For Sale: Tradition and heritage - Cabaye one get one free! - NUFC News 4.0

Russell1892 · Nov 9, 2011

F*ck me rigid he's actually done it

Ashley to rename St James's Park, "the Sports Direct Arena."

He can't help himself can he? Every f*cking time things are going well.

JaredSS07 · Nov 9, 2011

Sports Direct brings you news about Sports Direct.com@Sports Direct Arena (aka SJP) - NUFC News 4.0

Unbelievable... I didn't believe it when twitter was blowing up all afternoon but I never should have thought the best about Mike Ashley.

ZoomVT · Nov 9, 2011

Re: Sports Direct brings you news about Sports Direct.com@Sports Direct Arena (aka SJP) - NUFC News

and there it goes...

MagpieFan · Nov 9, 2011

Re: Sports Direct brings you news about Sports Direct.com@Sports Direct Arena (aka SJP) - NUFC News

Cripes. Talk about blowing up all the goodwill this season has generated.

tigerdave · Nov 9, 2011

Re: Sports Direct brings you news about Sports Direct.com@Sports Direct Arena (aka SJP) - NUFC News

Well, it was about time for him to do something that would piss everyone off.

JaredSS07 · Nov 9, 2011

Re: Sports Direct brings you news about Sports Direct.com@Sports Direct Arena (aka SJP) - NUFC News

If a company wants to get their moneys worth, buy the naming rights to Sports Direct Arena and rename it St. James' Park.

JayRockers! · Nov 9, 2011

Re: Sports Direct brings you news about Sports Direct.com@Sports Direct Arena (aka SJP) - NUFC News

As far as I'm concerned he's just devalued the worth of the club by the amount of his own cash he's put into it. Any potential buyer should consider the money he's "loaned" the club out of his pocket as money for the naming rights of the stadium/pitch/stands and whatever else he can slap his name on. And not to be paid back to him at the time of purchase.

Thx,

Jay!

Shameus · Nov 9, 2011

Re: Sports Direct brings you news about Sports Direct.com@Sports Direct Arena (aka SJP) - NUFC News

JayRockers! said: ↑

As far as I'm concerned he's just devalued the worth of the club by the amount of his own cash he's put into it. Any potential buyer should consider the money he's "loaned" the club out of his pocket as money for the naming rights of the stadium/pitch/stands and whatever else he can slap his name on. And not to be paid back to him at the time of purchase.

Thx,

Jay!
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This

I knew he was an idiot, just didn't believe he was this big of an idiot. He ruined all of the good feelings with the fan base the great start to the season brought and lost himself millions of pounds all with a single asinine move. Has anyone checked to see if it is a short bus or a limo that brings him to matches? It would explain so much.

el americano · Nov 9, 2011

Re: Sports Direct brings you news about Sports Direct.com@Sports Direct Arena (aka SJP) - NUFC News

Ashley: "They didn't like me anyway."

Blowing it up now to be ready for a sponsorship deal May. It makes monetary sense. Money never sleeps.

Toon³ · Nov 10, 2011

Re: Sports Direct brings you news about Sports Direct.com@Sports Direct Arena (aka SJP) - NUFC News

It makes no sense. Changing the name to show the potential of buying the naming rights to potential customers is a really dumb idea when 99% of supporters hate the name change and will instantly dislike any company who decides to buy the name.

The smartest thing any company can do is buy the rights and change the name to St James' Park, sponsored by.....

Toon³ · Nov 10, 2011

Re: Sports Direct brings you news about Sports Direct.com@Sports Direct Arena (aka SJP) - NUFC News

And Sports Direct Arena is still a better name than Stadium of Light

JaredSS07 · Nov 10, 2011

Re: Sports Direct brings you news about Sports Direct.com@Sports Direct Arena (aka SJP) - NUFC News

The repeated mantra of "It will always be St. James'" is bullshit. Once writers and TV commentators have to call it Sports Direct Arena we are one generation of new fans away from forgetting the original name.

