Plans submitted in Newcastle to install slides that get fans from St. James Park to metro station

Newcastle could become the first Premier League club with slides installed to take fans from the stadium to the metro station in an attempt to make the act of leaving a match more fun. Or, depending on who you ask, far more dangerous.

From Sky Tyne and Wear:

Submitted by business improvement district company, NE1 Ltd, the plans would see two slides installed on the banked area around the stadium in late 2013, if permission is granted.

They would allow the 53,000 visitors to St James Park on match days to ride the slides to St James car park and Metro station instead of taking the long flight of steps.

The new structures would be the first slides of their kind to be installed in a public place in the UK.

Similar slides, known as 'travel accelerators', are already being used by commuters in Holland.

You might think that these slides would be implemented in an attempt to speed up the mass exodus from St. James' Park after matches, but practicality doesn't seem to be the primary concern here.

"It's a first for the city, we think it's a first for the UK, it's going to be great fun, it's going to bring the 'wow' factor to the St. James' metro-football ground area," says NE1 director of operations Adrian Waddell in the video above. "We just think it's fantastic and that's why we're asking for permission to do this."

The locals questioned about the plans seem split on the idea. The younger ones see it as the bit of fun that NE1 promises, while the older people see it as "ridiculous," "crazy" and an accident waiting to happen between the drunks and children that will climb all over it. Everyone seems to be overlooking the fact that it will only take a couple Newcastle fans with a tattooed bellies to plug the slides up and! require the jaws of life to tear them apart.

Here's a Dutch news report from 2011 about the installation of the Utrecht slides (with fake subtitles).