Land rights wrongs

In light of Jabba's apparent plan to sell off the lease on land next to the Gallowgate End, NUST has rightly posed a couple of key questions. First, what impact would any sale have on the possibility of being able to extend the stadium at some point in the future, when we might be attracting fans rather than boring the usual 50,000 to tears? And second, where would the revenue raised from the sale go - straight into Jabba's back pocket? It would be interesting to know the club's responses, though I wouldn't hold out much hope of dialogue given the frostiness of their relations following the Fans Forum ban.

Meanwhile, in addition to a public meeting about the land sale, NUST are also organising a comedy night. No need, really - watching our games at present is to witness high farce...

A sign of the times

It tells you a lot about the club at this present moment in time that, while a clueless clown like JFK has been handed a hefty salary for doing fuck all other than mispronouncing players' names, it's left to the fans to fundraise for a plaque in memory of former player and manager and genuine legend Joe Harvey. Permission has been graciously granted to erect the plaque, at least, but it's staggering that financial support has not been made available too. Jabba's fond of adorning the ground with the Sports Direct logo - surely it's not asking much to expect him to fork out for the plaque. But then, as with the renaming of Shearer's Bar without consultation and the Gategate affair, he doesn't seem to have much of an appreciation for either club legends or history - quite the opposite, in fact...

A history lesson

The Toon PR machine in action: the club pumps out a story trumpeting the discovery and reinstallation of the "iconic" and "historic" gates at St James' Park, the media (both national and local) eagerly lap it up and regurgitate it in glowing terms, even the representative of a fans' group waxes lyrical about the move.

There's just one small problem, though: the facts simply don't add up. It turns out that the gates in question were originally installed in 1989 and removed just nine years later. Hardly "iconic" or "historic", then. Here's Jackie Smithfield of the Mag to explain.

Personally I'm increasingly suspicious of the word "iconic" - much like its near-homonym "ironic", it's grossly overused and abused these days.

Slide away

Last time I looked it wasn't April Fool's Day, so presumably the reports about there being plans afoot to install slides in the vicinity of St James' Park aren't just an elaborate hoax. Apparently NE1 have been working with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents in developing the plans. You do wonder whether members of the Society have been present to witness the chaos and carnage that is the post-match crowd dispersal - quite how access to slides would improve this is unclear...

Still, at least we've hit the news for daft, frivolous reasons, with the Mackems unwittingly finding themselves at the centre of a political storm over James McClean's ill-advised vaguely pro-IRA tweets. That's one trick ASBO didn't pull.

Cash, no questions

So I go away on holiday for a week and return to find my club's been sold to the devil. Well, not quite, but Wonga certainly aren't the sort of company I'm keen to see us keep. Paul's given his views here, but I thought I'd add my two cents.

I guess we were prepared for the move by the unceremonious dumping of Virgin Money. At the time I noted Llambiarse's comments that the new agreement with the then unnamed sponsor "represents an excellent commercial deal for both parties" and commented that this was a case of "cold, hard cash" talking. And indeed it was.

You don't need to point to the fact that the deal might upset our contingent of Muslim first-teamers - namely Papiss Cisse, Demba Ba, HBA and Mr T - by contravening Sharia law to be critical of it. (Incidentally, there must be plenty of other Muslim players who currently sport the names of gambling companies and alcohol firms on their shirts. Indeed, don't Virgin Money charge interest?) The simple fact is that we are, in effect, taking money from hard-up families who find themselves in tough predicaments with little or no room for manoeuvre, just to line our own pockets.

There can be grand talk about funding youth development and the restoration of the St James' Park name, but it doesn't get rid of the very bad taste left in the mouth by the basic facts. David Conn's Guardian article, mentioned by Paul, is telling in that of late the Witchfinder General of football finance has had nothing but praise for Jabba's running of the club - and now, quite understandably, he's very much of a different opinion.

Some of those who have backlashed against the backlash have pointed out that Wonga already sponsor two football clubs, Blackpool and Hearts, who weren't singled out for criticism for striking their own deals. Admittedly that's a bit unfair, but it has to be conceded that we're considerably more high profile than either of them and Wonga's name on our shirts will give the company far more prominence, so the greater glare of media scrutiny is inevitable. The deal is a tacit endorsement on our part of a firm - and indeed the so-called "legal loan sharking" industry - already under fire from consumers' groups for unethical practice and unscrupulous behaviour.

