Would you dig deep to save St James’ Park?

A quick clean up....
So I see the stadium has been spray painted again. Woopdedoo. That really proves a point doesn’t it?

Now don’t get me wrong, I fully understand the emotion behind it all and the reason for why it’s been done. I just think it’s childish and, above anything else, it’s actually illegal.

It’s the third time it has happened now and each time I’ve found myself rolling my eyes. Fair play to those who feel that they want to make a stand and show their emotion over the subject of the name change, but do they honestly believe that one phone call to bring in a contractor to clean it followed by a bill of roughly £100 is going to bother a bloke who is now worth £1.8bn?

This is part of the problem you see. People obviously feel passionate about it and I’m no different. Not once have I referred to St James’ Park as its other name and to be honest I never will. It’s always been St James’ Park for me and always will be.

However I’m not blinded with hatred and understand the business sense behind the name change – remember £10m would be rather handy for signing players with. My main issue is this whole “showcase” malarkey where the ground has been ‘tarted up’ as it has been to show potential sponsors what they could purchase. I’ve never been sold on that and never will be.

What I’m failing to see is a credible way of showing how we feel about the name, or a credible plan with the aim of trying to reinstate the iconic ground back to it’s official, rightful name of St James’ Park.

I’ve suggested before that perhaps we, as fans, could get some form of fund together so that the club get the money they are looking for while the fans get the name they are looking for. It’s not as far fetched as it sounds either – remember the NUST taking pledges from fans who wanted to buy the club? We’d need 10% of their target total.

As a very rough example it would require £20 each season from 500,000 NUFC fans from wherever in the world to donate £20 to some form of fund to approach the club and say that we have the cash to buy the naming rights to the stadium.

Surely that is a better idea than daubing spray paint on a wall outside of the ground? It has to be, and being honest I’m really surprised that no other body or public figure has come up with the idea so far. Think of the publicity after all.

So tweet this article, post links on Facebook, share it via e-mail or post it on other blogs/forums/websites if you like. If there is enough support for it then you never know, we could just make the difference.

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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 “Would you dig deep to save St James’ Park?

  1. Guess il copy this over so to the proper thread:

    Toonsy for me the biggest problem with our plan (apart from people being willing to part with the money) is that they’ll want to be able to identify where it’s used. Money won’t be spent on players every window, nor should it be if there’s no one that would improve the team. Money is needed or the academy etc as well but fans will demand an extra £10m player every year and ignore wages costs, signing bonus et al. Then there’ll also be those that give out saying that the money that was spent should’ve been spent by MA anyway and accuse him of pocketing the 10m.

    I appreciate what your trying to do in coming up with an alternative solution, just playing devils advocate

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  2. Also I think naming it SDA was more to take away the initial anger of renaming from any potential sponsor than to show the value, but obviously they can’t say that.

    By the way I know 10m is the popular figure for the rights that’s floating around but wasn’t that something llambias through out in an interview for naming rights and sponsorship combined back in december? And even at that, a hope value to get fans to come around to the idea, more than an actual valuation or bid

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  3. I honestly cant see anyone buying the naming rights, it would be bad publicity all round.
    Reckon we’re stuck with St James Park (albeit labeled as SDA) 🙂

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  4. Stevep you raise an interesting question. When they announced the SDA name did they say it was til the end of the season (like with sd.com@sjp) or not? If they don’t find a new sponsor will they leave it SDA forever?

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  5. Dub if they rename it St James park after the 10m has been paid, why would it matter where the money goes.. If fans care about the heritage of the ground, they should be happy that their donation has kept the name alive..

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  6. I voted yes as-on a personal level I’d be more than willing to donate 20quid to reinstate the proper name-although to be fair I’ll always use St James’ Park no matter what they eventually end up calling it, as I’m sure most of us will.

    The problems with the plan are firstly as Dubtoon says, about people wanting a say in where their money goes. Obviously that would be impossible to regulate, and whilst having people involved in the club can be great for everyone, it can also create its own kind of pressure-look at Barca for example.

