Legendary designer tells PIF he is ready to work on 65,000-seater Newcastle United stadium

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Newcastle United chiefs PIF are closing in on a decision on the future of St James’ Park.

Earlier this month, PIF launched ‘project 2030’ at Newcastle United which outlines a five-year plan for the Magpies to become a dominant force in English football.

One of the four pillars within the project was to win a trophy. Newcastle will celebrate the Carabao Cup on March 29th so that target can be ticked off.

Another was to build a new stadium. PIF visited St James’ Park in February to further discuss the stadium plans, and a final decision is expected shortly.

Newcastle have presented their stadium plans to the government, who will need to sign off on the project for it to go ahead. PIF considered redeveloping St James’ Park but it now seems that a new stadium is the preferred choice.

Everton stadium designer wants to work on Newcastle stadium

Newcastle are certainly not the only team in the Premier League looking at a change of stadium.

Earlier this month, Newcastle fans reacted to Manchester United’s stadium, which is supposedly set to have a capacity of 100,000.

Newcastle fans got a glimpse at Everton’s stadium in February with the Bramley Moore Dock ground set to host the Toffees from next season.

The designer of Everton’s stadium, Dan Meis, has commented on Newcastle’s plans and put his name forward to get involved.

As per iNews, Meis said he would “absolutely” want to be involved with PIF’s stadium plans.

“There’s a lot of hand-wringing about whether they try to renovate it or build a new building. I think that’s an ambitious ownership and I personally think they will end up with a new stadium,” Meis said.

“It’s a difficult building to renovate and to really make state of the art. I hope that they learn from some of the new things that have been done.

“Now we have a few new buildings in the UK and what’s interesting is that this (Everton) is going to be a bookend versus what Man United has just shown so clubs like Newcastle and Chelsea will have the opportunity to learn lessons and take good from what they’re seeing.”

Newcastle United stadium set to hold 65,000 fans

When talk of a new stadium began, there were reports that Newcastle’s stadium capacity could be 70,000 – but that figure proved to be a tad ambitious.

That is because Newcastle CEO Darren Eales wants 65,000 capacity in the new stadium amid fears that a larger stadium might not be sold out every game.

It is still a 13,000 capacity increase on the current size of St James’ Park, and a new stadium would also have state-of-the-art facilities for fans.

READ MORE: How Manchester United’s new stadium compares to PIF’s £1.2bn proposal at Newcastle United

Newcastle’s revenue has soared under PIF and building a new stadium would skyrocket the club’s finances further.

There is a chance PIF could explore a naming rights deal for a new stadium to increase revenue.