The Sports Direct Arena

[TBM]

LOL

[M-U-R-T-Y]

No, you'll never beat this:

[Svlad Cjelli]

Getting money to be named after a chocolate bar >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> not getting any money while your ground is used boost your chairmans business/ego

[Seal]

Not that I agree with it at all, but it's not an ego thing, it's the club attempting to pave the way for a future combined shirt & stadium sponsorship deal. If they rename the stadium now, then it makes it more palatable for a new sponsor to do it next season.

We always tell clients to stay away from renaming traditional stadiums - too much negative PR and brand equity. No problem with new stadiums as the naming rights deal is seen as a benefit by most fans as it is helping to pay for the stadium, but not worth it with old stadia.

I would expect a foreign online brand / business to come in and do an deal next season - one that is only looking for the TV exposure to increase global awareness, and doesn't care too much what the local fans think.

[Bandini]

Getting money to be named after a chocolate bar >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> not getting any money while your ground is used boost your chairmans business/ego

Presumably it's a way of getting money to the club without infringing the Financial Fair Play thing.

[Royal Lady]

Calling it after Sports Direct has netted them £10 million pounds in sponsorship.


I'm just glad Oxford University Press didn't show an interest in sponsoring us before Mr Mad came.

[Svlad Cjelli]

Getting money to be named after a chocolate bar >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> not getting any money while your ground is used boost your chairmans business/ego

Presumably it's a way of getting money to the club without infringing the Financial Fair Play thing.

Nope - all sponsorship income would be counted as such under FFP.

[Svlad Cjelli]

Not that I agree with it at all, but it's not an ego thing, it's the club attempting to pave the way for a future combined shirt & stadium sponsorship deal. If they rename the stadium now, then it makes it more palatable for a new sponsor to do it next season.

We always tell clients to stay away from renaming traditional stadiums - too much negative PR and brand equity. No problem with new stadiums as the naming rights deal is seen as a benefit by most fans as it is helping to pay for the stadium, but not worth it with old stadia.

I would expect a foreign online brand / business to come in and do an deal next season - one that is only looking for the TV exposure to increase global awareness, and doesn't care too much what the local fans think.

I know ..... although in reality no-one will ever know it as anything other than St James Park.

I was just a bit defensive about a sneering attack on a club which I part own and which I have great affection for - when it helps ensure your club stays in existence after being horribly shafted by two uttercunts you don't worry too much about sponsorship from a chocolate bar (especially a local one.)

[Svlad Cjelli]

Calling it after Sports Direct has netted them £10 million pounds in sponsorship.

But is it real money - or the owner of both businesses using it as a way to transfer money from one arm of his empire to another? Money that he needs to transfer anyway...

He's subsidising the loss-running NUFC, so this was he gets to do it with company money rather than his own money, and set it off against tax.

[Bandini]

Getting money to be named after a chocolate bar >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> not getting any money while your ground is used boost your chairmans business/ego

Presumably it's a way of getting money to the club without infringing the Financial Fair Play thing.

Nope - all sponsorship income would be counted as such under FFP.

Sorry, I don't understand your point. If the ground is called the Sports Direct Arena then the market price for the sponsorship, ie the amount that Ashely could legitimately give to the club, will be greater than sportsdirect.com@ St James' Park.

[Svlad Cjelli]

Agreed - I was assuming you were saying that money on this sponsorship would not count as income under FFP - but presumably you're actually saying it increases the total income under FFP?

But under FFP he can donate as much as he likes for it to be counted as income - as long as it's donated and not lent. So I'm convinced this is more likely a tax-friendly way to transfer Sports Direct money to NUFC rather than his own.

[Bandini]

Exactly. I think it probably does numerous things at once, including setting a market value for the sponsorship which he can put to "third-party" sponsors, moving away psychologically from just donating money to the club, and as you say being tax deductible from Sports Direct's profits in a way that a pure donation from his own funds wouldn't be.

[No Fixed Abode]

Chelsea are going to do it soon.

[Seal]

^^^^^
Except they can't find a buyer willing to pay the price they want for it

[No Fixed Abode]

^^^^^
Except they can't find a buyer willing to pay the price they want for it

Nothing wrong with holding out for more money.

[Seal]

There is if the market won't pay it

[sheshnu]

Nothing wrong with holding out for more money.

[Compo's Hat]

I'll always call the grounds by what they were, so Bournemouth is still Dean Court to me just like Newcastle is St James' Park.

[Stuka]

They should have gone for Yorkie

[roadrunner]

Jeff Stelling wrote a good piece on this and how he will refuse to call it The Sports Direct Arena for as long as he can ovoid doing so.

I really don't see the fuss. For the fans you will always call it St James Park. You don't have to call it The Sports Direct Arena.