29 Jan 2015 23:48:12
With Real Madrid about to sell the naming rights of the Bernabeu to the U.A.E for a colossal figure, perhaps it is something that we should consider? It seems to be a the latest way to inject capital into a huge club via sponsorship. City, Arsenal and Bayern have done it among others and now Madrid are contemplating renaming possibly the greatest Stadia of all.
I know there would be many objections to re-naming Old Trafford, but sentiments aside, the way football is evolving and financially growing year by year it is certainly something to consider. If we decided to cash in on the Stadiums name surely the figure being talked about for Madrid's deal with the U.A.E would be similar to what we would get in return. No matter what the name may be, it will always be the Theatre of Dreams to me.
30 Jan 2015 00:19:41
Sorry I said I'm going to stop posting for a few months but Old Trafford should always be called old Trafford.
We have no need to sell our naming rights and should never do so!
Arsenal built a new stadium as did bayern so the change was easy, there are a lot of things for sale in football, let's try and keep some of our history.
Let the abuse start in 3. 2. 1. GO!
I hear what you guys are saying and I agree completely. I didn't say I want the name to change. All I said is if Madrid can raise €500millon from the sale of a stadia name is it worth considering?
Chris you say we don't need the money but €500million is an unreal amount of cash, could anyone in any corporation turn that down? In any business be that a sporting institution or any other sector, cash is king.
30 Jan 2015 07:00:50
I agree the amount is unfathomable, but do we need it? Is over 100 years of history for sale for £500m?
then where does it stop? Because next it will be the club name, we will have a super bowl esc halft time show, 15 min intervals for ads etc.
I agree with juanmatasbeard.
I understand the sentiment but unfortunately nowadays with ffp etc it is something I would consider, as said before if we could get £500million from it then I think we should consider it
30 Jan 2015 07:19:05
I would like to hear from the people living there in Britain about how such changes have affected the clubs and its image in the past?
For example, Newcastle changed the name of St. James Park to Sports Direct Arena and I understand that they even changed the signs on the road leading to the staduim but the fans still call the stadium as the St. James Park.
It WILL happen in the coming years, of that I have no doubt. I don't think these owners will do it as they have caused enough trouble, but I think it will be discussed with any prospective new owners to get the price up. I don't really like the idea, but if the money was used to the benefit of the team/fans and as long as it still has Old Trafford in the name, I'd accept it I think. It's just modern day football, nothing we all say will stop it happening if owners decide to do it
It should never happen, principals and history is of greater value then extra millions.
I agree Singh, but I don't think the owners/shareholders give a rats ass about tradition.
30 Jan 2015 11:57:51
Right this is a very unpopular idea and a very sensitive subject but let's throw some realism into the mix as we do live in the real world and not the romantic fantasy world we all view our club in.
In the last 10 years the club has had huge progress commercially but has fallen behind out on the pitch, Sir Alex held us together for as long as he could and his sheer force of will kept us competing even when the quality on show was below par. We fell behind out on the pitch because of the weight of the debt the club became saddled with, now i'm not going to turn this into an anti Glazer post. But the reality is the money having to be focused on the debt meant it couldn't be spent on the team. It looks like they have realised their folly with a loosening of the purse strings seen last summer.
But the reality of the new FFP rules mean we can't afford to fall behind our rivals, if Real Madrid are looking at selling the naming rights to their stadium then that will only give them more money to compete with and force us further behind them.
Football is steadily becoming more and more commercial, we can either accept this or fight against it, the teams that have fought against it up until now have all fallen behind their rivals.
I spent most of last year living up in Newcastle and obviously they have recently renamed their iconic stadium, but every single Geordie I spoke to still refer to it as St James, the metro station that serves the stadium is still called St James, the park behind the stadium is still called St James.
If Old Trafford was to be renamed it would not delete our history, it would just be a new phase of our future. Sharp used to be on our shirts, as did Vodafone and AIG and now Chevrolet. At no point does anyone call us Chevrolet United. Its just the commercial side of football and although it doesn't sit easy with any of us, we accept it as part of football now.
Old Trafford will always be Old Trafford, but if in the media they want to call it something else so that we get a big pay check that enables us to stay ahead of the competiton and keep on writing our name into the history books then so be it. When every stadium in the land is called something different it really won't be such a big deal, and that time is just around the corner.
We need to make peace with this now and accept it is the future, the decision isn't about disregarding our history but about looking to the future and looking to build on that history.
There's a club down the road that is more concerned with their history than their future and they haven't added to that history in over 20 years.
We need to look forward and not backwards.
Fine post Shappy. My thoughts exactly!
Exactly my thoughts Shappy, just couldn't be apsed going into that detail, that is what your posts are for :-)