On Sunday evening, above the skies around St James’ Park, 500 drones unexpectedly lit up the night sky.
The reason for a giant Magpie and a floating Bruno Guimaraes shirt flying overhead? It was club sponsor Sela’s idea to mark the start of a very big week in Newcastle.
This was, insiders tell i, intended as a dress rehearsal ahead of a full display which took place on Sunday night. But nobody here needs a reminder that Wednesday is when the main event arrives – the return of Champions League football to St James’ Park after a 20-year wait.
“The excitement around the city is off the scale,” Adam Stoker, member of the Wor Flags tifosi group and Newcastle United Supporters Trust, tells i. “I think for a lot of people it still doesn’t seem real.”
The £40,000 drone display fires the starting pistol on a party that has been 20 years in the making, and also highlights how many hoops the club have had to jump through to comply with Uefa’s long list of regulations on their return to the biggest stage.
As well as increasing the size of the stadium dugouts in the summer, Newcastle needed to add extra hospitality to cater for Uefa’s corporate partners. That meant some fans were turfed out of their seats behind the goal in the Leazes End to make way for Wings, where your £350-a-game ticket comes with a padded seat and a four-course meal.
Newcastle point out that Uefa’s regulations meant they had little choice but to “relocate a small number of supporters”. And the same rules are why the drone display isn’t taking flight on matchday, as unique as that might have looked.
Kylian Mbappe and his Paris Saint-German teammates will train on the St James’ Park pitch on Tuesday and it might have created a diplomatic incident if a battalion of drones were hovering overhead as Luis Enrique worked on final tactical tweaks.
On Wednesday, Uefa takes over the stadium and only that hallowed group of official Champions League partners are permitted inside St James’ Park. Much of yesterday afternoon was spent covering up sponsor signs and any guerilla marketing would have landed Newcastle, who will bank more than £1m in revenue for every home game they play, with a humongous fine.
So Monday’s showings – at 8pm and 10pm over the stadium – will have to suffice. The idea was to create a social media buzz and in fairness it’s the kind of thing that is tailor-made to go viral on X/Twitter and Facebook.
For Newcastle’s biggest game in two decades, Europe certainly seems to be taking notice.
Of course part of that is driven by intrigue and condemnation at the prospect of two clubs backed by states with questionable human rights records meeting in the world’s biggest club football competition. But one broadcaster tells i there is also huge interest in the sounds, sights and “feel” of a big night in Europe at St James’ Park.
In terms of broadcaster and media requests, Uefa has told Newcastle the demand is more akin to a last 16 game. Broadcasting from pitchside will be CBS Sports, Dazn, Canal Plus, BeIN Sports and TNT Sports.
The game effectively sold out in July, when Newcastle offered all of their season ticket holders the chance to “opt in” and pre-purchase Champions League matches. Take up was close to 100 per cent, leaving just a few tickets for an open ballot conducted last week.
“We probably could have sold the stadium two times over without a problem,” one insider told i. Food for thought as they ponder stadium expansion plans. What Newcastle have been able to control is what happens inside the stadium, with the club helping the Wor Flags group to prepare its biggest display yet.
A huge new “surfer flag” will be unveiled and three stands of St James’ Park will be “fully covered” before kick-off. Flags and other displays are being provided for the rest of the stadium.
It has taken 400 hours to bring it together. Volunteers worked from early morning on Sunday to late last night to pull it together.
“Fan participation is a huge part of it, we’re reliant on people feeling involved and it really contributing to a fantastic atmosphere,” a long-standing Wor Flags member explains of their plans. “When the group was drawn, the three clubs we got all have these traditions of huge fan displays and fantastic support. In Milan it was spectacular, then there’s Dortmund with the yellow wall and PSG use pyros and displays. So we knew that we needed to up our game.
“It’s not just an opportunity for the players to show what they can do on an international stage, it’s an opportunity to show who we are and showcase St James’ Park.”
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