Nookie Brown · Nov 10, 2011

Re: Sports Direct brings you news about Sports Direct.com@Sports Direct Arena (aka SJP) - NUFC News

F#&* you, Ashley. On days like this, I find myself rooting for heart disease to win.

AmericanMag · Nov 10, 2011

Re: Sports Direct brings you news about Sports Direct.com@Sports Direct Arena (aka SJP) - NUFC News

It is going to be called Sportsdirect arena for the forseeable future as I can't imagine any marketing firm or company wanting to go anywhere near putting their name on SJP. It would be toxic. And not just for the Geordie population but for anyone who cares about football. On SSN the comments from fans of other clubs were disgusted with this development.

SJTillIDie · Nov 10, 2011

Re: Sports Direct brings you news about Sports Direct.com@Sports Direct Arena (aka SJP) - NUFC News

JaredSS07 said: ↑

The repeated mantra of "It will always be St. James'" is bullshit. Once writers and TV commentators have to call it Sports Direct Arena we are one generation of new fans away from forgetting the original name.
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Candlestick park in San Francisco has had many corporate name changes and fans have always continued to refer to it by its original name of candlestick. I wouldn't worry about that.

Russell1892 · Nov 11, 2011

Re: Sports Direct brings you news about Sports Direct.com@Sports Direct Arena (aka SJP) - NUFC News

It'll always be St James's really, its just crap that its going to be referred to as that horrific moniker in TV coverage and in the press. But we've got the Sir John Hall stand, which has been called that for the last 15 years or so, that's still referred to as the Leazes end by supporters.

Anyway, 5 Live did a special on us on Wednesday night. The show's called "turnaround of the toon" and is worth a listen, Steven Taylor's on it offering some insight to the dressing room and stuff. Its all before the stadium name change stuff came out so there's a lot that is quite funny in hindsight already. "Why doesn't Ashley and Llambias get any credit?" "Well the fans don't trust them."

A piece in the Guardian about how it doesn't make sense from a business perspective either. I really am beginning to think Ashley is a Mackem on the wind-up.

supersewelly · Nov 11, 2011

Re: Sports Direct brings you news about Sports Direct.com@Sports Direct Arena (aka SJP) - NUFC News

That show was very mysteriously timed in my opinion. It was essentially an hour long appraisal of all the good Mike Ashley has done for NUFC.

mplsTOON · Nov 11, 2011

Re: Sports Direct brings you news about Sports Direct.com@Sports Direct Arena (aka SJP) - NUFC News

A study by Niederhoffer and Kenner compared the stock market returns of companies acquiring "landmark" stadium rights versus the broader market. The results appeared in their book, Practical Speculation (it can be viewed on Google Books (page 156-158) if you really wanna know)

Though somewhat out of date now, their methodology was documented and could be repeated for current times. After analysizing performance of 31 companies, from announcement of naming rights to 3 years into the future they found that During the naming and subsequent years, the companies underperformed the S&P500 and that Years 2&3 of owning namin rights their companies performance was mixed to bullish. It also found that quite a few companies who bought naming rights were in financial trouble when they bought the rights in an attempt to generate quick exposure for their company. Of those companies none are around in that form today

So Llama's point that Ashley is ahead of the curve in doing this is incorrect. While it does land short term cash infusion for an organization who sells the naming rights, A fairly sizable majority of companies who have bought naming rights have found that the money would have gotten a higher ROI on other forms of advertising and marketing and that the purchase of the naming rights does little to nothing in respect to their brand image and further their bottom line.

In other words, naming rights are a desperate marketing ploy whose usefulness was gone back in 2008 when the economy collapsed; fit for only a sucker or the desperate.

bullsear · Nov 12, 2011

Re: Sports Direct brings you news about Sports Direct.com@Sports Direct Arena (aka SJP) - NUFC News

JaredSS07 said: ↑

If a company wants to get their moneys worth, buy the naming rights to Sports Direct Arena and rename it St. James' Park.
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This is the best idea I have ever heard of. Now that Northern Rock has decided to end their jersey sponsorship early, a company could get on the front of the kit and maximize exposure.

