St. James Park

	Location	Newcastle, United Kingdom
	Venue Type	Outdoor
	Capacity	52,354
	Surface Type	Grass

Trivia

In 2011, Newcastle United announced that “Sports Direct Arena” would be the official name of the stadium.

St. James' Park is an all-seater stadium, located in Newcastle, England that officially opened in 1892. It has hosted many soccer events from club football matches to 2012 Olympics and is one of the oldest association football grounds in the country. The first football team to play here was Newcastle Rangers in 1880. It is the home stadium of the famous English football club Newcastle United FC. The stadium was not originally planned as a sporting place but was built gradually over a span of years due to increasing popularity of both the home team and the sport. It underwent its only expansion from 1998 to 2000 to increase the seating capacity. Apart from hosting various national and international level soccer events, it has also been used as a set for film and reality television shows.

Significance

In 2009, a charity trophy match was held in the stadium between England and Germany in the honor of Sir Bobby Robson who had managed the Newcastle football club from 1994 to 2004, five days before he died of cancer.
The steel truss cantilever roof, built in 1998, is the largest cantilever structure in Europe with a length of 64.5 m.
In 2007, digital time displays were installed for the first time near the corner flags of the stadium.
The stadium served as a temporary home ground for the England team during the reconstruction of Wembley Stadium.
It has also witnessed some of the significant football matches of 2012 Summer Olympics.
This stadium has seen three eras of development under Sir John Hall, Freddy Shepherd, and Mike Ashley.
The Park has also hosted three matches of European Football Championship held in 1996.

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