The cold war between Newcastle United fans and the club’s owner Mike Ashley has become a recurring theme of the Magpies’ recent years in the Premier League.
The Tyneside outfit’s long-standing owner has turned himself into a figure of frustration amongst the Magpies supporters not only due to his lack of will to spend in the transfer market but also for his total mismanagement as well as his negligence towards their home patch in the iconic St. James’ Park.
The magnificent historical stadium so adored by Newcastle United fans is nowhere close to being the state-of-the-art structure that it was before, as pointed out by a number of the club’s supporters on Twitter.
One of the many supporters concerned about the club created a thread on Twitter highlighting the poor current state of a stadium that has hosted so many of the best players that the country has ever produced.
As a part of the protest against Mike Ashley and to bring attention to the neglect, a fan called for fellow season ticket holders to contribute to the thread with pictures and videos of the lesser than ideal current condition of St James’ Park – in order to flood social media with it and shame their owner.
And it would not be an understatement to say that some season ticket holders followed suit, and helped the thread with their additions.
One season ticket holder added an indoor picture of St James’ Park on the day of the first match with the fans back after last year’s COVID-imposed lockdown, stressing on the fact that one of the 14” LED plasma TVs was not working – while another posted a picture of the “platinum premium suite” which frankly, does not live up to its name or expectations.
Another outdated feature of the stadium as pointed out by season ticket holders was the ketchup vending machine which was still branded by Championship graphics, even though the club has been playing in the top flight since being promoted back in 2017.
Fans also pointed out the outside of the famous Gallowgate Stand paints the most visibly neglected facade of the club, with dust collecting on the pillars and the letters falling off of the fairly recent signboards.
To top it all off, the statue of club-record goalscorer Alan Shearer outside the stadium is flanked by absolutely filthy rails – pictures clicked by season ticket holders showed moss collecting on the barriers.
The thread truly highlighted everything wrong with the historical club and projects a fair picture of the fans’ ever-growing frustration with negligent and unbothered ownership.