Experts say Ashley will struggle to sell naming rights

It's business to them.
I was going to run a poll to determine whether or not people were behind the renaming of St James’ Park but after a split seconds thought I decided against it.

I think we can already guess that the poll would be heavily tipped in favour of ‘No’ at this present moment in time. So with fans against it will the club struggle to attract a new sponsor?

My own personal view is yes. I’m not a marketing expert but it doesn’t take one to work out that no company worth its salt will want to be the next pariah that blots the history of St James’ Park and I doubt they’ll want to be associated with upsetting the fanbase. Having said that, multi-million pound companies are hardly grounds of high morals, and any publicity is good publicity, right? https://www.nufcblog.co.uk/wp-admin/post-new.php

Not according to these marketing experts, who all think that Derek Llambias will find it tough to attract the sponsor they are looking for at St James’ Park and admit that he has already broken one of the “golden rules” when trying to seek a sponsor.

Tim Crow, the chief executive at the sponsorship consultancy Synergy, believes the best advice for would be sponsors is to stay away from St James’ Park. “I’d be very surprised if any brand came forward and if any of my clients asked me for my opinion I’d advise them in the strongest possible terms not to,” said Crow. “Or they could do the shirt sponsorship on its own, which would be entirely positive.”

You can read Tim Crow’s six golden rules on stadium rebranding here , or alternatively you can just have a read of them below. It’s a good article though which gives an insight into a world that football fans shouldn’t be interested in so I suggest you give it a quick look.

1. The stadium must have only one short name. If there are two names, one of which is the sponsor’s, guess which one the media, and the fans, will edit out? ‘The Reebok Stadium’ works: so does ‘The Emirates’. Conversely, horrors like ‘Sports Direct.com@St James’ Park’ always quite deservedly bomb.

2. Avoid re-naming an existing stadium with heritage. If you do, you run the risk of being edited out (The Oval) or the object of acrimony (SportsDirect.com@St James’ Park). It’s much easier to start with the blank canvas of a new stadium. But don’t forget to follow rule number one.

3. The exception to this is when a stadium or arena is unloved and/or decrepit and as a result is going to be re-built and/or re-launched – for example the way the Millennium Dome became The O2 and Lansdowne Road became the Aviva Stadium. But again, don’t forget to follow rule number one.

4. You must pay enough. There was an outcry in Leicester against Walker’s – previously a relatively popular local employer – when it was announced that the company had paid only £150,000 per year for 10 years to sponsor the new Leicester City Stadium. This was unfavourably compared with the millions the company had spent using Gary Lineker in its TV advertising.

5. You must be in it for the long term, for two reasons: to demonstrate your commitment (see also rule number four) and also because if you do it for long enough, the return on investment in terms of media impressions alone will be enormous – as long as you’ve followed rule number one.

6. Once you’ve followed rules 1-5, the hard work really starts – gaining the respect and admiration of the fans and the media for what you’re doing.

Meanwhile, Chief Executive of the management and brand consultancy company Red Mandarin, Shaun Whatling, believes that Derek Llambias was wrong to mention a price in the public domain for a number of reasons. He said: “They’re unwise to raise expectations of £10m incremental revenue and creating linkage with new signings – there’s already antagonism amongst fans to the sale of naming rights and Derek Llambias is now preparing a frosty welcome for any sponsor buying in ‘on the cheap’.”

Andy Westlake is the chief executive of the sponsorship and management firm Fast Track and can’t quite work out why the decision to rename St James’ Park was taken. He knows what he is talking about aswell as he is the man who brokered the deal between Emirates and Arsenal a few years ago.

“I don’t think any brand will be buying in to naming rights at Newcastle unless they are focusing on building a relationship with fans,” said Westlake. “In this recessionary market you have to recognise what sponsorship is about: adding value for fans in the club they love. But Newcastle fans are universally against this. Perhaps Mike Ashley is generating the wrath so that a brand coming in can restore the St James’ Park name and be loved for it. Otherwise, I can’t explain it.”