    Secondly I’d be wary of the club then holding the fans to ransom for example. I mean they said it would potentially generate 10mil this year, fair enough. But if we’re in the champions league next year what’s to stop them claiming it would generate 20mil? That’s already doubled what fans have agreed to pay for example…

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  7. if we make the champions league we should leave it at SJP as it will be more likely a company will want the naming rights.

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  8. Toonsy – I respect you greatly for coming up with an idea and everything, but imo it’s just too big an amount to raise. If it was a one-off payment then maybe, but remember that this is £10m EVERY YEAR. If it was to be set up through a website or something, I reckon you’d have to leave it running for a year just to get anywhere near the amount needed, and then you’d immediately need to start raising again. And all this just so we can take some signs down and put up some SJP ones?

    I just feel it’s completely meaningless to me what they call it. I will always call it SJP and I know that 99% of other people will too, and that is enough for me. I want us to be in the CL regularly, and I can see we need the funds in order to make that a realistic ambition. I would much rather they do it this way than move stadium to somewhere else with a brand new name. I cannot understand why some people on here seem to find that the LESS offensive option. If they did that then St James’ Park really would be gone forever.

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  9. AMF I see where your coming from but I think they will want to see the money invested regardless of who pays it, that was the reason for putting the rights up for sale in the first place. Paying for it as a fan group though will give every fan who contributed that much more interest in the specifics of it and that much more angry if it wasn’t invested ( ie making it a scheme to take 10m a year from the fans, without actually doing anything with it than paying off personal debt to MA). Now I don’t think it would go to MA or anything like that but it would just create an unhealthy amount of scrutiny and pressure.

    There’s also the practical issue of the club wanton a long term contract to help manage their cash flow where a deal with supporters would need funds to be raised every year. If the club starts to do better, there’s the danger newbie alludes to above. If the club does worse or MA makes an unpopular decision, fans won’t pay and the club is out of pocket, bad for everyone (and maybe name back to SDA)

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  10. But Dub, isn’t it all about the stadiums name? If fans are willing to break the law to keep the name, why not reach into their pockets a donate some money instead…

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  11. Not sure you came up with the idea first Sy, as I mentioned this many, many months ago & got laughed, tho I did say fans would need to cough up £100 a season to change the name 🙄

    As for the name itself, how much of the actually land that the stadium sits on, actually belongs to Ashley 😕 The reason I’m asking is, if the council are dead against the renaming, why don’t they erect a ‘St James Park Stadium’ sign right outside the stadium, something that Ashley can’t remove & which belongs to the council, that way we’ll all be happy 😉 😉

    Another thing is, how the hell would you get 500,000 Toon fans to donate £20 each from everywhere in the world, I know we’re a big club but do we have that sort of support World wide 😯 Personally I’d be willing to donate more than £20 to get the naming rights of the stadium, as it wouldn’t just be the sign outside, it’d be most of the advertising hoarding inside too… can’t understand why a big company hasn’t taken it already 😆

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  12. Why haven’t NUST tried to buy the naming rights, don’t they have loads of money which has been donated to them from fans, I know I did back when they were looking into buying the club 🙄

    Maybe them & some of the millionaires who’ve played & love the club so much could join forces, to buy the naming rights 😎

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  13. Think the article says it all really, as have the club, we all call it SJP anyway nothings changed except to outsiders.

    So fans would be paying for nothing.

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  14. Newcastle City Council led the outcry against the name change.

    Nothing to stop them increasing the council tax to enable them to buy the naming rights.

    Oh sorry , there is – Newcastle residents would vote the incumbent council out.

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  15. agreed at 13. what we call it is all that matters….

    BTW, whatever happended to all of the donations made to NUST for the purpose of buying the club? Was it returned or all they still collecting with a hope to buy it someday?

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  16. T69 – Did I say I’d come up with the idea like?

    I’m just surprised that none of the “powerful” fan groups and what not haven’t even considered it 😕

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  17. Toon69 I think the council own the land and the club own the stands? I think thats why the ordnance survey and council signs can still say sjp. So I suppose the pitch is sjp and the stands around it are called sda.

