James Madison University Sport & Recreation Management ...

From The Guardian?

Review by Steven Golob in KIN 332

The article that I chose to discuss in class is a huge talking point in the sport of soccer worldwide. Soccer is a sport of very rich history and pride in one?s club that a person chooses to support. Items such as stadium names and team colors are a very important part of these clubs that fans are very hesitant to part ways with. This article examines, further, one of the biggest names in the Barclay?s English Premier, Newcastle United. Not only is Newcastle one of the oldest soccer clubs in England, it may well display of the greatest examples of historical significance and fan loyalty as a whole. That being said, this article explains that although the relatively new club owner?s decision to sell the name of the club?s stadium in order to make a bit more money makes sense financially, the supporters of the club have been up in arms about the decision since it was only a rumor.?

Newcastle?s club owner, Mike Ashley, is merely doing what most other top-flight soccer clubs are doing in current times. They certainly aren?t even the first team to do this in the English Premier League, either. The article touches on other big-name clubs, such as Manchester City and Arsenal, in reference to the fact that their fans were not happy about the changing of their beloved stadium?s names at first, either. However, Mike Ashley has been able to run Newcastle quite stably with this stadium name-change producing more revenue for the club. It makes a lot of sense from a marketing standpoint as well. With a brand attached to the name of the stadium, it will be much easier to market the stadium as a whole. Using the old name, St. James?s Park, would be much more difficult even with the fans being able to identify that as their home stadium. Sports as a whole are so focused on making money from a marketing standpoint that they are very ready to toss tradition aside in order to keep teams afloat. It almost seems like a necessary evil that the fans might just have to accept in order to further enjoy sports.

Source: http://jmusportsbusiness.blogspot.com/2013/04/newcastle-stadium-name-change-lacks.html

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