'The Big Newcastle United Forum' - Atmosphere and the St. James' Park 'issue'

The atmosphere inside St James’ Park has undergone a seismic change since the club was taken over in October 2021. The first home game, against Spurs, was electric inside.

The club shop had queues. People had gone to the stadium early specifically to take in the moment; all this when the football hadn’t had the time to change!

We were still turgid and facing relegation. In the months since, the feeling inside SJP on a match day has continued to grow into the beacon of positivity that it is today.

The flag displays work so well to bring everyone together – it is genuinely an uplifting experience to get into the ground, pick up a flag, and watch as the place becomes a rippling sea of black and white, or a sea of shiny blue, or to see the number 10 in gold and an ASM flag hoisted up in the Gallowgate. The atmosphere is the best it has been in my memory, and it feels like the positivity has no limit.

The demand for tickets is through the roof; some people who have had no trouble getting them for years are now having to accept that there might be home games they don’t get to this season. Consider that in 2019 Mike Ashley quite literally gave away ten thousand half season tickets. That seems like worlds away now.

+++

Within hours of that incredible evening back in October last year one of the first questions among fans was ‘will there be enough tickets?’ The previous owner had to give 10k season tickets away just to stop the empty seats on match day from showing the world just how utterly fed-up us fans were.

The stadium had not even had a lick of paint for years. St James’ Park was a visual representation of the misery 14 years of Ashley had managed to engender around the place.

In fact, nothing probably