What's in a Name? UK Football in the 21st Century

Sports Direct Arena?

I must admit to rather choking on my toast this morning as I saw the news of St James’ Park, home of Newcastle United FC, being renamed as the Sports Direct Arena. Commercial branding of stadia has become a recurring trend in recent years (e.g. The Emirates for Arsenal, Etihad for Man City and the Reebok for Bolton), however there has been a presumption that certain names were off limits. It was inconceivable that proud stadia such as Anfield, Old Trafford and indeed St James’ could be sold off, their names safely steeped in the decades of proud history and jealously guarded by the fans. Naming rights were understandable for new build stadia, where clubs had already sold off the tradition; however the existing homes would not be affected.

NUFC’s move shows the naivety of that approach and highlights several key points about modern football. Firstly, football is unmistakably a business, and a cut throat one at that. Clubs provide an entertainment service to their community of fans; however they have responsibilities to their share holders which outweigh their fan base. Many clubs operate with abysmal financial records, Newcastle being a case in point with operating losses (before player sales) of over £30 million pounds, despite playing in one of the most cash rich football leagues in the world. Clubs are frankly forced to sell every single scrap that they can in order to continue to survive, let alone compete, amongst the astronomical transfer and wage demands expected by modern players. In this context, it is natural that market forces will drive clubs to utilise their proudest traditions as unique selling points, hoping that the allure of owning a piece of them will bring the investors flooding in.

The second point is that this is an inexorable drive now, one which will not be halted without a large scale crash within the footballing market. Scotland offers an interesting example. Bereft of the TV and advertising revenue streams which flood larger footballing leagues, Scottish football languishes in the doldrums both on a club and international level. Scotland’s most successful football team, Glasgow Rangers, is facing the very real threat of collapse, with a contested tax bill with HMRC hitting nearly £40 million. Clubs in Scotland have attempted to throw money into squads to compete with bigger clubs, with appalling results across the country as they barely manage to keep their heads above water, the only option for the Old Firm (Celtic and Rangers) seeming to be a fantastical desire to move to the English leagues. In England, major football clubs are being snapped up by foreign investors, billionaires from the US, Middle East and Russia replacing the existing home grown board structures. Whilst this can bring in significant investment (Chelsea and Man City have gone from being ignored clubs to championship contenders), it does not inevitably lead to success. The foreign investors often fall into one of two categories – the business minded, who are looking to maximise the return on their investment through the branding and property opportunities; and the playboys, who creates clubs which only function because of their huge personal cash reserves, and would be in serious trouble if the owner becomes bored.
Finally, the fans themselves contribute to the difficulty. We all want the traditions of our respective clubs to be defended to the death; however we are also intolerant of defeat, demanding success on the pitch. This impossible dichotomy leaves clubs forced to sell everything can, right down to their very essence and tradition, inevitably leading to the place where fans are voiceless consumers, unimportant within the overall structure of the club.

Which brings us back to where we started. Football may be a worldwide phenomenon, bringing in billions of pounds across the globe, however it is also an example of an extremely unsustainable business model, where a tiny proportion of global corporations (Man United, Real Madrid, Barcelona etc) are pushing out competitors, with the tiny local clubs falling apart. Investment in the grassroots of football in the UK is abysmal, the lower league clubs repeatedly collapsing under the financial strain whilst even major teams are forced into continual selling. There is no surprise therefore that the Sports Direct Arena now dominates the landscape of Newcastle, the proud tradition of St James’ Park sold down the river. Newcastle United, like its numerous rivals, is trying to find anything to give it an edge, swamped by footballing monopolies who fundamentally weight the market against them. Nothing can be sacred in such a market; everything has to be a commodity which must be sold for either competitive edge or simple survival.

Can this situation be changed? There are new ways of running clubs being explored, with supporters’ trusts and community ownership plans starting to appear. Indeed, one of the most successful footballing dynasties in the world, FC Barcelona of Spain, is run on a membership model whilst still managing to deliver incredible success both on the pitch and in the bank. Football needs to examine itself, to rediscover its purpose in providing both entertainment and community capital, something which can offer commercial success as well.

However, without a powerful level of introspection, thus far largely non-existent in the UK game, we will continue to see the selling out of the history and traditions of our football clubs. We need to create the spaces to discuss new ways of approaching our teams, exploring new models. How about social enterprise clubs, or Community Interest Clubs actively contributing to their local surroundings?

Is this something Fellows could be discussing? After all, we have RSA Academies – perhaps the time has now arrived for RSA FC...