Good morning.
What’s in name? In a age where players’ are queuing round the block to see osteopaths and physios due to agrevated bouts of heading turning, accusations of race hate and the sinister world of roasting, a name or specifically your good name is quite possibly the only thing of value left in the game.
Players reveal just how good their name or how mud-like it is in a variety of ways. Parking in a disabled space when out for a meal, getting arrested for sexually assaulting a girl, shooting an intern, getting addicted to any variety of drugs…
Newcastle United have announced that Sid James’ Park is to changed to The Sports Direct Arena. If you open a window, you will be able to hear a mixture of sounds; that of a thousand hearts breaking, that last nail being tapped into a football club’s coffin. Mike Ashley is to most up there a rather despised figure. Despite having pumped copious amounts of real money into Toon he is still viewed as a cockney mafioso.
The renaming deal is, if you bother to read the announcement in full a temporary measure. But this is clearly a lie. On those swanky architects dreams we were shown of the new Lane, there is a ‘Your Company’s Name Here’ emblazoned on the roof or whatever. Even the thickest CEO in the world cab visualize his branding whacked on the side of a stadium, on the side of anything.
No, Ashley has failed to adhere to basic maximum of life – if you’re in a hole, stop digging – and this in an age of austerity a rather cynical move involving tax advantages and some horribly misguided self publicity.
Sports Direct is a fabulous operation, gone are the days of paying over the odds for sportswear that you’ve no great attachment to. If you just want a decent pair trainers and hoodie to go to the company gym in or have perhaps been invited to participate in a little light looting, they are your one stop affordably priced shop. But as a branding exercise this tramples on tradition. The perception of the new name is not ‘blue chip.’
Let’s hope that Levy & Co are watching …and learning. The current shirt sponsorship deals in place at Tottenham have been considered and quite clever. Neither Investec or Autonomy carry any great baggage. Manys first response to both was, ‘who?’ The cosmetic integrity (you can tell your kids where you read that phrase first) of the shirts is largely intact. It’s primarily a Spurs shirt. A shirt with WONGA.COM plastered across it can never come back from being the gaudy piece of junk it has been reduced to. Why not add ‘Keys Cut While U Wait At Brian’s Heel Bar’ beneath the number on the reverse?
Football is doing it’s very best to alienate the hand that feeds it.
Yeeeeeah baby Chick King rules! The best chicken shop in London!
The Chicken Badge Arena
That’s it right there.
Anthony In That Number For Prez :cool: sterling work :daumen:
I have had another idea …. what about The O2
Be At White Hart Lane stadium. We also name the four stands ……
Bill Nicholson, Dave MacKay, Danny Blanchflower and Glenn Hoddle.
The other alternative is we name the four stands… No More Tall Circus Man, No Rush Goalie, Avergrumbleandtwitch, and Taxi for Maicon.
I know that life moves on, but for me, this game is about History: past present and future.
The games and the stadia have changed beyond all recognition since I first went to WHL in 1962, and I discovered that we were not actually in WHL, and never have been. But there was something about the name that always gripped the imagination.
I do care if it is renamed the “ARGOS CLUBCARD POUNDSAVER STADIUM”, but you know what, even though it has moved a few yards along the road, it will still always be White Hart Lane to me. It’s not that the ground has been misnamed. It’s the Railway Station that’s in the wrong place.
If it were not for commercial reasons, I would have been happy for it to have been re-named “Nicholson Park” or similar.
I could not have put it better myself. As a Spur since 1964 I also think that we have to be realistic and move with the times but as long as we do it tastefully and fully respect our tradition we can move forward with good grace.
Whatever name our stadium ever attracts it will always be White Hart Lane and it will in my eyes forever be the club that Bill Nicholson built.
As long as we always remember that we will not go far wrong. I actually think that we are very lucky to have DL at the helm because I beleive that he will very much defend the great tradition of the club but at the same time make sure we take it forward and remain competitive. So as for naming our stadium in the future then …. The Bill Nicholson White Hart Lane O2 Stadium would be a realistic compromise.
Bit of a mouthful, but I like the sentiment. The problem is that there are too many syllables, and sooner or later.broadcaster will cut it down, meaning the sponsor will lose his benefit from the renaming.
Though I am great fan of Levy, and he is one of those rare breeds as Chair (he gets it right most of the time), I think he will try to incorporate some history, but money will win in the end.
Of course, if we were Wet Sham, we could just call it “The Nick” and everybody would be trying to get into Plaistow Police Station.
I know what you mean it is a bit too long and not catchy enough. I wish we could avoid the whole naming rights thing but the sad truth is that we will inevitably join the band wagon at some stage. We can only hope that whatever we do is tasteful, observes our great tradition and heritage and of course makes the club a heap of money without selling our entire soul.
Just occurred to me, perhaps we can do something similar to our shirt deal. Instead of renaming the stadium, sell naming rights for the four stands.
Not practical I know, but Levy is an innovator. It would not surprise me if he surprises me.
Mr Levy will you please reveal your true identity to the HH readership! That’s a crackerjack idea.
Bugger: Now I have to go back to my day job of being a caped crimefighter by night!
Naming the stands is a great solution, and has been successfully implemented at a number of venues in Norway, and other places around Europe I’m sure. An example I am very familiar with is my “neighbor”; Norway’s national stadium, Ullevål Stadion, where each stand has a major corporate sponsor, including a major national newspaper and a rather large soft drink company you may have heard of. It specifically is a slightly different situation to ours (and the Geordies’), but that obliquely supports my following point. That point being ‘We have a very business-savvy Chairman, and it will not be lost on him that there is a great deal of value for THFC in White Hart Lane the brand name.’
I am cautiously optimistic that a new stadium will have a name fairly similar to what we have today. Now we just have to go ahead and build the damn thing.
I thank the rubberbands for this:
I said f@@k your Geordie accent, I’ve a Mike Ashley outside
f@@k your ale, I have a Mike Ashley outside
And f@@k your fog on the Tyne, I’ve a Mike Ashley outside
If you’re lookin to get f@@ked over I’ve a Mike Ashley outside
Make
:lol:
Ungrateful sh@ts !!!!
The wounds still haven’t sufficiently healed from the tonkings we took from the brown-ale-mob in 96 & 99, so fack ’em.
As far as naming rights for the stadium goes, we should all be wary from sneering and pointing the finger. This sets an unwelcome precedent and we could be next somewhere down the line.
While we’re on the subject, what happened to the Geordie boycott of Sid James which was supposed to be observed until the ‘cockney mafia’ were removed?…….
Is Alan Pardew a Londoner?
Sort of. He’s from Saaf London
Great response. Hahaha.
Sarf of the river :-D
Like the Woolwich Wanderers from the Emotycrates
I just remember a bunch of obese northerners with indecipherable accents screaming about how they wouldn’t set foot in Sid James’ until Ashley and the rest of his ‘cockney mafia’ f*cked off back down south.
Ironic really, considering Chris Hughton (ledge), a Londoner, took them up last season at the 1st attempt and now Pardew (born in Wimbledon) has got them up to 3rd, unbeaten.
The words ‘insular’, ‘parochial’ and ‘inbred’ were never more appropriate……..as well as ‘f*cking ungrateful’.
Did’t one of their ‘own’ slag them all off in the NOTW as being no nothing wankers who bought tat made by Fillipino’s, whilst at the same time getting wanked off by a Fillipino-yet, Ashley buy’s the club, spends a fortune, loses said fortune but get’s them back up there all the same-and yet he’s still a wanker in their book, a strange perspective all the same?
As usual Essex, you are talking your usual sense. Why don’t you surprise us by talking bollocks occasionally.
Seriously though, have you noticed a quietening in the ranks from the Harry Haters recently? I won’t claim to be his greatest fan, as there are times when I wish he wasn’t with us. Nevertheless, I think if HR was at Newcs under Ashley, having done what he has achieved here, they would both still be despised there.
As for the Levy haters, the seem to have become extinct. The only bad words I have seen about him recently relate to his plans to sell the club for a huge profit, once we are relocated. Terrible thing for a businessman to want to make a profit.
Conming back to the Geordies, they are currently in their best position since Keegan’s first stint, and the owner is regarded as some sort of moron who couldn’t run a fuck-up in a brothel. Hmmm…Scotsmen with their brains kicked out? No doubt about it.
Arry OUT!!! :shifty:
In the words of Mr Schwarzenegger, ‘they’ll be back’, it’s just not a good time right now, but they’re under that old brick nearby, just pick it up and look underneath.