There was once a time where Newcastle United had to give away half-season tickets in the Ashley era. Now, the Magpies have thousands of supporters who can't even get inside St James' Park.
Following an unprecedented level of renewals from existing season ticket holders, there were a further 30,000 online users trying to get their hands on the thousand seats that were made available on Tuesday ahead of the start of the new campaign. It goes without saying that these additional season tickets were quickly snapped up.
It is hard to see many, if any, tickets being available on general sale next season and, at this rate, even being a club member does not necessarily offer any guarantees anymore. In fact, remarkably, at one point on Thursday, there were 22,000 supporters queuing to buy these £35 memberships after they went on sale so that they could have a priority booking period for single match tickets.
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Newcastle may already have the seventh biggest stadium in the Premier League, with 52,305 seats, but satisfying that demand is going to be a welcome challenge for the club's owners in the years to come. The hierarchy have previously ruled out building a new arena, but could St James' really be expanded to enable 60-65,000 fans to attend games in the future? Few are better placed to comment on that prospect than Sir John Hall, the club's former owner.
"We developed what we could at St James' Park within the time available and the costs," the 89-year-old told ChronicleLive. "We just felt there were some problems. I think if you've got the time and the money, you can probably solve them - but it's going to cost you."
Those problems Sir John alluded to have already been well-documented. Even before you consider that the stand named in his honour and the Milburn are already now at capacity, Sir John admitted 'there was always trouble' trying to expand the East Stand during his time at the club on account of it backing onto the listed Leazes Terrace.
When it comes to the Gallowgate End, Sir John said this was the 'only part where you could look at where you might get some extension but it's very, very tight'. That task has been made all the more difficult after former owner Mike Ashley sold the lease to the land around Strawberry Place.
However, as well as having greater resources, it is worth noting that real strides have been made in stadium development even in the years since the club's current owners first did their due diligence and concluded that expanding St James' would be difficult. Christopher Lee, who has designed more than 30 arenas on five continents, including the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, previously told ChronicleLive that there are 'always solutions' and, crucially, the hierarchy want to exhaust every avenue to do so.
The owners at least have some time to work with the city council to see what could possible in the long run unlike Sir John, who, effectively, inherited a crumbling St James' in 1992.
"We didn't have the time," he said. "We looked at it, found the problems, found the easiest way to get our development done in the timescales and the costs we could afford at the time.
"With the new owners, you've seen the interest in the club now. I've spoken to so many people who gave tickets up under Ashley and now they can't get them. Everyone wants a ticket and it's going to be interesting to try to assimilate that number. It wasn't easy in our day.
"Whether or not you can get that there, you're going to have to bring in very good architects and engineers. It's a tight problem. You will get some at the Gallowgate End - we looked to build a cantilever - but I don't think there will be much more.
"I always felt 65,000 is probably a good number for a regional football club, but that's going to be difficult to get at St James' Park. About 60, 62, 65,000 maximum. The low 60s would probably be the right figure from my point of view."
Sir John's Magpie Group did look into the possibility of an even bigger expansion to begin with after commissioning city architect Trevor Skempton to carry out a feasibility study into how either a 40,000-seater or an 80,000-seater could be accommodated on site more than 30 years ago. Looking back now, Sir John felt it was 'always better to have a smaller stadium because it's always full' as there is 'nothing much worse than empty seats'.
Sir John ultimately opted for a swift design and build solution to increase the capacity of St James' to 36,610 and all four corners of the stadium were covered by the summer of 1995. However, given the increased demand for tickets to watch Kevin Keegan's Entertainers - there were close to 20,000 names on the waiting list for season tickets at one point - it was clear that more seats were going to be needed.
Plans to build a new stadium at Castle Leazes, with the potential for 70,000 seats, failed in 1997 but St James' was ultimately expanded to its current capacity by 2000. The remarkable atmosphere of late harks back to those days under Sir Bobby Robson and Sir John, who still has a box at the ground, has been there to witness it.
"It's been absolutely unbelievable," he added. "There's a buzz in the town and a buzz in the area. Everyone can't wait.
"They're fighting for their tickets. They're wondering whether they're going to be able to get a ticket, which we haven't had for years. It's great for the club. it's great for the city.
"The owners have got much more money to invest than we ever had, but you cannot build Rome overnight as much as you try to. It takes years and we should be patient. We should give them time to build a proper team up that's going to win things in the long-term - not just the short-term.
"They've done what they said they were going to do. We didn't go down, which was a major factor. We stayed up and when you stay up, you rebuild. They have a good manager, got a new director of football in and they will buy players.
"They will have their investment plans, they will know who they want, and will gradually build it up over the years. We will probably get the success that we have all been looking for all these years - even through my time."
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