Mike Ashley seems fond of shocking people, and his latest shock is to change the name of St. James’ Park without any discussion whatsoever.
Derek Llambias – tries to explain the renaming of St. James’ Park
That’s what you get to do when you own a football club outright, and if the fans don’t like it – hard cheese.
That’s the way Mike has run the club since he bought it in June of 2007, and he’s very rarely listened to Newcastle fans before making his decisions.
And we don’t want to sound like a broken record, but the fans are Mike’s customers – they are the ones who support his club and pay the money over to watch the home games, and the away games too.
There’s been a bit of a firestorm since it was announced yesterday, and Managing Director Derek LLambias has tried to explain the move on BBC Radio Newcastle:
“I would hope it would generate between £8M and £10M a year,” “That would give us another player. The club needs to be self-sufficient, and this will help us be self-sufficient. Yes, we do need to go that one step further to compete.”
“Yes, we do. You know Chelsea has come out to basically say they are going to re-name their present stadium. Now, they have a long history as well, but they have an owner who actually has more money than God.”
“We can’t compare ourselves to Abramovich, we have not got that sort of money, so if we want to compete with the big boys, we have to bring more money in.”
Llambias has also come out and said the funds raised by the reaming will be reinvested into the club to buynew players, but that rings hollow after we were told the £35M from the Andy Carroll sale would be reinvested into the club.
It hasn’t been – not yet anyway.
Derek talked about the excellent start the team has made to the season:
“We have had an exceptional year, and long may it continue, but the fans want us to buy more players,”
“We need to bring in a striker in January, we will need replacements in the summer and we need to give ourselves as much as possible.”
“There is no guarantee we will find a sponsor between now and then, but we have to give ourselves the opportunity and this is one. We have to keep going at it.”
“We can’t just say ‘Oh, it hasn’t worked out, let’s go back to what we were’. We have to give ourselves the maximum opportunity to sell it.”
“I totally respect the tradition and history of the club,” he said. “That is always going to be there, but we need to move with the times and this is progression. “
“We need to move on. We are not disrespecting our fans at all. Far from it. We are trying to make it affordable and put players on the pitch.”
“We have exhausted all our other revenue streams, retail is not good – that produces next to nothing, quite honestly – so we need to bring in more.”
“We have been out there a long time looking. We lose Northern Rock as a sponsor this year, so it gives me a very small window to get a new shirt sponsor and hopefully a stadium sponsor at the same time.”
“We understand that side of it, if fans continue to call it St. James’ Park, but it is the sponsor’s responsibility, as well as ours, to move forward,” “Time will dissolve that.”
“The history will always be there, we just become part of the history or they become part of the history. We just need to make sure we give ourselves the opportunity.”
We are running a poll to see how fans feel about the renaming of St. James’ Park and you can vote here in the right hand column – one vote per reader.
Comments welcome.
143 comments so far
shirtonapole tinooo
Nov 10, 2011 at 8:37 PM
Comment #1repost
alright lads,
don´t know if anyone´s already posted this link, but sort of messes with ashley´s plans…. 😉
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-15681118
i´m not really bothered either way as it´s always goin to be sjp to me, but does anyone think that a major company will sponsor the stadium under these conditions?
HWTL
ToonDownSouth
Nov 10, 2011 at 8:37 PM
Comment #2And so it starts…
After weeks without a single negative word spoken by our fans, and nothing but praise from the country’s media, the drama starts all over again.
Difficult to blame anyone bar those 2 in charge.
t00ntime
Nov 10, 2011 at 8:39 PM
Comment #3Oo sweet by the sounds of it we will be getting millions pumped into our club haha
He compares us to chelsea and says: well chelsea are doing it… Haha I guess when chelsea waste 50million again we will also payout 50million. Lol were not like chelsea in a mostly postive way, so who thinks sammy shud go on loan to birmingham with his pal Nile “the drunken” ranger
GeordieJordy
Nov 10, 2011 at 8:41 PM
Comment #4With the way he goes on about it and these drastic measures taken such as changing the name of the stadium, you’d think we literally have no money to spend and are a poor club! Absolute joke!
WWJBD
Nov 10, 2011 at 8:42 PM
Comment #5No chance we are low on wingers already
t00ntime
Nov 10, 2011 at 8:42 PM
Comment #6And I repeat xD these are the best conditions to sponser us because u will get massive publicity for a few months atleast ( definatly at a club like newcastle that is in the papers every other week for anything from naked fat boy ashley too firing CH :P)
nimo
Nov 10, 2011 at 8:46 PM
Comment #7well looks like we know who our shirt sponser is nxt yr
Thump
Nov 10, 2011 at 8:49 PM
Comment #8Stunning goal by Kelly.
shirtonapole tinooo
Nov 10, 2011 at 8:49 PM
Comment #9thing is if the metro and the council don´t change the name (which i think is right) then nobody´s going to call it the new name anyway, which basically just means no decent company will pay up….
so i think we´re goin to be stuck with shorts direct 🙁
awesome goal btw
WWJBD
Nov 10, 2011 at 8:52 PM
Comment #10Henderson, Sammy, Chamberlain and the striker all looking impressive
The chelsea bum boy has done nothing so far…thought he was meant to be good?!
cheikmate
Nov 10, 2011 at 8:56 PM
Comment #11£10m – According to this he has no chance of getting that much.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/nov/10/newcastle-sports-direct-arena-sponsorship?
