St James' Park

[David Edgar]

I couldn't GAF about the stadium name.  It'll always be SJP, people will still call it that.  We would massively benefit from a sponsorship deal for the naming rights.  

[Guybrush]

It should remain St James' Park. I can't believe we're having this conversation 

[PauloGeordio]

1 minute ago, Guybrush said:

It should remain St James' Park. I can't believe we're having this conversation 

At least now it’s a conversation ?

[manorpark]

1 minute ago, Keggy_Keagal said:

Like others am a little bit uneasy about the renaming. Something like  St James' Park sponsored by ........ would be ok if it has to be done .

 

A short almost-no-change name like Aramco St James' Park, would suit me I think, if it brings in a lot of sponsorship money.

 

We would just still call it St James' Park anyway !

[Wullie]

30 minutes ago, Abacus said:

I think you just call it "St James Park with XXX"

 

I'd be fine with that.

 

That's like paying to be the shirt sponsor but we'll only have the name of the company around the collar in tiny letters.

 

Nobody pays serious money to have their name tagged onto the end so that TV presenters can easily still call it St James' Park. They want it there in a way that means it has to be said out loud as the primary name of the ground.

[KaKa]

Probably be something more like Saudia Airlines @ St. James' Park I imagine.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, Wullie said:

 

That's like paying to be the shirt sponsor but we'll only have the name of the company around the collar in tiny letters.

 

Nobody pays serious money to have their name tagged onto the end so that TV presenters can easily still call it St James' Park. They want it there in a way that means it has to be said out loud as the primary name of the ground.

Always going to be the case with a new build, mind. If however they’d taken over when it was still the old stadium, revamped it and called it ‘Etihad Maine Road’, it’d likely be different.

[timnufc22]

57 minutes ago, Wullie said:

The idea that "everyone will still call it St James' Park" is completely deluded imo. Yes you will, and I will and people in Newcastle will, but the wider public won't. Kids in ten years time won't even know the name. These things stick really easily.

 

If you put into Twitter the phrase "Call it Eastlands" you will see Man City fans from 2011 who were absolutely adamant that nobody would ever actually refer to it as The Etihad. 

 

Nobody ever believes that advertising actually works. Newsflash: it works.

Exactly.

 

Why not replace the SD signs with another company? Said company still gets massive exposure while still maintaining the stadium name and can pay a fee for that. It might be a 5m or so less than outright stadium name change but it’s the best compromise. FFS can’t believe we’re here and some are rushing towards accepting this, we would regret it in the future.

 

Do we not want to keep our identity? Isn’t the idea that the NUFC we loved, with all the tradition that came with it before Ashley, comes back to challenge again?

[Magpie]

3 hours ago, christ said:

Renaming is a no-go for me.

 

I didn’t hold up a banner that got the singing section kicked from Level 7 for someone else to come along and change the name.

 

 

 

As a side note would love to see that decision overturned and allow us back up there. Be there in a heartbeat. Best views, goading the away fans. Class.

 

Coronary on the way up like.

[Kid Icarus]

The money involved shouldn't be anywhere near worth selling out for anyway. £20-£50m a year when you're talking about some of the most powerful people in the world, who have unlimited resources to find ways to bring in revenue in other ways? What's the point. 

 

 

Edited October 22, 2021 by kisearch

[PauloGeordio]

1 minute ago, kisearch said:

The money involved shouldn't be anywhere near worth selling out for anyway. £20-£50m a year when you're talking about some of the most powerful people in the world, who have unlimited resources to find ways to bring in revenue in other ways? What's the point. 

 

 

 

Probably just want to exploit all revenue channels. Mo money, innit! 

[mrmojorisin75]

7 minutes ago, kisearch said:

The money involved shouldn't be anywhere near worth selling out for anyway. £20-£50m a year when you're talking about some of the most powerful people in the world, who have unlimited resources to find ways to bring in revenue in other ways? What's the point. 

 

 

 

 

To dodge FFP?  I mean they can plough their own money into the club without changing any commercial deals but it will be limited.

[Abacus]

12 minutes ago, Wullie said:

 

That's like paying to be the shirt sponsor but we'll only have the name of the company around the collar in tiny letters.

 

Nobody pays serious money to have their name tagged onto the end so that TV presenters can easily still call it St James' Park. They want it there in a way that means it has to be said out loud as the primary name of the ground.

 

 

True, but the whole point is that it's sort of a fiction anyway because there's no way of demonstrating how much naming a stadium is actually worth, still less the order of the words.

 

They can pretend it's worth X amount, buy whatever players they want and we still get to have it as St James' Park. 

[Kid Icarus]

2 minutes ago, mrmojorisin75 said:

 

To dodge FFP?  I mean they can plough their own money into the club without changing any commercial deals but it will be limited.

For £20-50m a year when they can find other ways to wangle it just seems pointless. 

[Wullie]

8 minutes ago, timnufc22 said:

Exactly.

 

Why not replace the SD signs with another company? Said company still gets massive exposure while still maintaining the stadium name and can pay a fee for that. It might be a 5m or so less than outright stadium name change but it’s the best compromise. FFS can’t believe we’re here and some are rushing towards accepting this, we would regret it in the future.

 

Do we not want to keep our identity? Isn’t the idea that the NUFC we loved, with all the tradition that came with it before Ashley, comes back to challenge again?

It's grim isn't it? I really hope we can win something quite quickly because I really don't like the way we're exposing ourselves as a fanbase who will really welcome absolutely anything in pursuit of a decent full back. Maybe getting a trophy in the cabinet will allow some people to reset their thinking a little bit (or maybe that's very naive).