    AMF I know what you mean but if you and most of the people you know spend 20/50 and the club don’t do anything with it, it would be a little off. I don’t see then how they could justify selling the rights at all in the first place. The whole point is to improve the team. If its not going to be invested, leave it as sjp and don’t charge for it.

    So if you’re charging for it, either it’s being paid to mike or invested and when the fans are paying for it, I just think that it would create a lot of scrutiny. Just my opinion of course.
    Put it this way, if the fans are paying for the name and not to improve the club, ten why the need to pay at all?

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  18. Toon69
    April 27, 2012 at 15:47

    “Why haven’t NUST tried to buy the naming rights, don’t they have loads of money which has been donated to them from fans, I know I did back when they were looking into buying the club”

    Aye, so did a lot of other mugs who got washed away by a (not even) half-baked idea.

    the question is, where have all of those pledges gone to, and where is NUST now?

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  19. Because it is easier to ***** about it than to do something about it Toonsy…

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  20. aussie magpie fan
    April 27, 2012 at 15:19

    “Dub if they rename it St James park after the 10m has been paid, why would it matter where the money goes.. If fans care about the heritage of the ground, they should be happy that their donation has kept the name alive..”

    This kind of nails my point 100%

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  21. aussie magpie fan
    April 27, 2012 at 15:54

    “Because it is easier to ***** about it than to do something about it Toonsy…”

    Again agree 100%

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  22. Stardy – spot on for me. Yes it’s disappointing but to fans it will always be the same. To outsiders it’ll change the name but what difference does that make.

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  23. Anybody been to Wigan before. Is stadium in or near town centre and handy for bars, chippy etc

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  24. TlR – It’s not too near the town centre I’m afraid. Looking at a 20 minute walk as I recall. There’s a retail park right by it though with things like a Pizza Hut on it and just opposite is a pub called the Robin something…. Can’t quite remember the name. It does food and it’s where the away fans congregate.

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  25. Sorry AMF it took took a lot of words to phrase it in the right way. This bit sums up my argument ‘Put it this way, if the fans are paying for the name and not to improve the club, then why the need to pay at all?’

    MDS well done v the pens

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  26. Good question Sy, where are NUST & the money these days 😕 Saying that, a pledge is just that, it’s not an exchange of funds, you just pledge to transfer funds should the thing you’ve pledged the money too come to fruition 😉

    Dub – So the council own the land the stadium is on, so they could, if they really wanted too, stick up a sign right outside the entrance, just in front of where the old sign used to be & Ashley couldn’t do anything about it 😆 😆

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  27. T69 – Exactly. But what exactly has been pledged for, considering the club is no longer officially on the market like it was when that ragtag organisation started spouting it’s waffle and suckering people into it?

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  28. Toon69 you still have the money in your account then? And I’m not sure of the specifics but yeah I don’t see why not 😆 no different to leaving the street signs unchanged

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  29. Dub, I see what you are saying but you would be paying for the name back and it will cover any losses in potential sponsership money.

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  30. Good point toonsy, there must be an expiry date in the contract. As for why they can’t use te money on the rights, I imagine it’s in the terms that the money is only to be used in buying equity shares in st James holding ltd or whatever the holding company is called. Doubt they can use it for anything else without getting permission again.

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  31. Toonsy
    get fans to give ten quid a year which would eventually ammount to £10m a year to keep some signs up on a building? Or, qualify for the CL, grabbing the attention of big companies so that someone like Nike comes in offering £25/30m a year for the naming rights? I know which I’d rather.
    I’m not popooing your idea I just don’t think fans have the follow-through to do it.

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  32. Well if I can remember correctly, you pledge to hand over x amount of £ if they brought the club, which they never did & so the pledge was never completed… btw I wasn’t one of the one’s who pledged thousands, I only offered a wee bit, which would have gone into a pot along with others who offered a wee bit to make up a pledge of £X thousands 😆 😆

    Dub – So all we have to do then, instead of hounding fans to give up money, is get fans to write a letter to the local council, asking them to put up a new sign in front of the old one… you know the sort, they have them on entering & leaving villages…..

