Newcastle United fans are allowed to dream again when it comes to St James' Park - thanks to a vital off-field move from the ambitious owners.
The prospect of improving the capacity and the facilities is alive and well after the club's Saudi backers and co-owners Amanda Staveley, Mehrdad Ghodoussi and Jamie Reuben pushed for the purchase of Strawberry Place after Mike Ashley had sold the land in 2019.
Research into what United chiefs can do to improve the stadium and the all-around match day experience is ongoing but the good news is that the situation is back in the hands of the club. The threat of office tower blocks that would have altered the iconic views of St James' forever has now been removed.
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The current owners have picked up some big wins by making slight changes around St James' in the last 18 months by hauling Alan Shearer's statue over the wall on Barrack Road and onto club land, and reverting the main stadium bar to Shearer's after the former owner decided to change it to Nine for "marketing reasons". Ensuring the area around the Gallowgate End will now be allowed to flourish one way or another certainly feels like a major victory.
It's a buzz the city and the fanbase haven't enjoyed for many a year and you'd have to go back to the year 2000 for the last completion of any notable stadium work when Freddy Shepherd sanctioned the move up from a 36,000 seater stadium to over 52,000 with the introduction of Level 7. Fans lived through that expansion as the rain poured down on them at the roofless Leazes End in the 1999/2000 season, most painfully in the 2-1 defeat against Sunderland in Ruud Gullit's last game.
That night the rain flowed down the steps like a waterfall and Newcastle fans were literally wringing the rain out of their black and white shirts in monsoon conditions. But the final outcome of that expansion makes for breathtaking views that leave visitors gobsmacked with the one-piece cantilevered roof one of the best sights in football.
Going further back fans watched on and marvelled at St James' Park being transformed from the old concrete terraces into the first modern version of the Leazes End which saw a spectacular all-seater stand filled to capacity on opening day in 1993 - the first game in the Premier League against Spurs. As the Leazes End went in 1993, Sir John Hall kickstarted construction by burying a time capsule beneath the earth as builders got their work under way.
A year later fans waved away the old Gallowgate End piece by piece - quite literally too. The club kept the Gallowgate open in the first half of the 1993/94 season to full capacity until Christmas.
Then in the new year, they reduced the terrace by 50% as the Gallowgate Stand - or the Exhibition Stand as it was to be known then - grew behind them. But now fans could get the chance to see St James' grow again for the first time in decades.
Ghodoussi told The Athletic last year: "We're working with the city and council to see what we can do. "There are a lot of things that need to happen first, but that’s the way forward. "If we can get it to 60 or 65,000 thousand, amazing."
Any increase will be a positive step for Newcastle fans as many of them try to get into St James' to see their side. Whether that be the next generation getting a ticket for a cup game as a one-off occasion, watching the women's team in action or landing the golden ticket of a season card, could again be a nice choice to make.
The dream of seeing the stadium grow again remains alive and while we must wait patiently for the club to hold talks with the relevant bodies, the one big thing to emerge from the purchase of Strawberry Place was that Newcastle are delivering the only one pledge that fans have asked for down the year - Newcastle United is very much: "A club that tries."
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