 

At least there is a sense at Man United and Liverpool amongst their fans that "We'll always be relatively successful so we don't necessarily have to love every shitty thing our owners are doing"

 

What I've seen recently makes me think we'd have been the one group of fans absolutely buzzing about being invited into a Super League.

[Kanj]

Commercial revenue isn’t dollar for dollar transfer fee income. Every major deal has lasting impact over multiple years via the way FFP calcs are spread and accounted for. 
 

I am open to all and any ways to get commercial revenues that don’t involve the stadium name. But if the overall goal is to make us successful as possible as soon as possible, ill trust the club owners to communicate and do the right thing until they don’t. 
 

“they are powerful enough to figure it out via other ways” is a fine comment but hard for me to accept that because it’s purely hypothetical  

 

 

[Happinesstan]

14 minutes ago, manorpark said:

 

A short almost-no-change name like Aramco St James' Park, would suit me I think, if it brings in a lot of sponsorship money.

 

We would just still call it St James' Park anyway !

Something like that would alleviate most of my concerns. When cunt changed the name, it made it easier to simply say Sports Direct Arena, and omit the relevant bit. Welcome to Aramco, wouldn't mean anything, to anybody.

[christ]

7 minutes ago, POOT 2.0 said:

I agree with the above comments about swapping out the SD shite instead. That would be a positive PR solution. "X company rids SJP of SD signage". 100% behind that. The SD shite is in most photos regarding NUFC as it is. 

Isn’t that what Wonga did when they “bought” the stadium naming rights and reverted it to SJP?

[Jackie Broon]

1 hour ago, kisearch said:

For £20-50m a year when they can find other ways to wangle it just seems pointless. 

 

But what they will be looking to do is have as many sponsorship revenue streams as possible, because one massive sponsorship deal is probably more like to fall foul of the fair market value element of the FFP rules than lots of smaller deals.

[mrmojorisin75]

1 hour ago, kisearch said:

For £20-50m a year when they can find other ways to wangle it just seems pointless. 

 

Agreed, if there's other ways to do it why bother.

[BigValley]

Can we do a 2 year deal for some good money. Then when we got more to use fast and with comersial money and other income. Lets say we are around 18 to 10 this years. Then the next years we have nothing on the stadium. But in 6 years time we get a very big sponsor for some years when we are pushing for top 4 and champions League. 

I think this is one way to do things. 

 

 

Edited October 22, 2021 by BigValley

[Toon No9]

Do we really need to sell the name of the stadium?

Lets just have any company as headsponsor of the stadium.

 

St James Park, sponsored by Aramco (or whoever the sponsor would be).

[Unbelievable]

6 hours ago, TheGuv said:

I’m sorry like. You can’t be happy with PIF changing the stadium name because they’ll throw a bit of money at it. Can we not remember the outpouring of dismay when the name was changed to the Sports Direct Arena?

 

The hypocrisy stinks. Even if Ashley paid £20m a year for the naming rights people still would have been aghast. 

i understand the point you’re making Guv, but to me there are major differences between what happened ten years ago and what’s potentially happening here:

 

- in 2011 we had already suffered years of Keegan being messed around with and unfairly dismissed, relegation and protest. The renaming back then was motivated by spite from a petty owner

 

- there was no renumeration. As Llambias said at the time: "Naming the stadium the Sports Direct Arena helps up to showcase the opportunity to interested parties. We are now actively seeking a long-term sponsor wishing to acquire full naming rights for the stadium.” Right..

 

- we have FFP to contend with now. If the new owners want to make the club the best it can be, they need to grow revenue streams.

 

- they’ve communicated this much better than Ashley ever could, putting feelers out and suggesting the fans will get a say in whether it happens or not.

 

Having said that, I’d rather they keep the name as is and sell the naming rights to a new built if it ever comes to that, provided it will not hamper the execution of their plans. If however it is imperative to their plans and the majority of fans get behind it I think that’s still a respectful way to handle the situation. We all want change. If this is the price to pay than so be it.

[Wandy]

I'd have no problem with it being something like "The Aramco Stadium at St James Park". As long as that full name gets said by commentators etc at games etc then there's no issue for me. I guess the two most important issues with a renaming are the St James being in the title, and the whole name needs to sound prestigious. That's one of the main reasons why people were aghast at the SD Arena.

[Unbelievable]

2 hours ago, Wullie said:

It's grim isn't it? I really hope we can win something quite quickly because I really don't like the way we're exposing ourselves as a fanbase who will really welcome absolutely anything in pursuit of a decent full back. Maybe getting a trophy in the cabinet will allow some people to reset their thinking a little bit (or maybe that's very naive).

 

At least there is a sense at Man United and Liverpool amongst their fans that "We'll always be relatively successful so we don't necessarily have to love every shitty thing our owners are doing"

 

What I've seen recently makes me think we'd have been the one group of fans absolutely buzzing about being invited into a Super League.

 

I personally don't see the connection. My main gripe with Ashley was always that he did not allow Newcastle United to compete at the level it was capable of. He willfully took commercial space without paying a dime for it, instructed managers to ignore cup competitions because there was no money in it and always just did the bare minimum to keep us clinging on to the gravy train. Meaningful investment only ever came when that place came under threat. As such, and with the FFP rules being as they currently are to prevent the exact scenario where a PIF come in and plough a few billion in to blow the competition away, I understand that new owners need to look at increasing all revenue streams, including commercial revenue. Heck, it's what Mike Ashley should have been doing all these years. "We don't demand a tam that wins, we demand a club that tries" for me is all about the owners of the club doing what's best for the club first and foremost. I don't think introducing new sponsorship deals contradicts this, quite the contrary in fact.