Stadium sponsor race hots up

St James' Park.

St James' Park.
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It seems as though the race to sponsor the ground, the shirt, and anything else with an available advertising space on it is hotting up.

Three names have been continuously linked with a deal,those being Nike, Virgin Money and mobile communications company O2.

However it is Nike that appear to be the hot favourites according to the People today, who claim that the American sportswear giant is closing in on a five year deal worth the £10 million a year that the club are seeking to achieve. A word of warning though. It’s being reported by Alan Oliver so I’d be tempted to use more than a pinch of salt when considering this particular rumour.

Virgin Money have been linked with us ever since they took over for Northern Rock last week and they’ve admitted that they’d like to talk to us “at the right time” regarding some form of sponsorship deal.

However it would appear that Virgin Money wouldn’t be interested in putting their name in place of St James’ Park.

“To be honest, I think it should be called St James’ Park,” said Virgin Money chief executive Jayne-Anne Gadhia.

Asked whether it might be renamed the Virgin Money Arena, she said: “I don’t think that would be right for Newcastle.”

“St James’ Park is part of the heritage of Newcastle and it’s important to local people, so for me it should be called St James’ Park.”

The other potential suitor is O2 although there have been no more reports of communication between the Spanish mobile phone firm who have a habit of acquiring naming rights for different venues.

As ever I guess we’ll have to wait and see. I wouldn’t mind Nike or Virgin Money or O2 in truth. Obviously I’d much prefer it if the ground stayed as St James’ Park, but if the name is to be sold off then I’d prefer to know that a company is paying for the privilege rather than getting a freebie.

Petty I know, but still.

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.

38 thoughts on “Stadium sponsor race hots up

  1. I still think Nike would be excellent if we are going to do this. Instant worldwide appeal to Sports fans. Much bigger than 02.

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  2. LukeEdwardsTele Luke Edwards
    I’ve been reliably told there is “no truth whatsoever” in story claiming Nike are front runners to become #nufc stadium and shirt sponsors
    2 hours ago

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  3. Interesting footage there STEVEP. The two squads seem to have a really healthy attitude towards each other. Quite a few International teammates of course…

    They were all mega relaxed!

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  4. Whoever gets naming rights doesn’t really matter as long as it benefits the cub.
    Also, this is the way forward now and all clubs will be taking on this stance in the not too distant future ,”in my opinion” just to stay afloat.

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  5. ARCHIEMAG i would by looking happy as **** and cool and relaxed if i was getting smudgers wage for do nowt as well :mrgreen:

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  6. Interesting to watch the footage. The kit man won’t be happy with Smudger nor the club accountant. That is a top worth £25 he gave away plus the embroidering. Could have a big effect on our January spending

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  7. Whoever takes the name, just wish they would do it quick, tho I suspect there won’t be a change before the summer, too much free advertising.

    Just watched MOTD and thought it was shocking. Saw Football First last night, looked like too different games. Was watching Football First with a friend who’s a Sunderland fan, even he said the scoreline flattered City and Newcastle looked good, in there all the time and not giving up, according to the BBC, we just didn’t turn up.

    Reading the last thread and saw a few mention about Ashley taking his loan back. I mentioned this once before and it really annoys me. We dont have a loan with Ashley, he bought the club and had to take on the debt and he paid it all off, more fool him. I can understand him trying to get some cash back if he sells the club, but there is no loan. If I had bought Comet for £2, I would have to take the debt on, its all part of the package. Either he should have kept paying it back as if the money was on loan or he has to sell the club to get cash back.

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  8. Of course he can get cash from player sales or sponsers etc, but its not a loan repayment, he’s just taking cash out of the club.

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  9. If it has to be done, wouldn’t be particularly against any of the above tbh. Can’t see it being nike though surely? Our kit deal with Puma must prevent having another sports merchandise manufacturer as our main sponsor? Wouldn’t be happy with nike having a bigger logo on the shirts.

    Although i doubt any contract would preclude the stadium rights so maybe a short term shirt sponsor until the puma deal runs out and then nike would become kit provider as well? Seems difficult.

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  10. The Puma deal runs out at the end of the season along with Northern Rock(not sure how the takeover affects that) unless it was renewed, which may be the case as Delboy said that Puma needed the name of the new sponsor for next seasons shirts.

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  11. Aye richie, that’s the comment i was going off. Assumed it ran for another year? Maybe they’ve agreed to renew it but haven’t announced it?

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  12. Witters, just seems stupid to me that you buy a business and its debt, you own the debt. Yes pay it off, but cant really expect to get it back. Unless of course its been done via his other business and the money has to be paid back to them. Be better off on the stock market again, tho nobody can aford to buy shares

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  13. Dub…defo due to run out the end of this season, can’t find owt official about an extension though. As you say can’t see Nike being the sponsor on a Puma made shirt. If anyone were to get the naming rights I’d think it would be a “global” name wanting to make use of the Premier League’s world wide appeal, so for me that would rule out O2 imo. All that said, I think fatman is more than happy to have SD all over the place for free 🙁

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  14. Simon….funny you should mention shares, my mate who has one share from the pre Ashley days got a letter last week asking if he would sell the share 😯 …….more evil plans afoot? 😕

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  15. Simon, he bought the club’s bank debts along with the club, paid off most of them through a personal loan to the club, then loaned the club more to cover the costs of relegation. Now he takes a cut from the club each year to pay down his loan. At least that’s how I understand it. That is how Chelsea is operated, though FFP rules will put an end to the practice.

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  16. watching L’pool game, that David Luiz is a decent player but a total liability. get Barfa to stick close to him, with a bit of skill he could take advantage of him.

    hes just tried to take on 4players just outside his own box lol

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  17. Alright lads I’m back from footie 🙂

    I think if the deals can get sorted out quickly then that will be best for all parties. I still call it St James’ Park and always will

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  18. I believe that it will be the Sports Direct Arena all the time Ashley is owner.

    I just can’t see him selling the rights when he can use the stadium and club as his personal free advertising tool.

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  19. The obvious answer is that sports direct will always have it’s name as our stadium and they will also become club sponsor on the shirts too. The shirts will remain with cheap Charlie puma. The sponsorship deal will be a sports direct tax right off and be reclaimable as advertising. It seems the most obvious way ahead.

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  20. Nike will never deal with Ashley . For 10 years he’s been trying to shaft them and they consistently refuse to allow their goods to be sold in SD. They’d rather sell their stuff on the quayside than give him any sort of deal. IT WON’T HAPPEN

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  21. I also don’t see any real sponsor of repute coming in as they all know of Ashleys love-hate relationship with his own club. We could end up as a poor investment for any company instead of the other way round.

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  22. On the up side, if Nike do come in for it they could really help with our youth scouting system. They’ve certainly got a lot of experience with kids in China…….

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  23. How about VIrgin Money for the shirts and Nike for the stadium and kit supplier? The Nike Arena…not a bad ring to it (even though I will still call it St. James’ of course 😉 )

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