from nufc.com:
Name and shame
Almost two years to the day that a "rebranding" of St.James' Park to "sportsdirect.com @ St James' Park" was announced and with related signage only recently erected, a further change now looms, after details of Thursday's club press release were leaked online.
Prepare for:
Sports Direct Arena
This is not a wind up.
Having made significant strides in PR terms this season and seen their popularity rise in tandem with progress on the field, this looks like yet another own goal by NUFC.
Just when "Peace in our Tyne" looked to have been achieved after another tumultuous period of player (and managerial) departures and other distractions, this seems both ill-advised and avoidable - running the risk of opening up old wounds for no guaranteed reward.
If commercial investment in the club from third parties is to be forthcoming though, then surely that would be driven by the continuing good form of the team and the resultant full stadium and content fan base?
Handing a cause to the bedsheet brigade - and risking a return to the "toxic brand" days of 2008 hardly seems likely to attract inward cash and again, throws up a subject that will inevitably cause division among fans.
The announcement is timed to maximise the period before our next home game and give any dissent and protests ample time to blow themselves out before Chelsea head to Tyneside on the first Saturday in December.
The best chance of convincing a justifiably distrustful fan base that a stadium rename is for genuine commercial reasons remains someone walking up Barrack Road clutching a big cardboard cheque with lots of zero's on it.
Making fans believe that this rename is a trade off for the financial investment of the owner though is a much harder sell - perhaps if Ashley just came out and admitted that, then acceptance might come easier. Perhaps if he spoke at all in public then it might help on a general level.
While the notion of renaming stadia with sponsors names is a familiar one, the other current Premier League examples tend to be newly-built venues where naming rights were sold "off-plan". We have to be different, apparently and give the impression of jettisoning decades of history to anyone with a spare bag of swag.
In a cock-eyed way though, that precedent of trying to change the name of an established stadium may turn out to be the one saving grace - and a cast-iron reason why trying to sell those rights to a third party is futile.
The Emirates Stadium is the Emirates Stadium, it's never been anything else, except a plan of a hole in the ground once called Ashburton Grove - it has no other name.
Newcastle United however play at St.James' Park and always have done. Everyone knows that and will continue to know that - regardless of what irritating branding is applied to it. You won't call it that and neither will we.
It's an interesting dilemma: moan about calling it the Sports Direct Arena sufficiently and it will stay as that; allow it to pass comparatively un-remarked and increase the chances of it becoming a 52,000 seat billboard for an airline or a credit card company. You want to leave it the way it's been since 1880? Then buy it.
And of course, any negativity from fans as a result of this renaming attempt that transmits itself to the team (as happened in the relegation season) will then become the sole explanation for any consequent downturn in on-field fortunes - regardless of whatever else happens.
Final thought for now: there's nothing to stop someone buying the naming rights and coming up with their own version of callitafterourcompany @ St.James' Park.
PS: back to that 2009 announcement, following which NUFC MD Derek Llambias was asked if the name St James' Park would always remain as the official stadium name.
His reply was simple:
"Absolutely. In our reign, absolutely."
PPS: Has anyone told Nexus about this change?
