With the news that St James' Park is now the SportsDirect Arena, what do you think about renaming SMS. It was suggested before (Friends' Provident) but fan power rejected that. It may however be a thing that all clubs have to turn to eventually. If Nicola thinks it's needed it will happen. Quite like the Emirates, but would hate it to be something almost unpronounceable like Etihad. Tesco Stadium anyone?
I quite fancy "St Mary's Stadium". It is linked to an important geographical area of the City and is becoming well known in its own right. I was glad to see the back of the sponsors name, and would be seriously annoyed if we reverted to one to satisfy the ego of the owner. I can quite understand the disbelief of Newcastle fans. Have these people no soul? One of my best mates at Uni is a Hereford United fan. One glass of wine and his eyes can still go misty as he talks of the visit to St James for their 3rd round tie in 1972. I got a text from him this morning. It simply suggested that those responsible worked in the catering trade - i.e they are all bar stewards. I cannot believe that Cortese would suggest a name change for St Mary's. Surely we would have become the Liebherr Stadium a couple of years ago if it had been going to happen?
There was outrage about the previous attempt to rename SMS, mainly because of who suggested it. I feel at the moment that, although unpopular, Nicola would get away with it because he's Nicola. People would probably say it must be necessary if Cortese wants to do it.
Cortese would only do it of it made absolute business sense - e.g. if it was to be the only way we could attract a huge sponsor. He has shown himself as a man who understands the need to keep the local punters onside. Re-naming of St Mary's is not on the agenda - surely it would simply be a distraction - but that of St James's is and I feel for their amazingly loyal fans. Whenever things seem to be going right there the owners throw in an unnecessary spanner.
Oh just let Nicola build the new Liebherr stadium in few seasons time, when we are ready for European footie. In the mean time we could be the Lidl stadium for all i care, as long as are on the up.
I would be distraught if SMS was named after some chavvy sports brand. If it was named after some glamorous airline like Singapore, Cathay Pacific or Emirates and it raised our profile and revenues, then I would be all for it. These things need to done with a bit of class and style.
Sad news for Newcastle. Their ground has been known as St James Park for 119 years! However, it's all part of the changing face of football. The ground will no doubt be referred to as St James Park by the Toon Army forever more, so in essence the name will still be carried on by those that matter the most, the fans. I never referred to our ground as the Friends Provident St Marys Stadium - always just St Marys as i'm sure most fans did to.
Remember it started life as The Friends Provident St. Mary's Stadium, which was a bit of a mouthful, keep it as St. Mary's, it covers all the ground that it needs, the only alternative was The New Dell, which somehow never caught on.
I have to admit for me grounds that change their name somehow loses the nostalgia and a bit of history as well. St Mary's is fine but to be honest quite a few of us still wanted the magical name of the Dell. OK even if they called it the new Dell would have been OK. In reality though Nostalgia and history do not pay the bills....So I guess we have to put up with the constant changing of the name for the sake of survival.......
i wouldnt like it, but if somebody wanted to pay us a lot to rename it then i wouldnt be too disappointed!
Sponsorship in sport has gone too far. The only thing that I can think of in the England setup which hasn't been sponsored is the national anthem. I hope I haven't put thet idea into some Sdvertising Executives head! Heaven forbid there should come a day at Wembley when the crowd are asked to be upstanding for the Ford Motor Company* sponsored National Anthem. I am dreading the appearance of our players for the match against Spain with the now famous black arm band displaying the Poppy and the words sponsored by..... * Or any other multinational business for that matter.
The Newcastle fans initially thought it was a wind up and weren't taking it seriously. Go on the Newcastle board, it's quite funny the way the thread suddenly changes from: Toon fans saying that no one in their right mind would change the name to Mike Ashley getting a barrage of abuse and shock that the name was changed!
Talking about sponsoring going to far,did anyone see Coventrys stand names - Coventry telegraph stand,lloyds pharmacy stand and the tesco stand.This could of been st marys if SISU got their own way,thank god!
Newcastle fans are always unhappy about something,they've got to be some of the whiniest fans going! although i do agree that they have every right to moan this time.
They'll sponsor anything nowadays; leagues, cups, kits, players, stadiums/stands, matchday balls. Soon they'll be pitch sponsors, or sponsors of free-kicks and corners. Maybe the referee will have sponsored red and yellow cards with corperate logos printed on them. Hell, there might even be sponsored fans one day!
Haha yeh could just imagine commentators saying - here comes Tesco tony and his wife anthea sponsored by Asda.
it's almost as bad as sticking a statue of your rival's chairman outside the ground .... I mean who would do that????
The Tesco Stand! Jeez, that's atrocious! I thought it had gotten bad enough when Reading agreed to be sponsored by Waitrose! I'd hate for the stands of St Marys to have horrendous sponsorship names. Can you imagine; The Sainsbury's Kingsland Stand or The Daily Echo Northam stand - it'd be horrid!