In the wake of a recent blog post on the ethics of sponsorship in football, I defended our previous association with Northern Rock, one which continued even when the ailing company had been nationalised, on the grounds that their board were convinced the deal offered Northern Rock - a valued local business and employer - the best opportunity of rebuilding its brand and reputation. This time I'm not sure there's any defence - Jabba really should be more careful about who he leaps into bed with. Like most Toon fans (and Conn), I've had a lot more time for him of late, but this smacks of one of his sporadic but spectacular mistakes (see also: sacking Keegan, rebranding the stadium). Having the Sports Direct logo plastered on our shirts would have been preferable.

Wonga vision

Confirmation then of our new sponsor, with the reported deal with Wonga due to take effect from the end of the season.

Wonga, of course, operate as a pay-day loan compamy whose short-term loans charge an annual average interest of 4,214% APR. While they would say that they don't lend money for that length of time, there are a number of campaigners who take a slightly different view and their reputation hardly constitutes a brand with which we should be excited about becoming associated.

One saving grace, or sop in a bid to appease the natives (depending on your point of view), is the decision by Wonga to restore St James' Park to its rightful name, meaning we'll at least be spared the ignominy of running out in the Wonga Arena.

Inevitably Llambiarse is quoted as being pleased with the deal, which should yield us £24 million over four years and as he put it: "Wonga's desire to help us invest in our young playing talent, the local community and new fan initiatives really impressed us and stood them apart from other candidates".

What the deal means for Wonga is obviously an increase in the profile they currently enjoy as sponsors of both Hearts and Blackpool. For the club, it doubtless comes down to the bottom line with both Jabba and Llambiarse never afraid of taking the cash even if it represents an unpopular decision.

David Conn, in the Guardian, has already had an opportunity to express his thoughts on the matter - which can be found here.

What is clear is the pleasure in having our stadium back is tempered by the tainting of our club by its association with a company which looks to exploit those in need.

What's harder to grasp is whether the sponsorship will have a negative impact on shirt sales, with the prospect of becoming a walking advert for Wonga one which I personally find pretty unappealing.

Llambiarse in mostly talking sense shocker

(Image courtesy of Community Friend)

So, we've had the weekend to reflect on Llambiarse's latest pronouncements. Where to start?

How's about the widely-reviled rebranding of the stadium? "Do you think me and Mike call it the Sports Direct Arena? We call it St James’ Park, because it IS St James’ Park." Well, at least the duo acknowledge that fact, I suppose, even if he did also drone on about the need to increase "commercial revenue" while avoiding hiking up ticket prices - if they'd done that, he suggested, then they truly would be guilty of "riding roughshod over people's love".

Nevertheless, the fact remains that it's aroused fierce opposition - from the city council, from local MPs, from fans who have demonstrated their displeasure by means of grafitti and tearing down the Sports Direct signage. As a supposedly cash-generating exercise, it's yet to generate any cash except as a way of promoting Jabba's business interests. A Council of Europe committee recently proposed that clubs should be barred from being heavily sponsored by companies with close ties to their owners - Man City were the example cited, but they'd probably be uncomfortable with our current arrangement too.

Llambiarse also claimed that they do genuinely engage with supporters: "We met a guy who drives from Bournemouth for every home match, so we invited him to be our guest and for them to ask anything they wanted. We’ve done it for other fans we’ve met in restaurants". That's all fine and well, but what about engaging with NUST and their aim of ensuring fan representation at board level or at least fan involvement in the running of the club? That would be far more meaningful.

Otherwise (apart from a cringeworthy comment about the "brilliant video presentation" they do for prospective new signings - "very sharp, it is great"), I think we have to concede Llambiarse actually spoke a lot of sense.

On our ambitions: "This season we targeted tenth or above. Next season it was going to be eighth. But our target will still be eight or above next year. We know where we can punch." That's absolutely right - we know we're punching above our weight this season, assisted by others (Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea in particular) punching below theirs, and it's important that we remain realistic and don't allow ourselves to be seduced into ignoring the context and demanding the impossible. Consolidation and then steady improvement are key.

