'Challenge and opportunity': Huge Newcastle city centre football fan zones planned for Euro 2028
Massive football fan zones in Newcastle city centre and Exhibition Park are being drawn up for Euro 2028.
St James’ Park is due to host five matches at the tournament and city officials have revealed new details of how Tyneside will be transformed for the festival of football. It was announced last year that a free fan park with capacity for 15,000 to 20,000 people was earmarked for the Town Moor. But it has now emerged that even bigger plans are in the works.
A Newcastle City Council figure announced on Thursday that a major fanzone will be located in the heart of the city centre – around Grey’s Monument, Blackett Street, and Old Eldon Square. It would have space for up to 20,000 fans and will be open for the full length of the month-long tournament, which will be held from June 9 to July 9, 2028.
A big screen is regularly used to show films on Old Eldon Square for family events during the summer, though details of exactly how the city centre fan park will operate are yet to be confirmed.
A second fan park will be erected in Exhibition Park, with a spillover area onto the neighbouring Tyneside Summer Exhibition (TSE) site where LooseFest was previously held, with the annual Hoppings funfair due to be staged on the main Town Moor at the same time.
The Exhibition Park attraction, also capable of welcoming up to 20,000 people, is expected be opened when there are matches at St James’ Park and for all other England games. Newcastle will host four group stage matches and one in the round of 16 knockout phase, which will be an England match if the Three Lions win their group.
Council director Christine Herriott told a meeting on Thursday that more than 100,000 people expected to descend on the city centre on matchdays and that further events for thousands of football fans are also planned on the Quayside. The details were revealed to the city’s Town Moor Joint Working Group, a collaboration between the city council and the Freemen of Newcastle who act as custodians of the green space.
David Wilson, chair of the Freemen, said that being a Euros host city and having the Hoppings at the same time would be challenging but “tremendous for the fans”. Labour councillor Ged Bell added: “It is a great challenge and a great opportunity. Newcastle has a great track record of events like this and I am sure we can do it again and that it will be remembered for generations to come.”
It is predicted that being a host city for the Euros will provide a £117.7 million boost to the North East economy. Government agency UK Sport has estimated that 60% of the 250,000-plus fans who could attend the five matches at St James’ Park will come from outside the North East.
Nick Atkinson, the vice chair of the Freemen, said: “If you have hundreds of thousands of fans in Newcastle and you have Europe’s largest travelling fair at the same time, that is very exciting.”
A council spokesperson said that discussions about the detail of the fan park plans were still ongoing and that more information would be shared “at an appropriate time”. They pledged there would be “plenty for both visiting fans and residents to enjoy across the city, including a public viewing area holding up to 20,000 on the Town Moor”.