At this point, I'd settle for "Saint James Park brought to you by ..."
What a moron MA is.

Oh, and if the club thinks they're going to get 10M a year for the naming rights, they're dumber than I thought.

mplsTOON · Nov 12, 2011

Re: Sports Direct brings you news about Sports Direct.com@Sports Direct Arena (aka SJP) - NUFC News

bullsear said: ↑

Oh, and if the club thinks they're going to get 10M a year for the naming rights, they're dumber than I thought.
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the Vikings are only budgeting 8 million for stadium naming rights per year on the new stadium if its built in Arden Hills as opposed to Minneapolis where they are budgeting even less, and that ,like all other predictions from the Wilf organization are most probably overinflated....

el americano · Nov 12, 2011

Re: Sports Direct brings you news about Sports Direct.com@Sports Direct Arena (aka SJP) - NUFC News

There is no chance someone would pay millions for the naming rights and not use it. It's regional good will vs. national name recognition. Too bad. The way teams usually do it is tear down the old stadium and build a new one. So, it could be worse.

Anyway, do we get a sponsorless shirt for a little bit? I'd get one of those.

Russell1892 · Nov 13, 2011

Re: Sports Direct brings you news about Sports Direct.com@Sports Direct Arena (aka SJP) - NUFC News

Llambias gets hammered and has a go at Shearer and Keegan.

Well that's what the headline of the piece is. To be fair I don't think he says anything that isn't true or isn't his right to hold as an opinion. He just seems to be a bit of a tit.

However, the most surprising news to come out of this is that appointing Keegan was supposedly because Ashley was in the middle of selling the clubs to some Arabs, and they wanted KK in charge.

Least surprising quote of the piece:
"You guys don’t **understand how f****** **horrible we can be."

And a related piece giving some insight into the Carroll deal. Including that we got the £35m up front.

Russell1892 · Nov 13, 2011

There's also some stuff I've been reading over the weekend about how Northern Rock has ended its sponsorship of the club. See here.

Now if this ends in January... does it actually stop mid-season? I know Llambias has said he needs to find a sponsor by December, given that Puma are manufacturing the shirts and need to know. Can't imagine that's for next season as the Puma deal is due to end this year, unless its been renewed and I don't know about it.

We're going to have f*cking Sports Direct on our shirts in January aren't we? If you don't have a Northern Rock shirt now.... get one soon, could be going cheap in December.

MagpieFan · Nov 14, 2011

Russell1892 said: ↑

There's also some stuff I've been reading over the weekend about how Northern Rock has ended its sponsorship of the club. See here.

Now if this ends in January... does it actually stop mid-season? I know Llambias has said he needs to find a sponsor by December, given that Puma are manufacturing the shirts and need to know. Can't imagine that's for next season as the Puma deal is due to end this year, unless its been renewed and I don't know about it.

We're going to have f*cking Sports Direct on our shirts in January aren't we? If you don't have a Northern Rock shirt now.... get one soon, could be going cheap in December.
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Blarg. Didn't think of that. Definitely gonna spring for a new jersey for a Christmas gift to the self. The only one I have is a Black and Blue affair with the ntl: sponsor days.

now...Do i want the home jersey this time, the puma away, or that snappy orange change?

Also need to consider what store to order from.

JayRockers! · Nov 14, 2011

MagpieFan said: ↑

Blarg. Didn't think of that. Definitely gonna spring for a new jersey for a Christmas gift to the self. The only one I have is a Black and Blue affair with the ntl: sponsor days.

now...Do i want the home jersey this time, the puma away, or that snappy orange change?

Also need to consider what store to order from.
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Get it from the NUFC.com website. They source the shirts so you don't put money in SportsDirect's coffers.

Maybe that's what Llambias was complaining about when he said the team wasn't making squat on kit sales.

Thx,

Jay!