'Once-in-a-generation' - Newcastle United chief makes fresh St James' Park & training ground vow

Stadium development or expansion plans are a ‘once-in-a-generation’ opportunity for Newcastle United, according to Magpies’ chief Brad Miller. And for that very reason, Miller says, the club are taking their time to get that decision ‘right’.

A feasibility study into what can and can’t logically be done to increase the capacity of St James’ Park, last developed in the late 1990s, is on the way and the results are expected ‘imminently’ according to chief executive Darren Eales. Miller, says he is not in a position to cut across or reveal any of that detail, when NewcastleWorld sat down with him at the new St James’ STACK. However, Miller reiterated the rationale behind not jumping in to any development plans too quickly.

Some mild questioning has been raised by fans quite rightly, that nearly three years into the PIF project, there has been little tangible to show for the Saudi investment off the field.

The training ground remains largely the same, bar a recent sprucing up, and the stadium still has its rough around the edges charm - and, importantly 52,000 capacity.

That has led some to wonder, when will the club actually commit to their future plans? Will it involve an expansion? Will the club rebuild totally - and will they even remain on the current site?

Miller would not commit to any of those hooks, he was quizzed on them all, but made it clear any decision must take time, as the club, and its owners, only want to write the cheque for stadium development ‘once’ - and for that reason, they’ve got to take time to make sure they get it right, and do so first time.

Miller said: "With regard to the stadium, I'd love to be able to share more today. It wouldn't be appropriate. We're still just working through the last couple of questions we've got. Darren's gone on record previously to say look it's imminent, but it really truly is in terms of next steps, what direction we're going to be taking, etc. It'd be remiss of me to go early and cut across that.

"What I will say is the product you see today, the STACK, this is just an indication of the ambition and the commitment and the dedication that the ownership and everybody within the club has got, not just to Newcastle United, but to the region as well.

"We hope it's representative and a little bit of a hint to what we're hoping to achieve into the future.

"The stadium investment it is genuinely a once-in-a-generation opportunity and we want to make sure that we get that right. And I think we're doing that against the backdrop of, in the UK, we haven't got a great track record of delivering really big projects and delivering on time and successfully and making sure they work right from the absolute outset.

"So there's a lot for us to think about and that's why we are, maybe frustratingly for people, taking our time to make sure that our next steps are going to be the right ones. Because whilst we've got the ability to invest and the commitment and the ambition to invest from the ownership, we only want to write that cheque once, so we want to make sure we get it absolutely right for everybody that's involved with the club."

‘It’s taken a long time - but not out the ordinary’

Fans, by nature, want everything yesterday, but that’s just not the way things work in business, especially not when it comes to delivering major projects.

Miller continued: "With any big investment and any big project, 80% of all of the value is created in the first 20% of a project's life and you can imagine you're trying to wrestle with what exactly are we trying to achieve, what is the art of the possible, where do we want to invest etc, what are the big risks that are going to stop us doing that or maybe get in the way and slow us down and you're trying to understand all those things.

“It's also, we want to be able to continue to invest as much as we can and support the footballing side of the club and so we have to look at the revenue and the commercial aspects etc.

“So it's all those things coming together, we want to make sure that we are getting right for want of a better phrase and we've not done it here for 22ish years so that is, for all of those reasons it may feel like it's taken a long time, it's not that out of the ordinary for a big project from my experience.

“The biggest difference here is that everybody is so, and quite rightly, and why wouldn't they be, so emotionally invested in the club. So we get and understand why it is so important, and that adds that other dimension of, that is another reason why we want to get it right.”

The notion of Newcastle moving away from St James' is one that rightfully pulls at the heartstrings for many.

Previous directors Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi went on record saying they didn't see the Magpies moving away from their home.

However, that can't be ruled out with Miller stating Newcastle must do what is right for the club, in every aspect - for the fans, the players, future generations and more.

The need to ‘do the right thing’ re SJP

By no means did he give any hint either way - a move or the club to remain on site - in this interview, but it seems like in the vision of progress, all options have to be considered. He did make it clear, though, that he ‘gets’ the emotion of St James’ Park and what it means to the city.

“It’s too early - it would be remiss of me to say either way,” Miller said when asked about the ‘stay or go’ debate.

“It's not just the location of the stadium, is it? It's the special place that the club has in everybody's hearts, in the city. And what it means to them on matchdays, but for the rest of the time as well.

“I've had the pleasure and the privilege of meeting a number of people in the city already, whether that be local council, our partners, regulatory bodies we work with, the Freemen etc. And believe me, I feel the weight of responsibility already in terms of let's make sure that we do the right thing.”

Ambition to invest underlined

The delays, have undoubtedly, caused some to wonder about Saudi commitments - and while Miller can’t give any cast iron guarantees of future investment, as it’s not his money to spend, he stresses that he wouldn’t be here, with his past of delivering huge projects, if infrastructure wasn’t firmly on the agenda.

Miller said: “What I can definitely say is that one of the reasons that I joined the club is because there seems to be such an overwhelming commitment and ambition to invest.

“To give a cast iron guarantee that it definitely will happen, it is not my cash. So all I can say is that I'm not putting myself in comparison to the fans because they are so emotionally invested and I've only just started to move to the area, right, so I don't want to cut across all of that history and that heritage. I want to be respectful of it, but I'm changing my life and my family's life, and we're moving to the area and we're really committing. So if that's any indication, that's how I feel about it personally, and the ownerships and the board's ambition about what they want to do in terms of investment, I hope that gives a little bit of a reflection of what I see.

“Now, when we get on with it, it is going to be a really big check that's going to be written, so they want to make sure that we are doing it correctly and that it's doing the right things, whether that be supporting the football, doing the right thing by the fans. Have we got the ability to uplift the capacity? Is it going to actually make a return so we can continue to invest in the club, etc.?”

What next with the training ground?

Newcastle have invested around £10m in developing Darsley Park in recent years, bringing up to a more suitable standard. Although, it’s still far from a standard befitting a top end Premier League football club.

The latest move has been to kit out the adjacent Northumberland FA, vacated after the organisation moved to the Coast Road, with a new media suite, partly to make sure prying eyes are away from the training ground, but also to house the world’s media away from a part-time groundsman’s canteen.

With stadium clearly the focus, has the training ground gone on the back burner?

Miller said: “Again, similarly to stadium investment, we are looking at what is our forever home and is that where we are? Or are there opportunities to help the football side by moving elsewhere?

“Again, question mark over that, don't know. What we are looking at is to make sure that we've got an elite environment across all of our training and our academy across all of the teams to make sure that we've got that in place as soon as we possibly can and that builds upon the investment that's already gone in and then that allows us the time and space to think really strategically about what is the best thing to do into the future. But we're not compromising what we're providing today in order to get to that.”