And it seems Toon fans will be deprived of the same chance Ipswich supporters will get to gather in grief for Sir Bobby Robson’s memorial service at Durham Cathedral.
Footage from the service on September 21 will be shown on a giant screen in Ipswich town centre.
Ipswich Borough Council won permission to stage the broadcast after discussions with the Football Association and Sky Television, but no such deal has been sealed by Newcastle City Council.
A spokesman for Newcastle City Council confirmed there were no plans to install screens in the city or at St James’s Park ... but many fans would like the opportunity to be involved.
It is more than 20 years since the last memorial service was held in the North for a sporting legend.
As many as 50,000 people lined the streets as Jackie Milburn’s funeral cortege was taken 14 miles from his terraced home in Ashington to St Nicholas’s Cathedral in the centre of Newcastle in October 1988.
I will be outside the Cathedral on September 21st, wearing my Toon shirt, and I hear a number of Mackems are going along to.
One sent me an e-mail: "I will be outside, too, wearing my Sunderland shirt. Mags turned up for Bob Stokoe's funeral as a mark of respect, and I will be doing the same for Sir Bobby."