Llambiarse urged that realism is equally important in relation to our chances of retaining our best players: "We’ll be losing one or two names this summer, but that’ll be regenerated back into the squad ... For instance, Tiote has been with us a year and a half. He is out there. People know he’s a good player. He’s proven in the Premier League, he’s not picking up as many yellow cards, he’s learning. How are we going to stop a big club from coming in for him? It’ll be very hard. One thing in our favour is that we now have a very good side and that might encourage the player to stay. But if someone knocks on the door and says they want this or that money, the reality may be that we have to trade".

This season's success has clearly been a double-edged sword - it has inflated the value of our players and perhaps made them more likely to commit long-term, but it's also brought them to the attention of bigger clubs across Europe. In view of the fact that we've just tied Sideshow Bob and Tim Krul down to lengthy new deals, and that Llambiarse spoke highly of both, I'd be a little surprised (though not shocked) to see them allowed to leave - but Mr T and Demba Ba are both players who I suspect we'll struggle to hold on to come the end of the season. (One caveat: Llambiarse's comment perhaps implies that actually we might be actively looking to sell a couple of players - which would be concerning, given that there's no real financial imperative or footballing reason for doing so.)

On the subject of our own transfer dealings, Llambiarse picked out the deal for Papiss Cisse as exemplifying our ideal: "January came and nobody knew Cisse was happening, which is how we like it - those are our most successful deals, without the interference, in terms of upping the price or someone coming in at the last minute". Business conducted in boardrooms rather than on the back pages of the papers - that's as it should be.

The club's hard-nosed negotiating strategy was also laid bare: "At the moment, players and agents know that our first offer is very close to the final offer. Once it’s off the table, it’s off the table and it only goes down. It’s never up, it’s always lower. There are more football players than there are clubs. The manager has his targets and we just move on". Obviously that inflexibility might mean we miss out on certain players, and the success of the approach is dependent upon Llambiarse and Jabba not over- or underestimating a player's value in the first place, but it seems to be working well enough so far and it's encouraging to know that we won't be held to ransom or (hopefully) find ourselves saddled with cash-draining baggage like Alan Smith.

Llambiarse was equally proud of the tough stance towards players or agents insisting on additional clauses: "We just do straight contracts. We do no overseas pensions, no image rights. We say, 'This is your money, now you go away and talk to your tax advisers if you must.'" The decision to scrap goal bonuses, he revealed, was partly prompted by the experience of watching Obafemi Martins in action: "Maybe that’s why he would always shoot from the halfway line! We used to see him on the ball and think, 'Oh look. He’s going to shoot again'".

Not content with changing the way we ourselves operate in negotiations, the pair seem to be intent on revolutionising the transfer system more widely: "We would like to see deferred transfer payments phased out, so that you just pay for a transfer over a year. Why pay for it over five years? Most do it. We prefer to pay it over a short period of time. This was put to the Premer League board in 2010 and was rejected by everybody. We are saying it should be discussed. You shouldn’t be spending money you haven’t got. It’s not the right way to behave". Fair point - and it's refreshing to see us trying to take a lead as regards financially responsible behaviour. The recently published accounts for 2010-11 show a reduction in our operating loss from £33.5m to just £3.9m, indicating that significant strides are being made towards making us a break-even club. While questions still remain to be answered about where exactly the £35m we received from Liverpool for Rocky went, the general picture is far rosier than it was a couple of years ago - and for that, at least, we should acknowledge Jabba and Llambiarse's efforts.

There was one final titbit from the latter: despite oft-repeated rumours, our owner isn't a Spurs supporter. Good to know - except that, in denying this, Llambiarse confirmed that Jabba's actually a Chelsea fan...

"Corporate vandalism"

That's the view of twelve MPs on Jabba's rebranding of St James' Park. The dozen have all signed a motion to express their disgruntlement, as the political opposition to the move intensifies. First it was the City Council, and now it's the House of Commons. Where next? The European Court of Justice? Hopefully the growing pressure might just tell - it certainly can't do any harm.

The writing's on the wall (again)

So the grafitti's back. No sooner had the initial white daubing of "St James' Park" been removed, its perpetrator Michael Atkinson arrested for his trouble, than someone branded the stadium with its rightful name once more, this time in black paint.

