The luxurious market of football has made the sport a prime target for top brands to expose their name.
With mass amounts of money generated through football and the ability to attract a worldwide audience, it is no surprise that massive brands are prepared to spend millions in order to associate their name within the game.
Clubs such as Arsenal (Emirates Stadium), Wigan (DW Stadium) and Bolton (Reebok Stadium) have all named their respected stadiums through brand sponsorship, however Newcastle United manager Mike Ashley, implemented the idea one step further.
The historic St James’ Park stadium, with a capacity of just over 52,000 has been the home of Newcastle United since 1892 and has now been given a new facelift to suit the owner’s company marketing campaign.
The temporary rebranding follows a controversial announcement from the club’s under-pressure owner Mike Ashley that the ground’s naming rights would be offered to businesses in an attempt to raise funds. Known as Sportsdirect.com@St James Park Stadium until the end of the season, the name is best suited as an email address rather than a venue name.
From an advertising perspective, it is hard to justify such a bold move. Ashley is already hugely unpopular among fans and a humiliating announcement such as this one will only flare tempers further. How can Ashley really expect to attract positive promotion on such a humorous proposal!?
Yes it puts the business name in front of a large audience, but the intentions of SportsDirect as a company can seriously be questioned. The company is putting themselves in view of an audience who despise the owner and will only infuriate them further.
In order to gain better response from a stadium name, there should have been an alternative brand willing to sponsor the stadium name rights and pump some much needed finances into the troubled side.
Consumers are resistant to the idea of brand naming rights deals, such as Newcastle United‘s plan to rename St James‘ Park, one of England‘s oldest football grounds, according to members of the public interviewed in the latest BR Video shown below.