What Newcastle Has To Offer

From Vital England:

Newcastle and Gateshead is one of 16 cities currently vying to be one of the final 12 selected as host cities for England's world cup bid, but what does it have to offer?

We find out, as we ask Ross Molyneux what he thinks it can bring to the table for the world cup bid...

1) Newcastle and Gateshead has applied to be a host city, what are the pros of this?
Given we've done this before during Euro 96, it's old hat to us. However the changes to the city have been immense since then. We've got good plane, train and ferry links (for our continental pals), plenty of hotels and no shortage of boozers and bait houses. Most of all we're used to hosting heaps of tourists every weekend, with our fair city becoming a veritable stag and hen mecca of late.

2) And the cons?
None off the top of my head. The relegation is the only thing that has taken the shine off our bid.

3) Is St James' up to the task of staging a world cup game at the moment - if not will it come 2018/2022?
As a 52,000 seater there's no problem. Should we get the bid there were rumours of taking it up to 60,000 and adding a Chelsea Village style hotel to the Gallowgate.

4) What is Newcastle and Gateshead most famous for?
Brown Ale, beer bellies and Byker Grove.

5) What would it mean to you to see the world cup converge on Newcastle and Gateshead if successful?
Having missed out on hosting during 1966, even worse so to Sunderland and Boro, I think there is some unfinished business. It's a once in a half century experience and it would mean a lot to experience the atmosphere about town and the whole country.

6) Come on, hand on heart, tinted specs off, totally unbiased view will Newcastle and Gateshead be successful with the host city bid?
I think it would be an embarrassment if we didn't. There should be one in each region and we're by far the best shout in ours. Face it - anyone wanting to use Sunderland as a host city would have to use our airport, our train station and probably most of our hotels. Why not avoid that and hold it in the bigger ground anyway?

7) Most importantly, do you think that England will be successful with the 2018/2022 world cup bid anyway?
Sadly and against the best interests of world football, no. I detest Jack Warner and his scammer ticket tout family and the horrible bitter gimp is doing his best to harpoon our bid with a series of baseless outbursts that garner a lot of media attention. The guy holds a lot of cards and they are all stacked against us.

8) Anything else you want to add?
There's always 2026.

Full article: England - What Newcastle has to offer.