Eddie Howe once said there was no such thing as a 'dead game' for Newcastle United. It is any wonder after a whopping 87,452 fans clicked through the turnstiles to watch the Magpies' pre-season friendlies against Atalanta and Athletic Bilbao at St James' Park earlier this summer?
Yes, some Geordies attended both matches, but it is hard to think of many other arenas in the country that would have had such numbers for back-to-back exhibition matches. That remarkable figure was another reminder of the palpable excitement on Tyneside - just weeks after 30,000 online users queued in an effort to snap up the final 1,000 season tickets that went on sale ahead of the new campaign.
Satisfying that demand will be a welcome challenge for the hierarchy moving forward and a very different problem to the one the previous regime faced when 10,000 half-season tickets ultimately had to be given away in the Ashley era. So how will they do it? Well, rather than building a new stadium elsewhere, the owners instead plan to work with the city council to see what they can do in the long-term to one day expand the stadium.
