Newcastle sell the last remaining part of their soul...

[Ryan]

Newcastle risk fan fury with St James' Park rebranding
• St James' Park to be renamed as Sports Direct Arena

The Guardian, Thursday 10 November 2011

Newcastle's owner, Mike Ashley, faces a potential backlash from supporters after the announcement that St James' Park is to be rebranded as the Sports Direct Arena as part of the club's plan to sell the naming rights to the stadium.

In a move which ends 119 years of history, Ashley has temporarily renamed the ground after his company – at no financial benefit to Newcastle – and invited external backers to purchase the rights. By following Arsenal and Manchester City the club believes it will become "financially self-sufficient" in the long term.

Despite Alan Pardew's side sitting unbeaten in third place in the Premier League, the announcement looks set to antagonise relations between the board and the fans, which had been improving thanks to the team's performances.

Mark Jensen, the editor of The Mag fanzine, said: "I'm very, very disappointed that with the team sitting in the top three that the club have taken the opportunity to basically bring up such a negative.

"It's very hard to take. Everyone understands the economics of football in that you need to maximise the revenue but I think most fans would rather the ground not be renamed at all. Most fans will see this as pretty opportunist with the team doing well on the pitch and when the fans are just enjoying two weeks when they'll be in the top three no matter what happens.

"It comes when people were maybe thinking: 'Who knows, maybe he [Ashley] has had second thoughts about how he is running the club.' It just seems very opportunist and it certainly won't help the mood, but obviously we've got more or less the full ground capacity guaranteed.

"Apart from having more exposure for Sports Direct, and I can see the benefits for Mike Ashley to do that, I don't see how there are any benefits whatsoever for anybody connected with Newcastle United."

The club's managing director, Derek Llambias, insisted there would be significant benefits. Newcastle hope to strike a combined deal for shirt and stadium sponsorship worth about £10m a year. "Our aim for Newcastle United is to continue to deliver success for the fans and everyone associated with the club," Llambias said. "We must make this club financially self-sufficient in order to deliver that success.


"To grow sustainably and allow us to invest in our future, we will need to rely increasingly heavily on commercial income. These are very difficult economic times and the board have a responsibility to maximise all revenue streams for the benefit of the club.

"Stadium rebranding offers a lucrative way for clubs to secure significant additional income. When we initially launched our plans at the end of 2009, we invited sponsors to attach their brand to that of St James' Park.

"However, it has become clear that in order to make the proposition as commercially attractive as possible, a potential sponsor must be given the opportunity to fully rebrand the stadium."

Llambias said that a shirt sponsorship deal might also be available to any company interested in taking on the naming rights of the stadium.

"Naming the stadium the Sports Direct Arena helps up to showcase the opportunity to interested parties," he said. "We are now actively seeking a long-term sponsor wishing to acquire full naming rights for the stadium."

"Our shirt sponsorship deal with Northern Rock will also expire at the end of this season, which presents would-be sponsors with the opportunity to acquire both the naming rights and shirt sponsorship deals."

 

[Dreambeliever]

Yawn * standard practice by every top side nowadays.

 

[DHSC]

I dont understand. Why cant they rename the stadium AFTER they sold the naming rights?

 

[Oncy]

[quote author=Dreambeliever link=topic=47473.msg1424100#msg1424100 date=1320901958]
Yawn * standard practice by every top side nowadays.
[/quote]I think its slightly different (and more distasteful) as its personal branding. They havnt sold the stadium rights, Ashley has just changed it to his own brand.
Not very clever for a man the Geordies already hate.
If they sold the naming rights to Nike or Quantas or whatever you could see the commercial idea behind it but its not cool this way.

 

[Sunny]

They havent sold the naming rights its a temporary example how great naming rights would be for Newcastle.

 

[Y1]

Soon LFC grounds will be renamed too. Soul? What soul?

 

[Mystic]

Its ridiculus, Mike Ashley is just getting one up for his own business, why not change it after they get the deal. The stadium having three different names in one year is gonna post off the posty.

 

[keniget]

Their reason for changing it now to a supposedly temporary name sounds strange but selling naming rights to stadiums is going to become more and more commonplace so meh. Fans can't complain too much given how their team is performing at the minute.

 

[jon545660]

Might be a bit of a clever move. Whoever they eventually sell to would no doubt get just the sort of backlash that Ashley is getting. So better to make the change now. When all the fuss has died down and they sell to a sponsor in 12 months time, it'll go a lot smoother.

I'm guessing they got feedback from potential sponsors that they didn't want to piss off the fans.

 

[Irish_Red]

Newcastle fans are real moany brainless cunts aren't they,

When Ashley bought them they were close to going out of busines, he gave them their two savoirs as managers who the fans wanted Keegan and Shearer (who both failed), he's got the club debt free, he's got them to third in the premiership, £35 million he got for Andy Carrol and he's put in £200 million of his own cash and the cunts still want him out.

 

[amber cabs]

[quote author=jon545660 link=topic=47473.msg1424289#msg1424289 date=1320939467]
Might be a bit of a clever move. Whoever they eventually sell to would no doubt get just the sort of backlash that Ashley is getting. So better to make the change now. When all the fuss has died down and they sell to a sponsor in 12 months time, it'll go a lot smoother.

[/quote]

Yeah this is what I was thinking too. Most robably have someone in the pipeline for it.

This will happen at LFC in the not too distant future too I would imagine. It's a shame but that's the way football is gone.

 

[Portly]

[quote author=amber cabs link=topic=47473.msg1424302#msg1424302 date=1320942676]
This will happen at LFC in the not too distant future too I would imagine. It's a shame but that's the way football is gone.
[/quote]

I agree that seems inevitable - in a way it is a surprise that it hasn't happened yet! I just hope that when it happens, it is a respectable name rather than some internet betting company or dodgy loan sharks! :🙂

 

[Rouge Penguin]

Who cares, its only the corporates that will use it. Everyone else will still call it St James's or Anfield.

 

[Rouge Penguin]

Maybe you could ask them to call it the Andy Carroll Arena, you paid enough for it 😉