A post a while ago about the Dell and St Mary's got me thinking about how good it is to have a proper name for our football stadium. It is also a name that reflects the roots of when the Saints were first formed. So many grounds have changed their names for either naming rights or just changed them e.g Sunderland from 'Roker Park' to 'The Stadium of Light' and Leicester City from 'Filbert Street' to 'The Walkers Stadium' and now 'The King Power Stadium'! Just thought that perhaps without a google search it would be good to see how many changes we can come up with? Also feel free to come up with plain odd names like 'Spotland' at Rochdale.
Emirates From Highbury.................Seems a shame...for me seems to take something away from their history. I know we have gone back to our roots but "The Dell" was world widely known! You speak to people while abroad about football, these people usually know quite a bit about teams too, not many will equate Saints with St Mary's. In time when a bit of history has been made at St Mary's maybe.........I used to just love those headlines "Ding Dong at the Dell" Ding Dong at St Mary's just doesn't do it does it?.........
It was fan fury that stopped SMS being the Friend's Provident Stadium. They had to add St Mary's into the title and the rest is history. I understand the massive money involved in stadia naming in the Prem, but it means the name changes with each sponsor. Like Man City showed, the sponsorship of a stadium can be a way of getting a massive cash injection from an owner and by-pass financial rules.
Having read the first bit of my post I realised that it might sound like I was pleased to have a 'proper' name rather than the Dell. I really did not mean it to sound like that and loved the Dell and so many good memories that came with it. What I was trying to say was that I am pleased we do not have a ground that has 'naming rights' or an odd name. I mentioned 'Spotland' earlier and just remembered 'The Keepmoat'. Poor old Rochdale and Doncaster!
yes it was good when I was a nipper great listening to the noise during matches when I could'nt get in hence my moniker old springhill saint COYR
