambitious club, on and off the pitch, this brand new state-of-the-art stadium with over 80,000 seats on a new site, at Leazes Park and/or Castle Leazes, must become a reality .

These arguments in favor of the massive new Mike Ashley/Frasers Group development apply just as much, if not more so, when it comes to Newcastle United and this new stadium.

This is a unique opportunity to take Newcastle United, Newcastle City Council and Newcastle city center to a whole new level.

If the owners of Newcastle United, Newcastle City Council, the Newcastle Freemen, the Newcastle United fan base, the city/region as a whole are all behind this, the revolutionary brand new stadium at Leazes Park and/or Castle Leazes can and will become a reality. .

There will be those who oppose it, of course there will be, it happens with every major development.

However, if so many key partners are united behind the brand new stadium, I think it will definitely happen.

The social and economic benefits for the football club, the supporters, the municipality and the local population will be considerable.

A considerable number of additional jobs have been created, both during the construction of the new stadium and subsequently once it is operational, all the additional visitors and money coming into the city/region, plus of course l additional impetus and funding for Newcastle United to succeed AND tens of thousands more fans at each game to be able to be inside the new stadium to see it.

The recently elected government has already stated that it is ready to support, where possible, major developments that stimulate growth, employment and the flow of money into the economy. I find it difficult/impossible to believe that if all the main local partners (club, council, supporters, freemen, overwhelming majority of Tyneside residents) are in agreement behind the new stadium, the government would favor a relative handful of protesters wishing to prevent this is moving forward.

As Newcastle United fans we want our football club AND the local economy to thrive, a small handful of people will not be allowed to stop this project from happening.