Meanwhile, Sir John Hall has voiced his disapproval of Jabba's renaming of the ground, claiming: "I think Mike Ashley accepts that Sports Direct Arena will never be accepted by most of the fans". Well, if he doesn't acknowledge it, it looks as though he's sentenced to be reminded of our disgruntlement on a regular basis. Best get employing a dedicated grafitti removal team, Jabba...

Original amateur painter Atkinson has spoken to the Daily Heil about what inspired his act of defiance: "People on Facebook were saying someone should go and put a new sign on the stadium once it had been taken down and I thought why not. I had a few cans of lager in the house, I'd had eight cans of Fosters, so at that point I decided I was going to make a stand and speak for all Newcastle fans." Somehow the deed seems less noble knowing that, doesn't it?

The signs they are a changing

The end of an era yesterday as the signpost outside St James’Park was crowbarred off to leave the way clear for the rebranding of our stadium.

Whilst various Newcastle fans were left expressing their outrage yesterday, Michael Atkinson has been charged with criminal damage by the police for taking it upon himself to do something about it, having daubed St James on the ground in white paint.

Without wishing to condone criminal activity, I wouldn’t be too surprised if there wasn’t a whip round organised to cover any fine he may receive, or that he will be short of a drink of two for carrying out the graffiti in the first place (if indeed he is found guilty of the offence at all).

Of course the rebranding itself will be interrupted in the summer, when the Olympic Games come to town to play some football at St James’ Park (all non-Olympic sponsorship having to be removed for the duration of the Games).

Name not in our name

"Council notes the decision of Newcastle United Football Club to change the name of St James’ Park to the Sports Direct Arena.

Council agrees with the overwhelming majority of supporters who believe this is the wrong decision.

Council confirms that it has no plans to change any existing wayfinding signs which bear the name of St James’ Park and calls on the club to reconsider their decision.

Council also agrees to write to the media to request that they continue to use the name of St James’ Park in all their reporting and refuse to make use of the name Sports Direct Arena."

So read a Newcastle City Council motion passed unanimously on 11th January. Honourable, stubborn defiance there - but sadly likely to fall on deaf ears. The chances of Jabba reconsidering seem slim, while the BBC have already brushed off the media plea: "It is not the BBC's place, as an impartial public broadcaster, to decide or debate on whether this is correct or not, rather to report on the matches which take place on the field."

Perhaps our best hope remains the possibility that a corporate sponsor might be found who would insist on reinstating it as St James' Park as part of the deal. Mr Branson, might you be persuaded to change your mind?

Naming names

In response to the most recent installment of A Month Of Saturdays, regular US reader Bob enquired as to how the UK media were approaching the issue of what to call our stadium. The truth is that I wasn't sure, but it seems as though the BBC - who we'd have hoped would have been the last to bow to Jabba's whim - have started calling it by his chosen name. Enough to prompt fanzine True Faith into organising a petition for those wanting to express indignation at the ground being referred to as anything other than St James' Park.

So, if you feel as passionately about it as they - and Paul and I - do, then click here to stick your name down and defend our ground's good name.

Quote of the day

"I don’t think that would be right for Newcastle. St James’ Park is part of the heritage of Newcastle and it’s important to local people, so for me it should be called St James’ Park."

Jayne-Anne Ghadia, chief exec of Northern Rock's new owners Virgin Money, undermines Jabba and Llambiarse's justifications for the stadium name change.

Sticks and stones

One story I missed last week, was the announcement by Northern Rock that it was terminating its sponsorship of the club early. At the time that may have looked like a reaction to the name change, but in the cold light of day, it appears that it was linked to the sale to Virgin Money. Expect a flood of predictable jokes about Newcastle shirts with the word "Virgin" on them breaching advertising regulations...

Quite when their logo will disappear from shirts is anyone's guess, but if they do pull the plug before the end of the season, what price Jabba's crappy sports store logo makes an appearance "to demonstrate to potential sponsors how their brand might be displayed" (without charge, obviously).

Someone who hasn't taken to the change of stadium name is Graeme Cansdale, who has been so incensed that he's dug up the brick with his father's name on outside St James' Park, and replaced it with a blank brick instead, vowing not to return the brick while Jabba remains at the helm.

Name changer

OK, quick quiz question: who plays their football at the King Power Stadium? (Answer at the bottom of the page.)

