Bigger = better?

The club today unveiled plans to expand the capacity of St James' Park by at least 8,000, thereby increasing capacity to over 60,000. What has been labelled the Number 1 St James' Park project will also involve the construction of two separate hotel complexes, a number of apartments and a conference centre.

Two things caught my eye about the proposals. Firstly, they "will be funded completely independently of the football club's revenues" - meaning there'll be no blaming the developments for a lack of funds to invest in the team. And secondly, the first hotel complex, comprising no fewer than 140 hotel rooms, will be "built on the site of the former Magpies Supporters' Club". Symbolic, perhaps, of the way that at Newcastle the interests of commerce increasingly bulldoze and steamroller over those of the fans?