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Renaming St James's Park? Like I Give a Toss

Tony Horne can't understand why football fans should be concerned by Newcastle United's decision to allow the name of St James's Park to be sponsored.

By Tony Horne

10 Nov 2011, 12:14

I awoke this morning (Thursday) to a barrage of messages asking me if it was a rumour or a true-mour...had Mike Ashley renamed Newcastle United’s ground The Sports Direct Arena? Like I gave a toss.

The Newcastle United soap opera is one which bored me a long time ago – initially during my fifteen years on and off the air in the North East, I loved it. In the latter years, I simply fuelled it. Deliberately. Indeed I actually used to love penning articles about the latest trauma just to amuse myself over the next seven days as the same old same old arguments were trotted out by The Geordie Nation.

Through it all there was no doubt – the Toon Army love that club. For better or for worse.What was irritating was the breathtaking self-delusion, often backed up with phrases like “we are a big club” and “the fans are the lifeblood of this club”.

I would always argue on the former – show me your trophies, and where’s your international fan base? On the latter I would remind them that the TV deal was the single most important thing in the running of any club, not the fans.

They would lambast me, saying that there would be no TV deal if the fans didn’t turn up, which is daft really because you could play Newcastle versus Manchester United behind closed doors and still get a global TV audience of hundreds of millions if it was on in the Far East or sub-continent.

More to the point, over the years, I have heard so many times that there will be a boycott” this Saturday “and there never is. They always show up because they love the team, and they don’t want to let the team down and even if the Toon won the Champions League most of them would still call Mike Ashley a fat Cockney c***

Historically they have been treated poorly – from being told they could buy seats for life in the John Hall era to Chris Hughton’s unbelievable demise after gaining promotion.  Who can forget their love affair with Kevin Keegan and all which that emotional rollercoaster brought to the party?

Here’s the tester for the Toon Army – if the naming rights to the ground had been sold and renamed with something they actually liked or approved of, they wouldn’t have a problem, like Sage, a massive employer in the region, hugely respected globally too.

Let’s just say The Sir Bobby Robson Foundation decided that they wanted to raise their PR – and yes charities do advertise just like businesses because many of them are – and they paid a few million to have their name on it, and suddenly there was a global awareness of the great man’s charity not forgetting of course that Sir Bobby was king of this parish too, then everybody would say it was a brilliant idea.

The problem is the fans hate Mike Ashley and that distorts their arguments and any moral high ground. I don’t recall such a fuss at Arsenal or Wigan.

I think the true story here is not the renaming of the venue to the brand belonging to the owner – it is more a case that in the two years since he initially tried to incorporate the business into the ground name, there appear to be no takers. There are only two conclusions to be drawn here – Newcastle United is solely a shop window for Sports Direct, or they genuinely can’t find a sponsor, which is incredibly alarming.

The Toon Army often seem to forget it is Ashley’s club. He pays the bills, and the real question isn’t about ditching 120 years of heritage, it’s about why so few clubs haven’t sold their soul down the commercial river up to this point. Surely Manchester United, with their American owners must be looking at this and thinking now is the time, and this is the price – and what a huge price that would be. It also helps me understand why the once mighty Liverpool are so far behind – they are still arguing the toss about a new stadium, let alone its name – and if you’ve been to Anfield you will know, despite “all those great European nights” it has to go.

Ant and Dec may have tweeted their dismay from the I’m A Celebrity jungle this morning, but this has nothing to do with being disrespectful to the fans. If anything it is the reverse – preparing the business for the modern era, which is therefore hugely respectful.

The fans will still turn up every week, and they will still call it St. James Park – their joy is of course largely defined by what happens on the pitch.

They should probably be the last people to be consulted on this, since ultimately it is about whether broadcasters and writers begin to refer to it as The Sports Direct Arena, because it is they who change the language of the world, spread the message and provide commercial value.  It’s about reaching new people and finding new revenue, not about those who are already at the party. It is a business decision and doesn’t affect them. Sorry, but that’s true.

It remains to be seen, of course, whether Mike Ashley puts the money back into the team. There is very little evidence of that up to now.  Arguing that a name is your heritage is the Woolworths mentality – if you are so emotional about something that is part of your history, you can end up being part of it.

Oh, and they’re doing very well. So far.