King Power

[Haydos]

Why are people confused about them putting their name on it and making less money than if an outside sponsor were to sign up?

They're not trying to make extra money for the club, they're trying to build their brand name and it's free advertising which means more money for them in the long term.

[Winchester]

I don't agree with selling the naming rights for stadiums. There's a few I can tolerate; The Emirates coz that sounds ace, and The Kit Kat Crescent coz that sounds funny.

But even worse that the lack of feeling you get from sponsored stadium names is the logic and justification behind it. Yes, clubs often need to increase their income and yes, this is common practice. And it's true that the price of footballers is more than it was 10 or 20 years ago. But if we were able to catch up to the expenses this way do you think everything would level off there? Unfortunately clubs will always spend more than they earn, and footballers/agents will always demand more than clubs can reasonably afford. Football should have been beyond sustainable when we started having sponsors on shirts, or when the tv revenue started pouring in. This is only another plaster on a gaping wound.

I'm also more than a little disconcerted by the new-found acceptability of this practice, by football fans in general. Some would say it's no big deal, but is that because it genuinely doesn't matter, or is it because we've become numb to it? What if in 10 years time they want to rename us the Leicester City Red Bull? Or maybe something simpler like changing our colours to match the colours of our sponsors? Clubs will probably be short on money then too, and hey we've already sold the naming rights to everything else so what's the harm?

On another note, we might not be embarrassed about having a corporate named stadium - but I doubt anyone will mention it with the same pride as if it had a name that really meant something.

All this strikes me as the thin end of the wedge.... or maybe we've passed that point a long time ago?

[Wymsey]

Don't like the name of the old 'Great Hall' place. The 'Walker's Hall'......

[iBleedLeicesterColours]

At Least it aint Singha

[Head Honcho]

Has anybody seen the paper review on SSN this morning? I found it quite disappointing that one of the tabloids ran a whole page about Leicester losing their soul by the renaming of their stadium.

I'm amazed that they run an article about this, can someone explain to me what we have done any different to other clubs.

Take a look at Arsenal - their new ground being called the Emirates.

Wigan - firstly was called the JJB stadium after his company. Changed to the DW stadium after him.

Wolves - correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't moulinuex (spelling) named because of the electrical company?

Reading - the madjeski stadium FFS!!!

West ham - let's hope if they get the Olympic stadium that they change the name to the razzle den!

Is this a wind up ffs?

[One Arm Babba]

Is this a wind up ffs?

No, I wasn't thinking laterally at the time. Was half way through looking up st. mary on google and whether Roots Hall was a garden centre in Southend

[leicesterseddon]

It seems a bit moot to be whining on about stadium name changes when we live in a world where everything is sponsored, maybe if his focus had been on the regular renaming of the FA cup every few years, i mean The FA cup WITH Budweiser, how shit is that. Everything from movies to music is associated with some brand or another, why get so sentimental and bitchy about stadium names.

NO one cares, when you're in the ground you don't sit there blushing, thinking 'goodness, what must the away fans think', it's things like post goal music, all seater stadia and the tv companies screwing with the fixtures that has really sucked the soul out of the game - not to mention the disrespectful and commonplace cheating and lying by the players.

poor form, but if you read the mirror that's probably what you should expect. there are plenty of great footy blogs if you really want to read someone else's perspective.

Perhaps because managers change, players change, owners change, even fans can only be associated with a club for the duration of their lifetime, but stadia can many, many decades, even centuries, and give a club a sense of history and tradition, as well as a particular identity. Old Trafford can only ever be the name of Manchester United's ground, Goodison Park can only ever be Everton...but the Emerites Stadium, or King Power Stadium, or American Express Stadium...well, they could be just about anywhere. They aren't particular.

[renards]

When it changed from Filbert street, the soul went.

Need to move with the times.

Hardly great memories at the' Walkers; we should be cheering from the roof a) That the equally crap name has changed b) we are getting in a reasonable position and people are taking notice and this looks good for at least 3 years, not been able to say that at the Walkers

[Guest MattP]

We've gone from a corporation owned by Pepsico to one owned by some Thai chaps. I don't think of Walkers as some quaint local company who love our club which is why they've had an association with us for 25 years. I see them as a subsidiary of a multibillion pound company that got a ridiculously good deal on ten year naming rights because we were up the shitter. To me there's no difference between the two really. The article's about ten years too late.

That, ultimately, is why I couldn't give a hoot what our stadium is called. As far as I'm concerned we sold out ten years ago, not two days ago.

I read things by journalists who were also there and it seemed there wasn't actually any real confrontation and Holt had exaggerated it in his account of things. Then again, I've always thought Holt a bit of a penis even before this article and before the Ferdinand incident so I could have a selective memory. I'm pretty sure I'm not making it up though. Who knows.

I promise I'm not just disagreeing with you for the sake of it I'm just being cynical and grumpy.

I enjoy being cynical, you dont ever learn anything just agreeing with people.

I totally understand the point about Walkers but that brand did have some affinity with Leicester City football club even if it was just the fact they employed thousands of local people over time. The deal probably was poor, but whatever it is it was bringing in more money than just naming the football club after the owners company for free publicity. Can you even imagine if the Glazers tried to put the name of First Allied Corp onto Old Trafford?

I have no doubt Holt made more of it than it was, doesnt look like he has the statue to be pushing his weight around on 6ft+ centre halves.

[Winchester]

We should have named it New Trafford @ King Power Stadium with Singha.

[accessory]

I have no doubt Holt made more of it than it was, doesnt look like he has the stature to be pushing his weight around on 6ft+ centre halves.

Having seen his mother (she appears on Coronation Street as Emily Bishop), I doubt it as well..

[Lillehamring]

Perhaps because managers change, players change, owners change, even fans can only be associated with a club for the duration of their lifetime, but stadia can many, many decades, even centuries, and give a club a sense of history and tradition, as well as a particular identity. Old Trafford can only ever be the name of Manchester United's ground, Goodison Park can only ever be Everton...but the Emerites Stadium, or King Power Stadium, or American Express Stadium...well, they could be just about anywhere. They aren't particular.

That's true but the fact still remains that an awful lot of stadia are sponsored, as is most everything these days - this rant seems to be deliberately trying to find a fault with a specific that is commonplace with the many.

sulking and whining about stadiums names is lame journalism, it's an accepted thing now and, as i say, the majority of fans couldn't care less, it's all about leicester city, everything else is just incidental.

if were really talking about selling the soul of a sporting club, then i think the 'Jelson Homes DMU Leicester Riders' should be much higher up the queue for criticism, but if that's what it takes to be a professional sports club in england these days...