So the opinions of three experts on the matter there, and all of them say the same thing. I can only assume that Ashley and Llambias didn’t contact these particular experts when doing their research. Either that or we are heading towards a situation similar to the one when the club was up for sale a few years ago. You know, it’s sold, then it isn’t, then it is, then Ashley stays…

St James’ Park forever.

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

77 thoughts on “Experts say Ashley will struggle to sell naming rights

  1. “They shall grow not old,
    as we that are left grow old:
    Age shall not weary them,
    nor the years condemn.
    At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
    We will remember them.”
    LEST WE FORGET

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  2. Hopefully we only suffer Ashley not much longer I think this is the last straw, it’s 1 step too far this 1 can’t be swept under the ever bulging carpet. HWTL

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  3. A few posters have mentioned the Man City deal but do they realise all is not what it seems, their deal is a back door ploy to defeat the EUFA financial rules coming in and is a means to continue to pour cash into the club as Etihad Airlines are owned by the Abu Dhabi royal family who in turn own the club.
    Similar to us, perhaps Ashley will pay over the odds for his sponsorship but im not holding my breath.

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  4. Come on, people – it’s not rocket science, is it??

    Has nobody noticed that Sports Direct is all over the global media as a result of this?

    This decision is probably a bad one from the club’s point of view, and the owners know that. That’s why they’ve thrown the shirt sponsorship thing in as a smokescreen. They know that any small gain from the stadium rights will be more than cancelled out in brand value damage and retaliatory buying patterns on merchandise, etc.

    Does anyone really think they’ve gone for the ‘interim name’ because it’ll help sell to a new buyer? Do they honestly think it’s an easier sell than to sell the rights to “St James’s Park”? Of course not.

    This is, purely and simply, free advertising for Sports Direct at the cost of the club, in a way that gets around the new financial rules about to kick in.

    They know that they probably won’t get a buyer, so they’ll have all this publicity for free on an ongoing basis.

    Surely that’s obvious??

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  5. can it still be classed as racist saying gareth bale looks like a monkey??

    hes white so is it allowed anyways he does !!

    just wondered thats all after seeing barca are chasing him according to BBC

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  6. I may be wrong but I would have thought there would be tax advantages for Sports Direct actually paying money to NUFC for sponsorship etc. In any case such money would come from the pockets of the company and not from Mike Ashley himself. Sponsorship by SD would therefore not be probably free but I really don’t know.

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  7. For those like me who won’t pay the prices or won’t buy from the club shop.

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  8. Toonsy would love to see a poll of who thinks that a Sponsor will come in, or do they think that its all bullshit and that it will remain SD ?

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  9. whumpie@4
    its obvious yes !
    but is it the right thing to do financially for the benifit of the club! no
    is it the right thing to do for the team ! no
    is it the right thing to do for the fans or the city ! no
    simples

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  10. When I first heard about this I didnt see the big fuss over it but the more I think about the more unsettled I become over it. There should be somethings money cant buy. My reason behind supporting the idea intially was that this is the way the world is now and we need to change with the times etc etc but that doesnt make it right does it? And the reason the worl is turning into where everything has a price is becasue not enough people care about things like this. I dont think it will change the boards mind and they should be praised in their attempts to get the club more money but this is the wrong idea.

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  11. Johno toon spot on mate, there is some things in life more important than money .
    And for the ones that say it will always be known as SJP, so is our kids and their kids going to know it as SJP when there is a big ugly red and blue sign on it saying SDA .