    Small text – Welcome to
    Super Huge Text – St James Park Stadium

    😆 😆

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  33. AMF I suppose it depends how each fan looks at it really. I’d be prepared to give money to help improve the club, not to make official the sjp name that I and everyone else would use anyway

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  34. T69 – True, but I would imagine the club would just launch an objection to the council putting up any signs which block any part of St James’ Park. I know people will say that the club would have to reject to the council and it wouldn’t get anywhere but they could just appeal and get an appeal heard elsewhere in a less partizan art of the country.

    Would be funny, but would also never happen.

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  35. T69 you’d have to leave ‘stadium’ out as ur talking about the land not the stands but aye 😆 love to see if they could do that and dl’s reaction. Probably see him out with the spray paint writing sda on the sign 😆

    Andy – don’t know where you’re gettin the figures from. The 10m was a potential amount mentioned by dl which probably included incentives (and possibly shirt sponsorship too I think). I think the emirates is only something like £6m basic p/a

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  36. Dubtoon
    Just thought of it on the spot to be honest, thought it would be a fair bit of money considering how much liverpool get for shirt sponsership, thought stadium naming rights would be far more.

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  37. I would be happy to cough up £20 to reinstate the name .My only reservation would be as people have already stated that next year the £10m becomes £20m as where does it all end. I will always call it SJP as will every one else ,even pundits still refer to it as SJP so it’s a bit of a hollow victory for Ash.

    I don’t actually mind the signs inside the stadium as we have to remember he is subbing the club a £100M interest free loan saving us millions in interest payments . I suppose the question is if say Virgin or someone like Santander or Sony was giving us £100m interest free would we be happy to let them put their brand up all round the stadium ,I think a lot of us would tbh. It’s because it’s Ash that rankles a lot of fans and it’s also seen as a tacky brand too.
    My main gripe is the actuall renameing of the club with the iconic sign going ,not the adverts all around inside.

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  38. Just checked Andy. 6.66 m a year for arsenal. Consider inflation over a 15year deal and effectively 6 a year.

    Regardless, I don’t think it’s about the precise amount of money, more about whether people will accept a name change/are willing to pay to prevent it

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  39. @41
    Should it matter what a sign says outside a building, its the spirit that flows out it 😥 😥 😆 🙄

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  40. Kimtoon @ 40 – I think if we had enough money to buy the namin rights, they’d be say £60m over a 10yr term fixed price, so even if the club got relegated agian, god forbid, or CL footy it would still be £6m per season, just like the ST’s are now… 😎

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  41. Ridiculous idea . 😯

    Out of principle fans would not pay it.

    Paying cash to have the name reinstated.

    Not on my nelly.

    Toonsy, you hit the nail on the head without noticing it. He’s worth £1.8bn and you want to pay him to take his own company name down.

    Bollocks with that.

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  42. Best solution by far is to let him keep his name up for a couple of seasons and then as is inevitable, no company will buy into it, therefore the pressure should really start to urge him to pay £10m into the clubs coffers and not SD or take it down.

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  43. Who gives a flying? Really, it’s just a name and will always be the same old SJP.

    Anyway off to Tallinn for a few days and should include plenty drink, drugs, sex and well anything else that can be thought of.

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  44. Toon 69 @43- Yes that makes sense ,bit like the Emirates deal which works out at around £6m a year or something like that.

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  45. this name change carry on has made to much bad news no company will take it up.
    ashley knew this its just a free way for him to advertise his ***** shops

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  46. The only way the Regime could justify keeping SDA long term would be to pay for the privilege or build an extension on the Gallowgate .

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  47. @Stu

    Myself and many thousands other give a huge flying. Can’t see how you don’t.

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  48. He is using the club to give his company prestige. Just glad he doesn’t own a double glazing company.

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  49. Troy @ 51 I 1005 agree with that and cant work out why a fan wouldn’t give a fuk :shock:.
    I have said that I would pay because in effect its only 40p a week but I also said that We the fans shouldn’t have to because it shouldn’t have been changed in the 1st place, So I completly understand your stance on the principle of it , and I agree that most fans would agree with that.