Stadium naming is an emotive issue - rebranding something which is synonymous with a club is a difficult task, one which clubs typically tread very carefully around, for fear that they will upset a vast swathe of their fans. Can you imagine the furore if players walked past a sign as they headed for the pitch against Liverpool which instead of saying "This is Anfield" said "This is the [Your name here] Arena"? There's no history there. No soul. No inspiration for the home team or fear for the away team. It just doesn't work.

Until today, the only stadia for which naming rights have so far been granted are those which have recently been built such as the Emirates, the Etihad, the Reebok - all Premier League grounds, all relatively new replacements for antiquated parts of the club's history reflecting the commercial reality of the new chapter in the club's life.

Not for our club, however, where once the club played at St James' Park, officially at least our club will now play its home games at the Sports Direct Arena in a bid to showcase to potential sponsors the kind of profile they can get by sponsoring our ground. Presumably Sports Direct won't be paying for this, though, what with Jabba owning that particular brand (which as a result of this announcement gets a nice bit of free publicity in the run up to Christmas).

We all knew that the good run had to end a some point. It was simply too much to hope that Jabba and Llambiarse had learnt their lessons, that we could all pull together and as a consequence see great things happen. Initiatives to draw fans back to St James' Park (such as cheap season tickets for mates of existing season ticket holders) were working. As a club, while we as fans hadn't forgotten the sins of the past, we were at least moving forward together. Then this bombshell is dropped.

Evidently though, Jabba doesn't care. Llambiarse doesn't care. If they think they can screw a bit more money out of a sponsor (and Jabba can garner a bucketload of free advertising for his own shitty company in the meantime), then the fans, the history, it can all be ignored.

The question is, will it change?

For fans, it will always be St James' Park, in much the same way as the majority still refer to the Leazes and Gallowgate Ends despite the fact that both were renamed years ago. It will be interesting to see how the mainstream media react - will they stick with St James' Park (as they did when Jabba tried the whole SportsDirect.com @ St James' Park rebrand a couple of years ago), or will they be compelled to start referring to the Sports Direct Arena in match reports etc?Hopefully, the groundswell of public opinion will be such that this latest attempt to sell off the soul of our club will die away (and, having just paid for new signage on the East Stand, will a further sign be going up anytime soon I wonder?).

Am I surprised that Jabba has tried again to rebrand our ground? No. Do I think it's disgraceful? Of course. Will I use the new name? Will I fuck. Will anyone else? Who knows?

It's the last question that Jabba is pinning his hopes upon, in his bid to increase income streams. Llambiarse reckons it could be worth £8-10 million per year. If that helps the team grow, I suppose I should grudgingly welcome it, but as with the sale of Rocky I suspect we won't see any of the money being spent on headline sums to strengthen the team, rather it represents a means of improving our balance sheet and thereby making us more attractive when Jabba comes to sell. (I suppose we should at least be grateful we've not followed Wigan's lead and tried to call it the MA Arena.)

In the meantime, once the outrage has subsided, it will be interesting to see what if there are any takers and whether anything actually changes. I hope that the answer will be "no".

Quiz answer: Leicester City, whose relatively new stadium was previously named after local crisp maker Walkers, but which has changed its name in line with their new Thai owners' principal brand (spot a theme?). Locally, of course, it's still known as the Walkers, which rather proves the point that original names stick, whatever signage you put above the door.

Quote of the day

"I was prepared to pay so much because those French jerseys from '98 are very hard to come across. There are only six in circulation: a Zidane, a Trezeguet, a Desailly, a Boghossian and two Guivarc'hs."

An interesting titbit courtesy of distraught French fan Olivier Demolis, whose David Trezeguet '98 World Cup final shirt was destroyed by customs officials convinced it was a fake. Who would have thought "sought-after" might be an adjective legitimately applied to "Guivarc'h"? The nominal striker's contribution to France's World Cup triumph (five games, no goals) was about as impressive as his contribution on Tyneside (four games, one goal - and that in a 4-1 thrashing at home to Liverpool). The worst striker ever to play in the Premier League, according to a 2009 feature in the Daily Heil - and for once we're actually inclined to agree with Dacre's rag.

On the subject of fleeting visitors to St James' Park, here's a half-decent guide to the stadium and its environs. And while I'm on the subject of links, Billy Furious' report on the Arsenal match captures the despondency, passion, madness and joy of the occasion far better than my own effort.