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  12. at the end of the day,nowt we as fans can do about it,its always going to be known as st james to us,i hope this isnt going to get the ashley out,brigade calling for his head at the games,and disrupting the teams performances.up until 2 days ago everything in the garden was rosey. So let them call the ground what THEY want,and WE will call it by its rightful name.ST JAMES’PARK

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  13. johno toon@15
    I admire you for haveing the balls to say you were wrong as i did over Pardew because most people cant or wont ever admit there wrong .
    But why should we praise the club for trying to find more money when there is not a chance in hell the team will benefit from the money , Ashley will never put money into buying players and we are football fans not shareholders so we should not care how rich he is !
    And there are some things Ashley cant buy like me and you and thousands of sensible levelheaded geordies.
    He wont be there forever and will never be welcomed by the mayority and i look forward to the day he leaves , i just hope he leaves something for the next owner !!!

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  14. How annoying is this? We were finally understanding the business model and seeing how brilliant it can be. And to make the best of that peak in popularity (or drop in hatred?) they do this, just to prove that they don’t know where to draw the line and don’t realise that many will see straight through it.

    I do think this comes down to Ashley’s familiarity with his main customer base. Your average Sports Direct shopper can barely tie the laces on his gold-coloured Nikes. Then again, if you read the quotes from the “experts” in the article above, it’s clear that a lot of people have missed the bleedin’ obvious motivation behind the move.

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  15. Has anybody else picked up on the fact that St James Park is one of only 6 stadiums staging games for the Olympics next year? An event watched by billions around the globe!

    Does Ashley seriously expect us to believe that there will be an alternative sponsor on the stadium by the time the games start? It’s just too good of an opportunity to miss. It’s not so much that he’s took this course of action that upsets me, as much as the deceitful way he goes about his business taking us all to be complete mugs.

    Ps Surely if any sponsor was to take this up, with such glittering advertising potential, then surely to god its worth a **** sight more than £10M??!!??

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  16. bigdave16 spot on
    mgman@17
    if a section of the fans boo it will be ashleys fault for yet another appauling decition in a list of hundreds of appauling decitions , not the fans fault .

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  17. Never dull for long as a Toon supporter is it?

    Anyway, I was just looking at what was news on all the decent ‘blogs and then I thought I’d drop by here afterwards. 😉

    Hope you’re all well.

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  18. This is all a smoke screen he does not want to sell the rights, he currently has the name for free for Sports Direct, the selling bit to bring in 10m is all a cover for another free advertising for his main interest Sports Direct

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  19. Grucho, i don’t mind, i won’t pay £40+ for a top of **** quality when i can get it with name number and all that jazz for £17.

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  20. whumpie@20
    “we were finally understanding the business model and seeing how brilliant it can be ”
    ha ha ha you can speak for yourself but definatly not the majority, two and a half years of **** and sixteen good games and no investment into the team is not brilliant .
    mrt76@21
    they have to remove it for the olympics it has to be brand free, but im sure mike will be making millions from the olympics anyway to plough straight into the team .

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  21. keith says:
    November 11, 2011 at 11:56
    johno toon@15
    I admire you for haveing the balls to say you were wrong as i did over Pardew because most people cant or wont ever admit there wrong .

    Show me a man who has never made a mistake and ill show you man who has never made anything.

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  22. Hugh nice of you to think of us, hows yours and wanky’s blog going? Any sign of putting a donate button back up ?, with crimbo just around the corner im sure the money would come in handy.

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  23. MRT76 – stadiums with commercial naming rights have to change their name during the Olympics due to potential clashes with ‘official’ Olympic partners – so the fat man won’t be able to benefit from such a scenario

    Personally, I’m wondering how Pardew is going to refer to the stadium in upcoming interviews…… tricky situation for him, if he uses the ‘name which shall never be spoketh’ he’ll **** off and alienate a multitude of Geordies. However, if he uses ‘SJP’ he’ll **** off his boss…..

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  24. M – Pardew is always being put in positions like this by Ashley. I sometimes wonder why he puts up with it. Thankfully he does…

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  25. At the Chelsea match sing “we all live in St James’ Park” to the tune of “Yellow Submarine”. I bet the whole ground will join in.

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  26. Namibia Mag – that’s the kind of thing that I honestly think will help. With the council basically telling Ashley to go **** himself, we need pundits and press to do the same, and for the fans to simply keep the real name going at all costs for as long as it takes. No huge demos needed; just refusing to give in to it.