    I 100% believe that Jabba knew that the top sponsorship, advertising and PR people were right when they said that no company would want to be part of the Toxic re branding, but He bought the club to globally advertise sports direct to the world so why would he let someone else 😕

    As for we all call it SJP and so do the pundits well the only one I know has stuck to the SJP is Jeff Sterling all others I have heard call it the sports direct arena then they add on that to them its SJP but that will soon fizzle away and we’ll be left with the sda,

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  50. Big dave- Gabby yorath, Robbie savage ,Alan green to name 3 off the top of me head .Infact Gabby has said she will never refer to it as SDA 😀 . You are probably right though in time they will all say SDA ,sad but true. 😥

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  51. Kimtoon yeah I have heard them but when the game is being televised it is introduced as the Toon vs a another from SDA which is what people catch on to, not a few pundits that say at SDA but to me it will always be SJP 😕

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  52. Last November Llambias said we would buy a striker in January if we sold the stadium naming rights.

    We bought Cisse.

    Who paid for him ? It must have been Sports Direct.

    If Mike Ashley or Derek Llambias came out and told the fans this ,the whole argument would go away.

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  53. Sidekick the money from Carroll that we had set aside for the CB we needed would have paid for it no ? or maybe virgin money helped out, but you can be 100% sure if it was sd we would have knew about it.

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  54. There are never going to realistically be enough fans who would actually follow through with something like this as nice as the idea is thats all it will remain an idea. We like everyone else have to move with the times ? why do we always have to find something to moan about ? it has always been and always will be St james park to us fans. Someone will sponsor the stadium especially with us doing so well and if they have any brains they will incorporated SJP into the title like ashley originally did hence gaining the acclaim of us fans. Lets get behind the team and Ashley we need to be united the graffiti is ridiculous and needs to be condemned as yo have rightly done in your article it gets us nowhere except bad headlines.. lets leave that to liverpool and saggy chops redknapp 🙂

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  55. Dave, I’ll only be 100% sure when Sports Direct annual audited finances come out.

    I really am expecting to see a payment to Nufc.

    Didn’t know we had set aside money from the Carroll sale for a defender.
    Llambias only said we would buy a striker in January if the naming rights were sold ,and a few weeks later he said the priority might change to a defender………….the priority did not change.

    Do you not believe that Mr Llambiass is a man of his word ? 😀

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  56. Toonsy – I think it’s a great idea but logistically it’s would be complicated to set up and maintain and would probably need a company with paid staff to run it.
    I think the main thing people are forgetting is that if the fans did raise enough money to take down the SD advertising – the stadium would look every bare. There would be an awful lot of space to sell to companies to advertise.
    We may actually only need to generate say £5-6m per year as fans. Hell we could even charge MA for advertising his company.
    The thing is that, in a round about way Ashley IS paying for the advertising at the moment. While he chooses not to charge us interest on his loan, he is actually saving the club around £10m a year.

    I think to run something like you are suggesting would need someone who is in the advertising business and would have the contacts and money to set it up.
    The only issue I see is that, I don’t think you’d get enough money from companies advertising and I think over time alot of fans who were behind it at first may start to think like Troy.
    Why should I have to pay to keep SJP called SJP.
    I think the morons who have been responsible for the graffitti would probably sooner see their £20 on 8 cans of Fosters and a can of spray paint.

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  57. It would be far easier to add £10 to every match day seat price.
    50k x £10 x 19matches = £9.5M.
    simples. 😆
    But lets see how many fans **** and moan when their season tkts have gone up by £190 a yr.
    LOOK. It just isn’t going to happen.
    Botton line is we need big buck corporate sponsorship at SJP if we are ever to be able to compete with other top table clubs who are already minted.
    Chelsea are set to rake in £45M just for appearing in the CL final. Even more if they were to win it. 👿
    Its fucking ludicrous. The big clubs just keep getting richer and the smaller clubs cant ever hope to compete.
    This is why CL is the holy grail at the moment. All other compos are a waste of time financially.
    The whole money grabbing side of football just pisses me off.
    👿

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  58. good idea, would be happy to donate, one condition. Organising body must be credible. Which rules out all the protest groups that have been around so far.