Jail for Ashley
Nov 10, 2011 at 8:57 PM
Comment #12How much money has God got like ?
MAGman
Nov 10, 2011 at 8:59 PM
Comment #13How much does A SOUL cost 8m,10m we could ask the DEVIL
nico
Nov 10, 2011 at 9:00 PM
Comment #14It’s a daft idea. No company in theior right mind will stump up 10 million, especially when the fans hate the idea of renaming the stadium. Ashley has done well lately, but this desision is just wrong. Why upset the good start we’ve made.
Marty-Toon
Nov 10, 2011 at 9:01 PM
Comment #15Same loada tosh from the Lameass
He did say a striker in January,this seems very definite.
They of course do have 35Mill and the interest on it.
nico
Nov 10, 2011 at 9:01 PM
Comment #16Ashley could do with employing an intelligent Toon fan to run these ideas by. Then he might not constantly make daft mistakes like this. I understand Ashley’s overall idea and like the fact we are now better off financially but he’s just un-done all the good he’s done this season.
WWJBD
Nov 10, 2011 at 9:02 PM
Comment #17cheikmate
Next time davybtoon is on tell him to read that and bill-son
Thump
Nov 10, 2011 at 9:02 PM
Comment #18@Jail for Ashley: He’s skint mate. There’s a recession, you know?
Thump
Nov 10, 2011 at 9:07 PM
Comment #19Good article in the Guardian like.
Fairly certain that Ashley knows what he’s doing – now he can keep it as “Sports Direct Arena”. Ugh.
angelswithdirtyfaces
Nov 10, 2011 at 9:09 PM
Comment #20Why do I keep getting the thought that this hasn’t really been thought out very well and is another of the fatman’s learning curves.?
Thump
Nov 10, 2011 at 9:17 PM
Comment #21Good header but awful defending.
Thump
Nov 10, 2011 at 9:21 PM
Comment #22What a free kick!
shirtonapole tinooo
Nov 10, 2011 at 9:21 PM
Comment #23what a goal….
WWJBD
Nov 10, 2011 at 9:22 PM
Comment #24Ryan Taylor style that bad boy
Thump
Nov 10, 2011 at 9:23 PM
Comment #25And another. Bugger me.
shirtonapole tinooo
Nov 10, 2011 at 9:23 PM
Comment #26and again!!!
WWJBD
Nov 10, 2011 at 9:23 PM
Comment #27Haha gan on son
zaktoon_swede
Nov 10, 2011 at 9:23 PM
Comment #28saw that the council will refuse to take down any “st. james park-signs” in and around the city. the chances of mike ashley actually climbing up a ladder must be as big as liverpool finding a formation to fit in all this years signings…
Marty-Toon
Nov 10, 2011 at 9:24 PM
Comment #29What game is on?
Thump
Nov 10, 2011 at 9:24 PM
Comment #30Plays for Villa doesn’t he?
Thump
Nov 10, 2011 at 9:24 PM
Comment #31@Marty-Toon: England u21 v Iceland u21
WWJBD
Nov 10, 2011 at 9:25 PM
Comment #32Hes a Gardner so its either Villa or Birmingham and I havent seen Hughton play him so must be Villa
Thump
Nov 10, 2011 at 9:26 PM
Comment #33Tell you something, the u21s play better than the full team squad!
toonthompson
Nov 10, 2011 at 9:26 PM
Comment #345-0
wwjbd hes villa
WWJBD
Nov 10, 2011 at 9:27 PM
Comment #35Still like the look of that Clyne like and that Sammy kid won tonnes of plaudits oh wait he’s already ours 😉
Chelseas boy did bugger all and Chamberlain looked good but bit too shot happy for my tastes….still annoyingly young though
shirtonapole tinooo
Nov 10, 2011 at 9:28 PM
Comment #36sammy looked alright when he had the ball, just wasn´t very often.
what´s gardner´s contract situ? cheeky buy out clause……
Marty-Toon
Nov 10, 2011 at 9:30 PM
Comment #37Joey’s tweet was one of his best yet 🙂
Thump
Nov 10, 2011 at 9:30 PM
Comment #38Dunno who this Sammy fella is WWJBD. MotM imo
angelswithdirtyfaces
Nov 10, 2011 at 9:32 PM
Comment #39Joey just can’t resist can he !
daztoon
Nov 10, 2011 at 9:33 PM
Comment #40woke up here to a fine sunny day in christchurch to find St James Park renamed, now its overcast with a sports direct logo.If this doesn`t tell everyone Ashley doesn`t give a dam what the supporters or the city thinks then nothing will.