    Remember that St James’s Park is the name of the patch of land the club’s stadium sits on, so there’s no way you can stop someone referring to a game being held there; it’s just the truth. I just hope the pundits have the balls to defy this toss.

    I wonder which way the FA will go on it?

    Oh, of course. Silly of me. They’ll lick Ashley’s **** of course, and try to put pressure on everyone to use the new name. Because they’re amoral twats.

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  27. Whumpie, bit difficult for me to start the singing from 5283 miles away. Can you do it? I’ll be watching it on TV and listening.

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  28. keith @22,the last thing we need is booing at games,on the pitch the team is doing fantastic,so go cheer the team,

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  29. Anyone notice that all of our controversial decisions seem to come at the same time during the year?

    Last season it was CH’s sacking.

    This year it’s the renaming.

    Whatever they’re smoking in October they should not do it next year.

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  30. I have never really had any loyalty to the name of the stadium. It has just been a dull fact to me. I don’t know whether that’s because I am an atheist, and I despair at all this popish veneration of saints. If it were named after someone worthy, it would be different: the war hero Admiral Lord Collingwood, or even the great freethinker, Tom Paine.

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  31. Have to admit like they are good at how they do these things. Two week break. Column inches. 3rd in the league. About a month till the next home game.

    They always drop the bombs at times like these, didn’t they pee everyone off the last time there was a huge gap before a home game? wonder if there is any sort of bet I could put on for next time such a similar week appears.

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  32. Dont know why everyone is taking a fit. To all us fans it will always be St James Park. Simple!!!

    now i think some of us need to calm down and stop acting like MA has robbed your Granny.

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  33. N.I meant to add so it doesn’t bother you that the ground we hve played on from we started is being changed to give Jabba free advertisement for his tacky SD ?

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  34. Lol Dave and i thought you were one of the positive guys. Show me anywere on the net that you have seen that. It wont happen. Its like saying wait and see we will become a London based club.

    And i didnt say i dont care but im not going to take a **** fit because of it because as i said it will always be SJP.

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  35. Nail on the head, NI.Toon.

    It will only stop being SJP if we stop calling it that.

    Nee need for all the dummy spitting.

    Thought the fact that today was 11.11.11 might have given some people a bit of perspective. Sadly not. 😐

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  36. just saying there is nothing saying we will ever change from the B&W stripes. Its just negative thinking.

    Anywho thats not my point. Unless people are going to do something about it there is no point in getting all worked up about the name because it will always be SJP to us.

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  37. N.Irish Toon says:
    November 11, 2011 at 15:11
    Its like saying wait and see we will become a London based club.

    Ask Wimbledon fans about that………..

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  38. either way were going to be taken for a ride if we get a sponsorship deal i very much so doubt the money will go on a new player like Llambais said and
    if we dont we get nothing just more free advertising for ashley whoes already put sports direct all over our stadium.

    I do think that they would prefer no one comes in with a offer. my proof of this is how Llambais kept changing subject onto the shirt sponsor what has that got to do with renaming the stadium? were always going to get a shirt sponsor especially with our current position.

    I like alot of fans am not against the renaming but against what ashleys motives to doing it are and the fact is the club probably wont benefit at all only SD profits

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  39. N.I I never said it was said I just asked you what if it was the blk +wht stripes that were changed next, would you not be bothered.
    TC I had today in perspective while I was out in the freezing cold rain paying my respects to the brave Men and Women that gave their lifes and continue to do so, fighting for smething they believed in.

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  40. Pleased to see the wave of positism still flows, (not) after all we are only 3rd in the PL, best start anyone can remember, great buzz around the club. Oh f*ck forget it lets just rip it all to bits. The rag tops are just loving this- get a grip for the clubs sake. Jeez!!!!

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  41. ‘Thought the fact that today was 11.11.11 might have given some people a bit of perspective.’

