Thursday 10 November 2011

What's in a name?

I shouldn't really be surprised that the name of Newcastle United's ground has been changed from St James' Park to the Sports Direct Arena, after owner Mike Ashley's sporting goods company.

Newcastle plan to sell the naming rights to their ground and decided that the name St James' Park is "commercially unattractive". 

Newcastle have played at St James' Park since 1892.  The millions of fans who have passed through its turnstiles since then would laugh at, refuse to believe or vocally protest at the way Ashley has so deliberately spat on that history.  And I can't see the current fans calling the ground anything other than St James' Park, whatever its official name now or in the future.

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