Need to call out this Elephant in the room – Or should that be Elephant in the Park? | OneFootball

The Elephant in the room needs to be called out, or more accurately, that Elephant inside St James’ Park.

The atmosphere was shocking last night.

As Newcastle United fans we can’t be living in denial about this any longer.

Yes, sometimes it is brilliant, really good, easily the best in the Premier League.

However, more often than not it is ok, or sometimes not ok.

As was the case in this West Ham match, nowhere near ok, indeed, beyond terrible.

I know this has been discussed many times on The Mag and everybody sees it differently, everybody (if they agree it isn’t great a lot of the time) has different ideas about why, different ideas about what can be done.

We all know that sadly we can never get back to the brilliant days of the terraces, whether that is at St James’ Park or any other Premier League stadium.

We can though, all do our best, both club and Newcastle United fans.

If you are old enough to remember the terraces, then it will depend how old you are, in terms of the era you see as when atmosphere was at its very best.

Maybe you see the Gallowgate ‘corner’ and ‘scoreboard’ as the very very best of times in the eighties and early nineties, a few more years on the clock and for sure it would be the old Leazes End (with a roof!), before it was knocked down in the late seventies.

Either era, bottom line is that St James’ Park was full of young males, who had drank as much as possible pre-match, then came into the ground determined to have a great time regardless, to make as much noise as possible, then if the team won it was a huge bonus.

At all big clubs now in the Premier League, you have the same situation, the same problem.

The overwhelming majority of fans sitting down (especially at St James’ Park) and average age of the crowd gets older with every passing year.

Generally speaking, people are more inhibited when it comes to ‘making some noise’ the older they get, the less alcohol they have drunk, sitting not standing, not surrounded by others ‘making some noise’ and so on.

It is a very different era and there are pluses and minuses when comparing to back in the day.

Obviously, health and safety was never a factor.

Behaviour back then was very different, they were different times, what was acceptable or not.

Certainly, if you now stood up in the Leazes End and started having a wee in the direction of those in front, fair to say that not the only reaction would be a swift parting of the ways of those in front of you, as they battled to avoid the streams running down the terracing.

What was deemed normal back then would no doubt lead to a permanent ban from St James’ Park and a police record these days.

Though no doubt many old-timers (including me!) would like to see current day fans locked up and banned for having something else in their hands these days at matches, namely smartphones.

The days of the terracing were mad times but they were great times, certainly in terms of atmosphere.

We will never get back to those levels but we can do the best we can to get as close to them as possible.

This leads me to another ongoing debate/argument.

A new stadium or a redeveloped St James’ Park, plus of course how big a capacity is needed.

At the moment, what we have is a situation where the only time the atmosphere is really good, is when pretty much everybody joins in. The whole ground rocking as the team turn it on and/or we get a shocking referee who gets us all going.

Back in the old days, it didn’t really matter that much what was happening on the pitch. It helped of course but there was atmosphere regardless. Well, that was what most of us were there for. A chance to get rid of all your frustrations and day to day stresses, have a great laugh and sing your heads off.

Now it is just moan, moan, moan, for so many fans, even when Newcastle play well!

This did of course happen in the past BUT back then it was a matter of choice.

The old West Stand (now Milburn) was where you went if you wanted to moan and mutter and had a few quid. If you didn’t have the cash and wanted to moan on (and generally older), then the paddock in front of the West Stand, or West side of the Gallowgate was seen as the old blokes bit.

You had a choice of standing with like-minded generally younger drunken people, in the Leazes and/or then the Gallowgate Scoreboard and ‘Corner’.

Now we are almost all confined to our seats.

Safe standing isn’t perfect, in terms of a replacement for the old terraces when it comes to atmosphere, however, it is our best bet.

Newcastle United have some safe standing now but it is minimal.

For me, the only chance we have of turning back the tide when it comes to atmosphere, is to get a load more younger people into St James’ Park (or brand new stadium) and have massive areas of safe standing, almost certainly behind both goals, like back in the old days. The more reserved wanting a quiet time fans going to the side of the pitch (and the more expensive seats), those who want to make some noise going behind the goals.

Realistically, the only possible way we can do both these things, loads more young people AND massive safe standing areas, is by having a far bigger stadium. Which to me surely means a brand new far bigger new stadium.

Get safe standing areas of 10,000 each minimum in both ends of the stadium, within those safe standing singing areas, have a ringfenced few thousand minimum tickets just for 14-21 year olds to pay match by match at positive cheaper prices, say a tenner per game at current prices?

The thing is, we can all be winners in this, there would be no losers.

A much bigger ground and if the club’s owners doing the right thing, if proactive when it comes to atmosphere and getting young people in. Those who don’t want to ‘make some noise’ themselves personally, can benefit from those who do, just like back in the old days.