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  59. premandup, the only credible body that could organise the donations is the council!! why dont the council buy the naming rights?? they could put the ground rent up, and use that , plus what fans donate!! anyway this is going knowwhere now, as we all call it SJP, and we will always call it SJP!!!

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  60. BB@64- You make a good point about Chelski getting £45m just for getting to the CLfinal. It’s crazy money and true that the big teams just keep getting richer and richer leaving the rest of us trailing in their dust. What I’m having a problem with is if they win they take the final CL spot even if they are nowhere near top 4. This is obviously as a result of the Dippers spitting the dummy out after they won and wern’t in top 4 and the rules getting changed after to what we have in place now. The thing is WHY should they defend the title ,I mean it’s not like winning the league it’s just a cup and a cup you can only win if you end the season in top 4 and are in the competition . What gives any team the right to be in the CL if they don’t qualify .So what if they win that’s this year done ,over with .If they arn’t top 4 then tough **** I say give someone else a chance. By the way that applies to who ever finishes top 4 not just us ,befor anyone says its sour grapes.

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  61. yup its just plain wrong.
    The winner of the FA cup dont get a bye into the quarter finals or something the following year. They start the same as every other team.
    I was always led to believe that each year the CL was a new competition with those teams that make the qualification requirements. ie top 4.
    FULL FUCKING STOP 👿
    The rules are bent to aid the richer clubs basically.
    anyhoo win tomorrow and its no longer our problem, but Arsenals :mrgreen: 😆

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  62. I voted no for the simple fact that the naming rights aren’t for sale and never have been. Ashley bought the club for two reasons. 1.) he’s rich and loves football. 2.) to raise the profile of sports direct worldwide.

    Playing in Europe next season which do you think will make him more money, £10 mil for naming rights or free advertising on a worldwide stage?

    Do I care? NO!

    To everyone that matters it’s still SJP.

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  63. Why doesnt ashley put 20 mill ayear into the club ‘out of his own pocket’ like he said he was going to when he bought the club. we wouldnt need a ground sponsor then, let alone a sponsor that pays us a load of money for having their name plastered all over OUR ground. remember what wor sir Bobby said about our football club,

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  64. I would not. Realistically you are never going to get half a million people to spare this amount of cash every year anyway. Our fan base is not big enough… It does not matter what they refer to it as, it will always be St James Park and the whole footballing world knows this.

    They can call it what they want, but on the understanding that the money is re-invested in the club (paying off loans, paying wages, transfers, upgrading – so long as it’s in NUFC’S best interests then who cares HOW it is spent) and St James Park should still be made AS clear as the advertising.

    A middle ground should be sought – like Sports Direct @ St.James Park.

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  65. There’s no reason that would not work. The tradition of keeping the stadiums original name gives a sponsor more clout. It would be a big deal to sponsor St James’ Park….As opposed to a gimmick of having a different name every 5 minutes such as Sports Direct Arena this season, then Nike Arena the next. It takes away a lot of the clout.

    Look at commentary on UFC and TalkSport – always plugging sponsors. ”Here we are for this big game at Newcastle United’s St James Park, this fantastic stadium steeped in history proudly sponsored by Budweiser, the cool, crisp refreshing lager of the 21st Century.” Then onto the game… It flows, it works and people are engaged due to the tradition still existing…

    You can get contemporary whilst maintaining history. In fact, it’s the sensible thing to do… 😛

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  66. Where does this £10m figure arise from? Most financial analysts/experts said it it was a fanciful sum.£2-5m more likely. Will that amount of money be the difference between regular champs league or also rans? Don’t be daft.

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  67. No Denny £2-5M doesn’t make that much difference when you are regularly in the top 4, but when you’re not, as we haven’t been for too long now, it is a massive ammount, that can pay for another player, that COULD potentially help push us up into the top 4.
    Also
    to be fair to Big Mikey, the original plan was to go down the “sponsor @ SJP” route, and tbh I can still see that one coming off.

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