All you need to know about St James' Park

The All Blacks face Tonga at St James' Park, home of the Newcastle United football side. Photo / Getty

The All Blacks will have their Captain's Run at famous St James' Park in Newcastle overnight tonight. Here's seven things you need to know about one of England's iconic sporting grounds.

1/ The ground is the home of the Newcastle United Premier League club and has been since 1892. Star footballers to have worn the Magpies' black and white strip at the ground include Peter Beardsley, Kevin Keegan, Chris Waddle, Paul Gascoigne and Alan Shearer. Sir Bobby Robson, a lifetime Newcastle fan who managed the club from 1999 to 2004, died of cancer in 2009, five days after having been at St James' Park to watch an England v Germany charity trophy match played in his honour. Immediately after his death, St James' Park became an impromptu shrine to Sir Bobby, with thousands of fans leaving floral tributes, club shirts and scarves in the Leazes End of the ground.

2/ St James' Park is spelt with James' featuring one 's' and an apostrophe mark. But the train station outside is signed as St James Metro station and the street signs say St James Street and St James Terrace. The spelling is also different to London's well-known St. James's Park. A bit like "Wanganui" and "Whanganui", post-millennium it has been debated both whether the written name should include an apostrophe after St James and, if it does, whether the official written form should include an extra 's' after the apostrophe. Locals and journalists are also divided over the correct pronunciation of the name and whether to include the second 's' or not. The club says the second 's' should not be pronounced. Most fans simply refer to it as "SJP".

3/ It is an all-seater stadium that can hold 52,405 fans. The club record attendance is 68,386 set in 1930 against Chelsea when standing was allowed on the terraces. Beyond Premier League and Olympic Games football, St James' Park has hosted rock concerts featuring the likes of the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, international rugby league tests and even the hit TV shows Big Brother and The X Factor. British Sky TV even filmed a reality TV series called The Match there. St James' has already hosted two Rugby World Cup matches this tournament with Scotland playing South Africa and Samoa there. The All Blacks-Tonga game completes the commitment from the ground.

4/ The site of the ground was originally a patch of sloping grazing land near the historic town moor. It was also sited near the Newcastle city gallows. Some fans still jokingly refer to the ground as "Gallowgate" in a nod to the previous gory history. Consistent with the ground's chequered background, its entire history it has been plagued by planning and development disputes between Newcastle club owners and the community.

5/ In 2011, Newcastle United announced that the stadium would officially be renamed the Sports Direct Arena. According to the club, the St James' Park title was dropped as not being "commercially attractive". Fans railed against the move and some even resorted to criminal damage to preserve the stadium's previous name. The following year finance company Wonga became Newcastle's major sponsor and purchased the stadium naming rights. They subsequently announced that the St James' Park name would be restored as part of the deal.

6/ The stadium is the fourth largest club football stadium in England behind Old Trafford, Emirates Stadium and Etihad Stadium and 10th largest in the UK, and is famed for its unobstructed views of the pitch from all areas of the ground. The stands appear almost vertical. But bizarrely the ground does not have a giant replay TV screen for fans. A massive scoreboard was erected last year but on the first day it was used in a Newcastle game against Leicester City there was a one-hour delay to kick-off over safety concerns around the screen due to high winds.

7/ Liverpool's Anfield Stadium has "the Kop". The traditional home of the more vocal Newcastle fans is considered the Gallowgate End which is the end that the team attacked in the second half if they win the coin toss. The Gallowgate End houses NINE, a sports bar and lounge which is a popular city centre nightspot in Newcastle, accessible only from the exterior of the ground. The bar is named after Newcastle United's famous number Nine shirt, which has been worn by star strikers through the years including Alan Shearer. The Gallowgate also houses a large club shop, a police station. The main Milburn stand houses hospitality suites, a cafe and a club museum.