11 replies to this topic

[Blue Monkey]

After reading Riggy's (always excellent) report on the club's website for the Batley match I can't help but wonder if rugby league has gone COMPLETELY crazy.

It's the stadium naming trend for 30 pieces of silver (sponsorship) that I find so repellent. Is NOTHING sacred these days?

LoveRugbyLeague.Com Stadium (Mount Pleasant)

plus a few others...

Bigfellas Stadium (Post Office Road)

Grattan Stadium - to 2011 (Odsal Stadium)

Rapid Solicitors Stadium (Belle Vue)

PROBIZ Colliseum. (Wheldon Road)

God only knows what indignity "Station Road" would have had to endure were it mercifully still in operation.

Oh! of course, I forgot, it's the almighty £/$ which takes precedence every time in all aspects of what we naively used to call 'sport'.

Just had a great money spinning idea, let's change our sport's name from 'Rugby League' to something more befitting the modern money grabbing world we all live in.

Any ideas?

PS - You can still use the historic/traditional name of RL grounds. It’s not (yet) a hanging offence to do otherwise.

[distantdog]

As a Batley supporter, the Loverugbyleague.com stadium will always be the Mount to me. However, if our excellent directors can use whatever facilities we hold, to develop extra revenue to put back in the club, it really is a small price to pay. Your club are a classic case in point. As a Swinton supporter you have been through the mill more than most supporters in RL. We were discussing this at the match, how well you had done to stick by your team after all of the uncertainty and movement. It's an example that our supporters and directors are keen to avoid, and if they can do that by putting up a few signs for a little revenue (or pieces of silver according to you) then it's a small price to pay.

[PhillH]

The selling of "Naming Rights" is crass and for me reflects yet another uncomfortable advance in the UK's corporate culture, but its now firmly established as a fact of life in sport where the quest for diverse income streams is seen as necessary to ensure survival and/or to get a competitive advantage.

Although it appears the brands concerned are etched in your memory BlueMonkey and you've just helped give them a touch more value for money(!), in my view naming rights as a marketing exercise only ever work effectively when they are in place from Day 1. Interestingly you haven't mentioned any grounds in that category in your start to the string, so perhaps those sit more comfortably with you?

When applied to grounds that have been there for eons, not only does the supposed name change positively annoy, the vast vast majority will still use the longer established name despite "official" things like Ian's match reports being duty bound to reference the sponsors.

How many takers amongst the Toon for any name other than St James's Park? In all the turmoil at Bradford recently, 100% of the references I've seen to the name of their home ground have been to Odsal.

At least when we are talking about sport there is a balance of detriment and benefit.

Where I do think the line has been crossed has been our own local authority's totally unnecessary and disrespectful attempt to apply these principles from the corporate world to their own governance of an administrative boundary determined by beaurocrats at the Boundary Commission, i.e. "IN Salford" branding. It is utterly ironic that the recent proposed boundary changes by that very same body for Westminster Constituencies have led to an outcry about "wiping Salford off the map" and howls that the Boundary Commission has demonstrated a total lack of local knowledge so as to be unfit to determine the meaning of community!

Very ironic too that the council has not been able to find anyone prepared to take on Naming Rights for their own new stadium that has surely got one of the most saleable locations for this purpose of any stadium in the entire UK!

[Spelly]

Keith - This won't be the first time we've diagreed about "modern" RL, but.........................

Let me throw this at you!

Cast your mind back 20 years, as the Shrine was about to be sold - Would you have said it was crazy had we stayed where were, but it was to become the ????.com Stadium?

What if Agecroft became a reality, but it was the XXXX.com Stadium?

Rugby League is a business - Business means money - Well done to Batley, and as an RL modernist, I applaud 101% what they've done!

Spelly.

[mark richardson]

Keith - This won't be the first time we've diagreed about "modern" RL, but.........................

Let me throw this at you!

Cast your mind back 20 years, as the Shrine was about to be sold - Would you have said it was crazy had we stayed where were, but it was to become the ????.com Stadium?

What if Agecroft became a reality, but it was the XXXX.com Stadium?

Rugby League is a business - Business means money - Well done to Batley, and as an RL modernist, I applaud 101% what they've done!

Spelly.

Well said Spelly.

To me the names are rubbish but who cares!?

[duffymoon]

Yep agreed! Anything that brings money into the game must be encouraged.I have absolutely no doubt that if we get to Agecroft the club will sell the naming rights to the stadium.

[Bleep1673]

Keith - This won't be the first time we've diagreed about "modern" RL, but.........................

Let me throw this at you!

Cast your mind back 20 years, as the Shrine was about to be sold - Would you have said it was crazy had we stayed where were, but it was to become the ????.com Stadium?

What if Agecroft became a reality, but it was the XXXX.com Stadium?

Rugby League is a business - Business means money - Well done to Batley, and as an RL modernist, I applaud 101% what they've done!

Spelly.

As long as it doesn't become the XNXX.com stadium, I'd be happy if it was ever built, whatever they call it

Besides XXXX hasn't been sold in the UK since 2006, so it's unlikely to be that

Edited by Bleep1673, 06 August 2012 - 12:31 PM.

[Blue Monkey]

The selling of "Naming Rights" is crass and for me reflects yet another uncomfortable advance in the UK's corporate culture,

"crass" Yes you're dead right Phill, that puts it in a nutshell.
I can see your point Spelly but people's views differ as to just how far you are prepared to go when crossing the line of plain decency in the largely undignified pursuit of sporting revenue AT-ANY-PRICE even if that means 'selling your soul' as so much of the rugby league world has done in recent times.
Didn't 'someone' once say that rugby league shall not live by money alone but by the ideals that once prevailed in our sporting communities, or something similar, if you know what I mean?

[mark richardson]

The quest for sponsorship by swinton and our failure to gain a big name sponsor has been widely criticised by some for the several seasons.
What's the difference?

[Jonty]

I agree with Spelly on this, but also think that there is a way to soften the impact on fans.

This could be with naming rights that link a company with the ground in a manner that is respectful of the established name.

eg. "The Acme Trading Company Stadium at Station Road" or "Station Road, sponsored by the Acme Trading Company"

[Blue Monkey]

I agree with Spelly on this, but also think that there is a way to soften the impact on fans.

This could be with naming rights that link a company with the ground in a manner that is respectful of the established name.

eg. "The Acme Trading Company Stadium at Station Road" or "Station Road, sponsored by the Acme Trading Company"

Think I could just about live with something like that. For me there has to be a certain degree of respect and dignity in all aspects of the game or else it would simply be ALL about business, business, business and NOT about people and sport.

I've always had no problem with having advertisements pasted on walls, stands around stadia and in the match programme itself, but simply find it obnoxious the way ads are daubed on the field of play itself. I think it's mainly a case of where you draw the line so to speak.

[Keith T]

I read somewhere, I think it was on the Batley forum, that they sold the naming rights for £5,000, which in the big scheme of things is not a lot of money these days.