People can moan about the soul of a club (a ridiculous concept that is impossible determine and does not in fact exist), about modern football being all about money, about the loss of identity and so on, but the bottom line is this – the stadium naming deal makes no difference to anything. Same team, same ground, same players, same kit, same players, same division, same match-day experience, same everything.
The fact is that the deal was inevitable the moment the financial fair play plans were agreed. As I have argued before, however noble Platini’s intentions were (not very, a cynic might say), the consequences of this will be clubs desperately trying to earn more money any which way they can, leading to sponsorship deals aplenty, higher ticket prices, and even less thought given to the fans. If you want to blame someone, look towards France.
Holt had already written an article on the topic a few days ago, bemoaning the re-naming of Leicester’s ground, to the King Power Stadium.
“If you defile the stadium by prostituting its name, you destroy part of the experience.”
No you don’t Ollie. My experience next season will not be 1% worse because of the name of the stadium. Any true football fan would know this.
“I could live with the Walkers Stadium even if it was named after a bag of crisps. It was the name of Leicester’s new arena and had been since they moved there from Filbert Street in 2002.”
What a ridiculous argument – you can have a sponsor’s name on the stadium when you move there, but don’t you dare do it eight or nine years down the line, as this is removing the soul from the game, and a depressing sign of what football has become? Utter hogwash.
Much of the argument revolves around that last point – how football is run by money, how things aren’t what they used to be. The fact is, there’s nothing worse than nostalgia. Football when I first started watching it in the 1980’s was a terrible time to be involved as a fan. Poor grounds, poor facilities, poor crowds, poor football on the whole, hooliganism, ID cards and tragedy after tragedy. I still loved every minute of course, but give me a sponsored ground and indoor toilets any day. Football has been about money since Sky invented the game in 1992. It seems some have only just woken up to the fact. Holt also mentioned Chesterfield’s sponsored stadium name, blissfully unaware of the massive financial problems they have suffered over the past decade or so, and how this deal will make their future even more secure.
Regarding City, the deal goes beyond the naming of a stadium anyway. It will form part of the £1 billion regeneration of the surrounding area, one of the poorest areas of the city. It will provide world-class sporting facilities and community football pitches. Etihad will also partner on youth and community projects both locally, throughout Britain and internationally. And clubs are after all part of the community in which they exist, and there to serve it. And it should be made clear too that Manchester City council do very well financially from the football club.
So what’s more important? A fatuous sense of outrage because the name of an almost new building has been changed, or the regeneration of east Manchester? Not a tough decision.
Written by Howard Hockin for FootballFancast.com.
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It wouldn’t be questioned it if it was Liverpool. Spurs, Chelsea or the rags.
City fans are delighted to be associated with anything connected to the Middle East as their investment has transformed the footballing fortunes of our club. We are still in dreamland and reviving Wembley memories.
The stadium sponsorship is so much more than that as huges tracts of land are being bought up and prepared for building. The plans have yet to be finalised but already we know that a Sports Science centre, a 6th form college and national sporting centres are to be built with many other initiatives to follow. Partnerships with local Government have already been created and there is much speculation of what is to follow. Please don’t compare this to Arsenal’s Emirates deal. That was a strict stadium and shirt sponsorship. The deal with Etihad involves so much more. I am not saying it is better, or more valuable. I am just saying it is different
As you say “Football has been about money since Sky invented the game in 1992” and who benefitted from that the most? Manchester United who just happened to be the best team at the time. They were turn in less than a decade from a club worth less than 20 million to one worth getting on for 700 million.
Just imagine if Football had been reinvented by Sky in 1982 who big a club would Liverpool be now? Much much bigger than Manchester United thats for sure.
So now that Sky has skewed football by making United the force it is are the rest of the football world supposed to accept this forever because unless owners like City’s are allowed to do their thing to redress the huge finanical gap created by Sky we will watch United win the league ever year forever.
United were lucky when Sky came along now its City’s turn to be lucky because Sheikh Mansour came along just as Chelsea, Blackburn and others have been lucky in the past
…… why should Platini be allowed to maintain the status quo whilst pretending its FFP. Its not, its about keeping the exisiting big clubs big and stopping others from becomiing big.
Jealousy… Enough Said !
An excellent well written article. You could have also mentioned though, that Oliver Holt is a bitter, jealous, rag scum fan that writes for the stretford mirror thats never biased at all…