'Excited' - Fresh photo reveals St James' Park upgrade as Newcastle United plans underway

The construction of Newcastle United's new St James' Park fan zone is underway.

In February last year, the Magpies' owners re-purchased Strawberry Place - the land situated behind the Gallowgate End - four years after it was sold by Mike Ashley for £9milllion. Plans to build a fan zone - known as St James' STACK - were announced and approved by the local authorities in September.

Fast forward to the new year and work is finally underway with Newcastle fan Rob Turnbull sharing a image on social media.

When will St James' STACK be open to the public? In a meeting with the local and national media last week, Magpies' 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.

"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. 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.