Source: Northern_Echo
Newcastle announce new stadium name
NEWCASTLE United managing director Derek Llambias has confirmed that the club's stadium will be known as sportsdirect.com @ St James' Park for the rest of the season.[LNB] The club will then seek a new sponsor to take over the naming rights from Sports Direct, a sportswear firm owned by the club's owner, Mike Ashley, for the 2010-11 campaign.[LNB] The news is a clarification of last night's announcement regarding the naming rights for St James'.[LNB] A previous statement had suggested that St James' Park would be completely renamed, but Llambias insisted that the 'St James' Park' section of the name would remain.[LNB] The result is an unseemly compromise that will do little to placate the mounting fury amongst supporters of Newcastle United.[LNB] Planned demonstrations are still expected to go ahead before Saturday's Championship home game with Peterborough.[LNB] Llambias said: "We could have worded it (last week's statement) better, and that's why I came out to try and explain where we are and what we are hoping to achieve.[LNB] "With a renaming, it was always going to be 'Whatever brand it was going to be @ St James' Park'.[LNB] "For the remainder of this season, we already have sportsdirect.com on the Gallowgate.[LNB] "So we'd like to take that branding through the rest of the stadium and on the outside - where you see St James' now - we would like to have sportsdirect.com @ St James' so it can showcase to whoever is out there that might wish to buy the package.[LNB] "If you want extra players, we have to bring in extra revenue and that is one source of revenue that's been under-valued in the past.[LNB] "We're not taking away St James' Park - we're just adding to it. We will showcase sportsdirect.com until the end of the season and I'm sure we're going to get a sponsor in for next season."[LNB] ** READ MORE NEWCASTLE UNITED NEWS IN TOMORROW'S NORTHERN ECHO **[LNB]