    Aye, there’s people risking their lives everyday and getting limbs blown off and some on here are acting like it’s crime of the century to call it Sports Direct Arena. Which if you go and look at it, it is already anyway. Get a grip FFS. We will still call it whatever we want anyway, it has been proven at other clubs.

    Most people want success, heritage, nostalgia, europe everything. Well do you fancy paying another £10 a ticket? What about all the people who watch it in the pub? myself included. Since the premier league and the big money came along THIS is what WILL happen everywhere. The heritage went out of the window. Bottom line is people want success but it doesn’t come without cost.

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  42. TC thats an easy one mate Jabba will win simply because there isn’t enough people to stand up and fight for what they believe in, because its most fans find it easier to just sit back and except whatever Jabba decides to do. He has got free reign to do whatever he wants because he knows he doesn’t have to answer to anyone, and most fans fall for his lies. I still find it amazing that eventhough it’s on record that his main intentions to buy the Club was the global market/ advertisement for his sports company SD, but there is still ones that think he is going to let some other company have the advertisement rights of the huge advertisement hoarding that SJP has become.

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  43. Dave – I know it might sound crazy but maybe a lot of people “believe” that, for all his mistakes, Ashley is actually moving the club in the right direction.

    We’re third, we’ve gotten rid of a lot of dead wood, and a bad apple or two. We’re close to sustainability and we appear to have an excellent youth set-up, many of whom have been excelling for the reserves who sit 7 points clear at the top of the Premier Reserve League.

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  44. DJG I for one dont need you coming on here telling me to ‘get a grip ffs’ because there is people risking their lifes and getting limbs blew of.
    I was one of them people your talking about and I risked my life Iraq and in N.I. So please have the decency to not speak down to others like they are ****.
    If you don’t give a fuk about what Jabba is doing to our club that your right you can roll on your back and accept whatever he decides.
    But I won’t roll on my back for him and thats my right.

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  45. It’s a bit ironic that people are using Rememberance day as a tool to tell people “not” to stand up for what they believe in 🙄

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  46. TC I said before I hadn’t felt so good about the club in yrs then out of the blue with no consultation or nowt Jabba just ploughs through another **** storm, that we could have done without at this moment in time, as I believe the positivity of the fans was helping the players win games.
    I also hate it whe owlheed was asked only 2yrs ago after the sd@SJP **** storm, well the ground remain as SJP ? owlheed said ‘Absolutley in our reign Absolutley’ that has proved yet again that you ca’t trust these Liars.
    Reet getting ready to head home so i’ll catch you’s in a bit

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  47. Dunno if that’s aimed at me Richie, but if so that’s not what I said.

    I’m not happy about the name change but I also know that pishing and moaning about it every 5 minutes won’t change a thing.

    And if all that cockney **** starts again we can kiss goodbye to any European aspirations we might have had.

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  48. Dave – people are allowed to change their minds on things. It doesn’t then render everything they have said previously on the matter a lie.

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  49. Richie you mean the day that we remember the people that had the balls to fight for what they believed in. Yeah I thought using that was very distasteful.
    Catch you later mate

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  50. e.g. I never used to like olives. A couple of years ago if someone offered me an olive I would say, “no thanks, I don’t like them.”

    Now I do like olives. Does that make me a liar?

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  51. TC…nope it wasn’t. 😉 no one in particular.

    There’s probably nowt anyone can do about it at the end of the day, but people don’t seem to be even able to voice their disapproval on here without being called or patronised by a small minority.
    The name change upsets some more than others and it’s an emotional subject for some but what ever your views, for or against you should be allowed to air them without getting some smart arsed comment back……p.s Ashley’s a c@nt 😆

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  52. TC @ 69 mate I think Owlheed coming out and answering if the St James’ pk name will remain and him sayin ” Absolutley during our reign Absolutley ” is a definite answer mate . and not an answer that would leave some leeway. Nowt like someones tastes changing so I really don’t get the point of your comparison 😕

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