AyeDubbleYoo

Yeah, I guess from a purely financial standpoint it makes sense if NUFC don't make any money from away tickets at all. It's a massive shame though, surely we could sell a lot more away tickets for the big games in particular.

I agree with that Cronky post and the general point about some things becoming acceptabe over time, but I still don't think that means we have to accept everything that happens in football. Do we just accept every change as it happens until football eventually separates itself from its roots to such an extent that it becomes meaningless as anything other than pure entertainment? I've never advocated much protest during the Ashley regime, as I know it's pointless and he isn't listening, but in the case of the stadium name I'm incredibly angry. I know we can't do anything about it, but that doesn't mean I have to find reasons to justify it. I can't stop it, but it's still disgusting and unacceptable.

Surely the amounts of money must be relatively small though? If we have to return a few tickets a handful of times a season, we should be able to bear that cost. Also, do the home club get 100% of the ticket revenue, including away ticket sales?

same, i managed to order 2 for me and me mate for man u.... it hasnt been adding my loyalty points either, which is annoying I've been buying tickets online for home and away games for about 6 years and I think I still have only about 4 loyalty points. I don't the system or how it works at all, it's stupid.

Never.

It's my favourite podcast by far, love Marcotti as a presenter. That Alison Rudd had some irritating things to say about the SJP renaming. Basically saying we should be grateful the stadium is being renamed instead of demolished or moved.

How do you guys remember a specific claim by a specific poster that was made months ago? It's impressive and incredibly sad at the same time.

Except that football is all about history, tradition, tribalism and emotion. Without that it's just a game, and IMO very much less worth following.

Who's to say Forster wouldn't have done just as well this season though? The argument is pointless and doesn't make sense.

I would go with some sort of 451/433 if it was me, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Pardew stick with the formation that has brought him success so far. All he'll do is tweak the individual instructions to players (i.e. Ba will be told to drift wide and help out in defence etc). Let's face it, we will probably lose to Man City anyway, you might argue that we may as well not mess with the system too much.

So?

Would rather watch that than the England game.

Does that work?

Man City 5 - 0 Newcastle Man City 0 - 5 Newcastle

I thought it was best to ignore that suggestion.

I doubt if Ashley's ever eaten an apple or ridden a bicycle, never mind both at once.

I agree with almost everything in Cronky's post, but I can simultaneously want to kill Mike Ashley for renaming SJP. I'm one of his least harsh critics (aka sympathiser) but I still hate this idea more than anything else he has done.

My Mam said we should be "marching in the streets", as far as I know she's not on this forum.

For the local market in the short-term I think you're right - the target of this seems to be the TV/overseas market, who will quickly forget the name St James Park if the TV companies decide to drop it.

of course the strip is changing, it's got words or a logo on it for cash. the name is for the most part something you say and for the most part won't be used. fwiw i haven't bought a current newcastle top for myself since advertising was placed on it. Well we'll just have to agree to disagree, I just think the stadium renaming is much much worse. Selling a bit of advertising space is fundamentally different to selling your identity IMO. I hope the name won't be used that much either, it would be great if that happened.

Why is it so surprising or illogical that stadium naming is worse than shirt sponsorship. Shirt sponsorship is just placing a logo on a garment and essentially not changing it, and is done by every professional football club. The shirt colours and club colours do not change. Stadium naming is changing the name of a 100+ year-old city icon to the name of one of the tackiest brands in existence. For me, it's a bit like renaming the Eiffel Tower to the McDonalds Tower.

Agreed. Same, there's not much in the quotes I actually disagree with. Keegan is a legend and a hero, but his mental state is a bit suspect. Hughton was a really nice guy and sound manager but I also doubt whether he could have taken us into the top 10 of the Premier League. Shearer is a legend as well, but nothing to suggest he's a good football manager. Also encouraged by the bit where he says he wanted a manager that would answer back, throws doubt on the Yes Man theory of Pardew. Anyway, I don't like Llambias and stuff like this is very unprofessional, but the actual content isn't that far wrong.

It's a bit harsh to put everything bad he does down to incompetence/evil and everything good he does down to pure luck.

Which clubs are spending a lot less than us? I can't be bothered to look for exact numbers, but the point is that unless you have guaranteed regular European football must Premier League clubs are spending very modestly. Or if they are spending, they're being charged over the odds for average players and are increasing their levels of debt. I don't want to have the entire Ashley finance debate again from scratch, I just thought that we had started to come round to the way he was running things. I'm as angry about the name change as anyone BTW, I think it's a disgrace, I just don't think those NUFC.com arguments against it are the right ones.

His lack of due diligence which ultimately will lead to us being stuck with him unless someone of Man City's owners type wealth comes in to save the day. His lack of due dilligence was a godsend, hate to think where we'd have been without it. However bad he's been. I agree with what you're saying, and I too acknowledge what Ashley did- and financially has done for us- but we can't keep saying this after every insult, lie, and catastrophic decision thrown our way. You would think that four years on he would have adapted and learnt from mistakes. But as we continuously see, he simply doesn't. Literally every season he has been here uproar (mid-season, too) has been caused by something rash, needless or completely illogical. I'm very pleased to see where we are in the table and that what we have achieved so far is through prudent spending on players, but as .com have said....will whatever we receive- if we ever do find a sponsor- help us that much? I don't think so. Not one bit. Ashley should be working towards qualifying for Europe as that in itself would bring in good money. He simply cannot keep going the way he is. On the other hand, most of the decisions he has made were incredibly unpopular at the time but actually turned out to not harm us that much or even leave the club in better shape. Pretty much the only exception to this is the gamble on staying up in the relegation season, and even that worked out OK in the end. I don't think the name change fits into this category, as I think some things are more important than finance, but I thought we had started to reassess some os Ashley's past decisions in a better light.