For the Toon Army, Newcastle United is their god and St James’s Park is their world. It has been home to the club for 119 years and despite renovations and expansion it has experienced the best and worst moments of the club’s history. The name conjures up thoughts of the club, former players like Peter Beardsley, Jackie Milburn and Malcolm McDonald, Alan Shearer’s long-range volley against Everton and beating Manchester United 5-0, as well as the booming noise that makes the club immensely popular with football fans all over the world.
These images are what people buy into when they support any team, not just Newcastle United. Football is a sport for parent’s to take their children and get them excited. It is a way to bond with people on a Saturday afternoon, to release your energy. Reliving historic days of the past is part and parcel of being a football fan and the stadium is integral to that.
But this tradition and emotion is being torn away by the commercial desires now synonymous with the beautiful game. No longer is every club owned by a fan of that team and no longer does heart rule head in the boardroom. Now every decision is based on whether it is cost effective and how much the club will benefit financially.
After Mike Ashley’s latest brainwave last week, the iconic St James’ Park is now the Sports Direct Arena. It seems simple enough. The team is the same, the ground is the same.
But when somebody mentions the stadium by its new name, it doesn’t bring with it the same feelings. It is now merely a location, like a park or a school gym. The tradition of 119 years has been broken and that takes away part of the club’s heart, a cardinal sin for any club.
In 2009, Managing Director Derek Llambias said that the club would never remove St James’ Park from the name of the ground and would instead invite companies to add their name to the title. But two years on and with no interest from other parties, full rights are now on offer for anybody willing to associate themselves with the football club and while the on-field form of the team make it highly worthwhile, the anarchy in the boardroom is enough to scare off would- be suitors.
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In an attempt to justify his change of stance, Llambias has claimed it could bring in up to £10 million per year and increase the club’s financial power but after the way that the £35 million fee received for Andy Carroll has been “re-invested” in the club, it’s unlikely fans will buy into that frame of mind. And does an extra £10 million matter if the club’s fans have all left in dismay.
People look at Newcastle’s eventful past and chuckle about this new chapter in Ashley’s book ‘How to lose fans and alienate people’, but other football fans would feel just as heartbroken if their stadium was all of a sudden stripped of its history in favour of some more money. What if John W. Henry decided to rename Anfield the Fenway Sports Arena or the Glazers rename Old Trafford the McDonald’s Stadium. Neither would be the fortress that they are now.
Fans are sentimental, whether we want to admit it or not the banners and the walk up to the stadium for the very first time are moments we will always remember and so is the first game of football you ever go to see and while clubs do move grounds fans will always have a soft spot for their previous home.
Wembley has never had the same feeling as the old ground and the Emirates, while definitely impressive, does not have the same feeling as Highbury did before it and that may well be part of the reason that the club is yet to add a trophy to their new home.
The same can be seen with Chelsea fans, who have refused to sell their share of Stamford Bridge to Roman Abramovich because they know it will signal an end to their time there. And Liverpool would never be able to recreate the atmosphere and the intensity of the Kop if they were to up sticks to a new ground.
Football was once a game for the people. But since the introduction of shirt sponsors it seems that more and more things are coming up for grabs if the right money is offered. Billboards around the ground, multiple club sponsors, separate shirt and training kit sponsors and now stadia, all of them have succumb to the power of money.
A ground should be iconic and its name should be meaningful. But now it is another money spinner. Piece by piece the reasons we love football are being taken away.
Comment below or join me on Twitter @jrobbins1991 and lets talk football.
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