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St James' Park


Delima

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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.
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Stu is right, tbh. They've got fans by the short and Colos (;)), on this.

 

Just have to hope any possible external bidder is a bit more reputable/less tacky than Sports Direct. If they're not, then kicking off will be a positive move by fans. Bit of a gamble, but few companies are more tacky than Sports fucking Direct tbh :lol:

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I see Llambias said they need to find a new sponsor so Puma know what to put on the shirt. I was under the impression that Puma was a two-year deal and Northern Rock was a four, at least. Guess not.

 

His quotes really don't do anything to make us a feel better about this. We can get a new players with naming rights? FFS, I'd rather it be called SJP, there should be money already waiting to spent on a new player anyway.

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Listening to people on the street, it's clear that some aren't even football fans as well, they're saying why should some f***ing southerner change the name of something which is part of the city, forget about football being played there, forget about football, what right does some thick fat bastard have the right to change the name of something in OUR CITY where we live? Something that is also the most iconic part of the city.

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Canny post on toontastic.

 

You are right I did and I stand by that although not the statement "everything in their power", some things are not for sale, at least not at a price that wont really make any significant difference. Put it this way, if we did manage to sell it, its less than a 3rd of how much we got for Carroll, is AC 3 times more important to NUFC fans than SJP?

 

 

The thing is you and I know fine well that we will never sell the name of the ground to any other company because they all know its toxic to be associated with and even if not, its hugely over priced. By adding the shirt sponsorship into the deal then hes effectively cut off our chances of any other advertiser. This means SD gets both for free and appears to be doing us a favour by taking it.

 

I bet you now that if you were to ring the club and ask to buy a dozen advertising boards in the Gallowgate you'd be told that there werent any available yet all of those SD ones should be up for sale to anyone that wants them. We all know that they arent paying the going rate for that advertising (if at all). Anyone who believes they are would be foolish after all why buy 200 advertising boards in one ground and have them appear on tv 4 times a year when you could buy 20 each at 10 clubs and get them seen 40 times by even more people?

 

No doubt people will make the argument that hes not gaining anything by not paying but I honestly believe he is. Additional advertising raises the profile of SD and in turn the profits. As major shareholder he gains from those both in "paper wealth" and actual dividends. NUFC however is different, the more profit it makes then the more the fans expect to see investing in the team etc and him taking money out will not be seen well.

 

So he gives away the advertising and the club end up 2,3,4 or more millions down however all that does is reduce the amount we can spend on players so hes not out of pocket at all. SD however reaps the benefits of world wide exposure, not only in the amount of ads in and around the ground but other things as mentioned on here by others.

Everytime the ground is mentioned on tv, in media etc.

Maps, every map of the city will at some stage be renewed and instead of saying "St James' Park" will hold the name of his company.

as said before, google searches, Sports Direct will now have an absolutely massive increase in the number of webpages its mentioned on. Wikipedia, every football site that details clubs etc etc etc, it will even start appearing on SDs competitors websites! Wigan will not have to carry the words Sports Direct in their write ups of the match etc.

Club merchandise, we'll no doubt start seeing numerous merchandising of the ground appearing "buy models of the Sports Direct stadium" etc, it may not make SD any actual money but again its further putting the name Sports Direct into homes.

Theres probably a thousand more things, some of them massive, some insignificant but each and every one of them is seen by somebody somewhere and all of those are free.

 

Stevie also hit the nail on the head when he points out that there are going to be kids growing up who know no other name than "Sports Direct Arena", 20 year down the line and someone comes in to reclaim our club, this place will erupt again when the new people dare to change the name to St James' Park.

 

I cant put forward strongly enough how bad I think this is, the name of our stadium, thats changed and grown over time but has always been known as SJP is erased overnight by some fat bloke looking to increase his already massive gut. I'll be slated for this but I dont care, I would prefer we went down than this, as proven already you can recover from a relegation, this is history, this is tradition and this is way more significant than a league placing. I will follow this club whether it is in the Champions League or the Northern Alliance, what I wont do is ever accept that changing one of our most important and iconic symbols is anything other than bad.

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These quotes from Llambias sicken me:

 

"I would hope to generate between £8m-10m a year, that will give us another player," Llambias told BBC Newcastle.

 

"To compete we need to go further, we've had a fantastic start."

 

"We need to give ourselves as much of a chance as possible."

 

This is all just bullshit to keep the fans quiet. Does he really expect us to believe we will get £10 million for this? We know it will stay as the Sports Direct Arena. Also if a miracle happens and they do sell the rights, does he really expect us to believe the money will go on players? What, like it did with the Carroll money? All this shit about using the money to get players so we can compete is just drivel to get some of the fans on side. This clown cannot be trusted, just look at his quotes 2 years ago for proof of that. Also this quote was interesting:

 

"The fans want us to buy more players, we need a new striker in January, we'll need replacements in the summer"

 

Replacements in the summer?

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