Better than Sports Direct anywayVirgin Money takes over where Northern Rock left off and sponsors Newcastle United’s shirts for the next two and a half seasons.
As you could no doubt tell by the shirts the team wore last night, Newcastle United have brokered a deal with Virgin Money until the end of the 2013/2014 season. Last night Derek Llambias said:
“We’re delighted to secure this new deal with Virgin Money and we look forward to enjoying a mutually beneficial partnership over the coming seasons. It is an excellent deal for both parties and we’re very happy to have them on board.“
He didn’t add anything about how ‘f****** horrible’ he can be this time.
Virgin, for their part, said:
“Now that Virgin Money and Northern Rock are united as one business, it gives us great pleasure to continue the shirt sponsorship of Newcastle United Football Club.
“The Northern Rock sponsorship started in 2003 and it is an important link to the North East which we are pleased to continue.
Dressed for MiddlesbroughIs there any truth in the rumours that Virgin Money are in talks about sponsoring Newcastle United by way of the shirts and stadium naming rights?
According to a site called ‘Marketing’, Virgin are in talks with Newcastle United about a possible shirts and stadium sponsorship deal. The rumours about such a deal have been bubbling along for a while but I’ve never been sure how much strength there is in them.
Of course it was Virgin Money who took over Northern Rock, our previous sponsors, and I did just wonder if assumptions had been made because of that.
The ‘Marketing’ site stresses that no deal has actually been struck but they feel that Virgin Money are a likely fit for such sponsorship. They cornered an ‘executive’ from ‘brandRapport’ in the middle of his cheese sandwich and he had this to say:
“Virgin Money could benefit enormously from taking on the Newcastle shirt sponsorship. The passion and loyalty of the Newcastle fans is legendary and the fans could definitely see it as a very positive move and confirm Virgin Money’s commitment to the area.
“The Newcastle shirt is one of the most iconic, most recognised and highest-selling shirt in the Barclays Premier League.” (more…)
Pardew: Fans can still have some traditions.Newcastle United’s Silver Supremo, Alan Pardew, has come out and defended Mike Ashley’s decision to rename St James’ Park the “Sports Direct Arena.”
Speaking in an interview in the run up to Newcastle United’s away match against Manchester City, he began by reassuring “traditionalists” who may be upset that it would still be the same place, that at least the Gallowgate End would still be there, and we could still have our tradition of walking to the Stadium (shouldn’t that be “Arena” now?) saying:
“For the traditionalists amongst our fans, I think it’s something they are upset at.
“But it is still in the same place and it’s still the Gallowgate End and we still have your tradition of walking to the stadium from the centre of town. It’s there where it is.
Emphasising the financial gain should anyone eventually decide to take over from Sports Direct, who have once again generously agreed to allow their name to be used at no cost to “showcase” the benefits of being being mired in controversy and local emnity, he then continued: (more…)
What's in a name? Lots of potential damage seemingly.I was planning to write a follow up to my previous piece on why Mike Ashley’s “rebranding” of St James’ Park was ill conceived from the very start and doomed to fail.
In it I was going to outline how the value of Newcastle United’s brand has been damaged so much by this that it will lose far more in the long term that the minimal amount gained through selling the stadium’s naming rights. Going on similar deals on considerably less problematic new build stadiums, this amount will be nowhere near the £8-10 million foolishly quoted in public by Derek Llambias in an interview with BBC Radio Newcastle. Going on similar examples such as Arsenal’s Emirates Studium and Borussia Dortmund’s Signal Iduna Park, it will be more like a third to a half of that sum unless a shirt deal is also included and even then, the price is still somewhat ambitious.
As most of you will know, current shirt sponsors, Northern Rock, recently pulled out of their recent rather meagre £2 million per annum shirt sponsorship deal, and it has even been suggested that the furore over the Ashley’s second attempt at a stadium rebrand will jeopardise this sponsorship, as potential sponsors distance themselves from this now toxic brand. As I mentioned in my previous piece on the subject the offer has been almost universally derided by the people in the sponsorship industry who advise corporations on the efficacy of such deals, with one exception, from someone called Jonathon Gabay, who was reported as being an “unofficial consultant” to the club on the renaming issue. (more…)
Ashley, Llambias and Pardew - Did they deceive us over Carroll?A few days after Newcastle United’s already despised Managing Director, Derek Llambias, announced the club’s corporate renaming of the club’s traditional home as “The Sports Direct Arena”, it would be hard to imagine his or Mike Ashley’s reputation sinking any lower.
However all that has changed now after one simple drunken rant in a bar which was recorded by fans and passed on to the Mirror newspaper. My erstwhile collegue, Hugh, has dealt with his jealous and contemptible potty mouthed rants about former managers, Alan Shearer, Kevin Keegan and Chris Hughton in this piece. Here I will concentrate on how his words about Andy Carroll’s move to Liverpool seem to suggest that both he and manager, Alan Pardew, deceived the fans about the circumstances leading up to the controvarsial transfer, leading fans to brand Carroll a “Judas” for deserting the club he had supported since boyhood.
If you recall, after a completely bogus story was put around the media about a very large Tottenham bid for the Bensham Bomber, Liverpool’s first bid for Andy Carroll was a lowly £30 million (what on earth were they smoking that day???). When one fan asked Llambias if he thought that Andy Carroll was worth that amount, Llambias replied:
