With Newcastle United flying high in the Premier League, and deservingly so, it was only a matter of time until Mike Ashley caused controversy again with his next announcement. The Sports Direct owner and all round businessman was finally falling into the background at the club, arguably where owners of football clubs should remain, preventing too much input and interfering within the day to day running, something that the manager traditionally should be solely in charge of.
However with his most recent venture, Ashley has brought his name back into the firing line, as he attempts to rename St. James’ Park, a venue that has a large place in our history books, in order to advertise his personal business venture. However with ‘The Sports Direct Arena’ soon to be the name of Newcastle Football Club’s future history, it seems that football, more than ever, has become a business rather than a sport.
As a neutral, with no affiliation other than admiration for them this season, this saga appears to have conflict within the Newcastle fans and club alike. Mike Ashley, having experienced the torturous attacks from fans for many years, as they called for his head, appears happy to take that role on again as long as the money is right. Some will however, see this flight of apparent idiocy and disrespect as a good thing. With extra revenue that Mike Ashley gains from this shameless exposure of his business, roughly an extra £10million a season would be raised, with the consideration for future sponsorship opportunities from other companies to rename the club once more.
Whether Ashley will use that within the club or not is another matter, as previous history suggests otherwise, with Andy Carroll’s income apparently ‘disappearing’ into Ashley’s pocket. However, in rose tinted glasses, surely any extra income will lead to better financial implications in the long run, allowing Pardew, or whoever may be in charge come next year, having a large sum of money to spend on a player of their choice, which can only be good news.
The problems come when considering how this money was made. Should the money be raised from the sale of Andy Carroll, or the release of players such as Sol Campbell, this would be good business within the football market place. However these funds are raised from the rebranding of their much loved St. James’ Park stadium.
With Wigan victim to this plight, as their stadium changed from the JJB Stadium to the DW Stadium in 2009, the owner’s sport club affiliation was clear. However as a relatively new stadium, built in 1999, the implication was not as hard for Wigan fans to face. However for Newcastle it is different. They are not to move into a new stadium, yet change the name of the old one. With ex-magpie Joey Barton chipping in his feelings of despair for Newcastle fans and players alike, through his infamous ‘Twitter’ account:
“It will always be St James’ Park to me. Ashley and his subordinates know the cost of everything but the value of nothing…” – arguably summarising the majority view on this controversial matter.
Whether a temporary measure, or a more permanent one, it seems St. James’ Park is due to be renamed as the ‘Sports Direct Arena’. Despite this it is highly likely that many will still refer to it as St. James Park, and rightly so, however the implications for this name change is more than just words. For many Newcastle fans, this is considered highly disrespectful, something further to add to the Mike Ashley scrapbook of foolish mistakes during his ownership. The fact the stadium is no longer known as their beloved St. James Park but simply the Sports Direct Arena, no longer provokes the same reaction, but leaves a sour taste in their mouths.
In the outer world of football, this confirms the theory that Football is continually progressing into a soulless sport, as clubs sell their name and everything that comes with it to the highest bidder, or, in this case, something that can bring in the most money. Therefore, this is potentially a clever bit of business from Ashley, however from a football point of view, he has gone about it in completely the wrong way, leaving him at the brunt of Newcastle supporters anger once more.
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