Hello all, I am a Southampton fan and student at the University of Gloucestershire and for my dissertation I am looking at fans' attitudes of stadium naming rights in the Premier League. I visited St James Park, or the Sports Direct Arena as it now known, on Saturday and was meant to visit Stoke on Sunday, but due to a friend becoming ill this couldn't happen. Now I'm here asking for your assistance, so if any of you would be willing to fill out a quick questionnaire please could you send me a private message with your email address and I will send you a copy over to complete, it will literally only take a couple of minutes! I need responses from any fans who have at least attended a home game and a fan of any team that has a stadium that was corporately named from new in the Prem.. (Arsenal, Bolton, Wigan, Stoke, Swansea). Thanks so much in advance to anyone that helps, you are all lifesavers!
Thanks to goonercymraeg for being the first to request, hopefully after completion he can confirm its not a virus to anybody that may be wary!
Samurai's right, that was the point I was just going to raise. Though the nature of the branding helps. "Emirates" is less obvious than "Sports Direct Arena" if you understand my point. A lot of people aren't so keen on Ashburton Grove, which is the "true" name of the site. I think this due to the fact it sounds slightly like a retirement home. Arsenal is a unique situation in your research, in that it's a new stadium which has only ever been branded (as Samurai pointed out). The fans feel little connection to the Emirates so far and feel their hearts throb for Highbury. This is possibly linked to the fact that our trophies stopped dead when we moved. The "Arsenalisation" of the stadium has helped a lot though, with the place becoming less concrete and more red and white. That's key. You also have the building up of memories which slowly brings affection to the site. Memories, such as when we beat Barcelona 2-1 and Spurs 5-2, are key to it. I don't know how useful this is to you, but it's giving you background to everything. Hope it helped.
I understand your points and this is why i'm getting responses from stadiums that were existing and changed names and new ones. However, how are you going to feel when it changes name again as the Emirates deal will not last forever? do you deem that as a problem?
just save the copy once you have completed it and send it back via email please! Thanks a lot for doing it.