Renaming hailed ‘a good thing’ whilst Northern Rock flips the bird at shirts deal
Posted on November 12th, 2011 | 61 Comments |
A marketing gadgie called Jonathon Gabay, who is – according to his website – “trusted by some of the world’s top brands”, has hailed the St James’ Park renaming debacle ‘a good decision’. This might be expected because, according to The Journal, he was ‘unofficially consulted’ about the renaming by the club. Anyway, he said:
“It’s a good decision because of what it’s going to do.
“I couldn’t say what sort of company will come forward. That’s not for me to say but I think there will be a lot of brands that realise the opportunity.
“I already believe sponsors will know what a great place the North East is – the region, the football, the fans – and being associated with that is a fantastic opportunity for brands.
“If there were a suitable brand then I couldn’t see how it can be something that the fans wouldn’t like if the money would be put back in the club to help them do even better.”
And with that last sentence he perhaps hits the nail on the head with: “if there was a suitable brand”.
Alas there isn’t anyone prepared to pay Newcastle United for the stadium naming rights at the moment, so now is not the time for it. If a big sponsor comes along with £10’s of millions a season to be ploughed back into the club then maybe it might be possible to sell it to fans as a necessary evil, but as it stands 75% of fans are against the renaming (according to our poll).
There’s more trouble with sponsorship too as Northern Rock have pulled out of the shirt sponsorship deal early. The deal was due to last until January 2014 but there was a clause in the contract allowing them to get out of the deal 2 years early, so now it will end this coming January.
They say that it’s nothing to do with the stadium renaming and that they are pulling out ‘for financial reasons’ but the timing’s a bit sniffy and I tend to think it is related, although the cause and effect are the other way around. I think the stadium renaming has come about because Northern Rock pulled their shirt sponsorship and Ashley is trying to get a sponsor for the job lot – stadium and shirts – in January.
I have changed my mind somewhat as a result of the Northern Rock news. I think Ashley will try to find a stadium sponsor other than Sports Direct and I do not believe this move is a way for him to get cheap Sports Direct advertising in the long term. That’s just my opinion though and time will prove me right or wrong either way, and that’s not to say he won’t take any opportunity to promote Sports Direct for as long as there isn’t a sponsor.
I do still, however, think that it was a bad idea to use Sports Direct – even in the interim – and he should have waited until he had a sponsor before pushing through a change like this. Surely he could see that this would just seem like he’s using NUFC as a means to promote his tatty shirts business. And surely he could see how it would rankle fans. I sometimes wonder if he does these things on purpose just to wind fans up. Really, I do.
If we can’t find a shirt sponsor I’d like to bet that Sports Direct steps in to ‘showcase’ what shirt sponsorship means.
I don’t know who this Jonathon Gabay is, but I’ve spent virtually the whole night sifting through what experts in the sports marketing and sposorship industry think of Ashley’s naming rights scheme. Every single one seemed to be completely gobsmacked at how ill conceived it all is and think it’s doomed to failure.
Is Gabay the one who’s working for NUFC? :lol: