City " Sold their Soul"

Selling ground naming rights just to make more money, as if your owners have not got enough or just so you can spend more in the transfer market


Are YOU the fans happy with this or is it just a case of not being arsed so long as we win something now with city fans.

I would be gutted if OT was changed overnight like that, gutted. Modern football I suppose but I loved going to "Highbury" & "Maine road", proper shame.

As we are constantly told by all you rags, its a council house and we don't own it, by getting hundreds of millions for something that you don't really own, i would say that is a damn fine bit of business, wouldn't you?

Modern stadiums too, Highbury and Maine road are no longer... happy memories with them.

Whispers are, that the powers that be at OT are already looking into this as a further stream of revenue, the current front runner is The Ocean Finance Arena, quite an apt name.

ONH, not saying I agree but if it was still Maine Road I would agree. But the council wouldnt let us rename one of the streets so we get the COMs or Eastlands, both names having no history as football stadia.

So I doubt very much if any City supporter sees it as important.

But let me ask you this, at one stage there was talk of extending the motorway link and building a new United stadia complete with parking for all the traffic on the site of Manor farm were the training ground is.

It would patently not have been old trafford, nor would it have been called old trafford, do you seriously think the Glazers would have not got a sponsorship deal for it?

This coming from a fan of a club who deemed it commerically acceptable to emblazon their sponsors logo over the memorial for the Munich disaster anniversary.

Maybe we should get some pictures of our legends on the side of our stadium and put some sponsors names on them, anything to meet the ffp criteria. Football sold what was left of its soul to Murdoch, and your club led the way chasing the pound notes.

I don't give a crap, frankly. Football has long since been a business and the only football grounds that kept their "old" name are either in the lower leagues or have been allowed to expand, such as OT or WHL or Stamford Bridge.

We weren't allowed to expand Maine Road, hence the move.

But it's not unusual. All new stadia are open to such abuse in order to pay for them. The Emirates is the highest profile, but there's plenty of others who have corporate sponsorship: DW, Reebok, JJB, Madejski... even Huddersfield Town play at the Galpharm.

So I'm not actually that fussed. In fact, I welcome it - partly because it gives us scope to negotiate around the ridiculous FFP rules, and partly because it is yet another indicator to the slobbering imbeciles that our owners are in it for the long haul.

i wouldn't sell that mob a virus

Not having a go at the fans, like I said I would be gutted if United did the same same.

What next to sell off?

As expressed above ONH, if City were still at Maine Rd then yes, the majority of people would be gutted at a name change.
However, being in a new stadium that doesn't have any real history, imo it's not really a problem.

As Utd probably won't be moving, i can fully understand how you'd feel.
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"What next to sell off"?

General concensus at the minute is Bellamy and Tevez.

ONH wrote:Not having a go at the fans, like I said I would be gutted if United did the same same.

What next to sell off?

But would you? Would you be gutted if the money enabled you to get all the players that Fergie wanted? Would you be narked if it meant keeping you in the CL? Would it piss you off intensely if it stopped you ending a season potless?

It annoys me purely because it's business, nothing more. We're playing by the same rules every other club with ambition has to follow, because only the select few have enough success to be able to avoid taking such steps. Now if you're happy for the sport to remain an elitist institute where only a handful of clubs can take part, then good for you. But ask yourself this: If the situation were reversed, would you not want your team to do whatever it took to be competitive?

Old Trafford as a name is hardly unique considering the soon to be modernised cricket ground is only 5 minutes away.

Naming rights only really work with new grounds anyway and considering our new(ish) home already has 3 widely used names, Etihad will give it some 'Unity' ( geddit.)

I have no nostalgic connection yet to our stadium and I imagine most of us will still be calling it Eastlands in 10 years time anyway.

Doubt you'll be sat on your high horse for too long anyway when the debt collectors come knocking at the swamp, when is that again, 2015, 2017?

Your stadium rights will be sold in a flash, and we'll see how many proper fans go to the matches then, the ones that haven't already been priced out that is.

Aside from that United are probably the most corporate 'brand' in world football so it's a bit rich coming on here saying we have sold our soul.

why is the swamp given the name the theatre of dreams then? was that some horrible person trying to conjure up nightmares of horrific proportions?

All these comments about City really are a bit pedantic.If someone came along with the right offer the Glazers would snatch their hands off.
As previously stated,its not like we are selling off Maine Rd.
The contract we are getting for the deal is more than half of Uniteds debt,do not tell me that it does not appeal to the rags.

coolenglishbob wrote:All these comments about City really are a bit pedantic.If someone came along with the right offer the Glazers would snatch their hands off.
As previously stated,its not like we are selling off Maine Rd.
The contract we are getting for the deal is more than half of Uniteds debt,do not tell me that it does not appeal to the rags.

you have sold off your ground name, arn't you bothered, & your right about the "people" who run united who would most probally do the same but I as a fan would be gutted if they changed our ground name, OT is famous the world over

With all your money did you really need to do that, anyway whats done is done & I'll still call your place the council house as they still own it, £20 million there copping for I heard.

Really your ground was a stadium built to hold the Commonwealth games for the people of Manchester, now it got nothing to do with manchester.

If you're from Manchester ONH, you should be over the bluemoon that City are giving £20m into your councils coffers over the next 5yrs.

Again ONH,
IF you moved to a NEW ground, would you not be happy to sell naming rights for the new stadium (as it WOULDN'T be called OT would it)?............course you would.

do man utd 'own' their own stadium or do some banks really own it?

should we call OT Lehmann arena or the ocean finance bowl?

I'am not arsed what you lot call it but its a bit off putting that its got nothing to do with Manchester dont you think, I'am sure you would rather it be called something else.

As for the council I doubt the people of north manchester will see any of that money do you.

Anyway last post on the subject for me, I can't even remember what your grounds called now anyway

ONH wrote:With all your money did you really need to do that

Yes. You're aware of the FFP rules, I take it? We have more money than God and we'll never be in debt, but apparently that's not acceptable, we have to make our own money. And this is one step in that direction.

I'd have preferred us not to have had to do this, but the powers that be are doing whatever they can to stop us from using our money to compete. They tried with the 25 man rule, they are trying with FFP and I can only expect the next stop to be something even more ludicrous.

Lets face it, the money men will always get their way as that is what runs the game these days. As was said in previous posts if this was Maine Road we would be up in arms. However we have no particular affinity with COMS as city's history is Maine Road. But our affinity is with the players on the pitch, the team Manchester city. Just look right through the game, the carling cup, in 1976 we won the league cup, but the name was changed for money. The barclays premier league, this is not a branch of the bank, it's our premier competition. The fa cup, sponsored by eon, lets face it the whole game is run by the money men. If somebody came to old trafford offering the sort of money that city are getting, i believe that united would insist on old trafford was still being in the title, so i believe let's say their current shirt sponsors would call it Old Trafford, sponsored by aon, but you can't tell me they would refuse the money

I rather suspect that the United fans are spoiled by having a world famous stadium already - everybody already knows it as what it is, so to change it would be to undermine the brand. We don't have that any more, now we're no longer at Maine Road.

Still, that said, I'd much rather have a nice new stadium with decent facilities than a dodgy ground with more extensions than Cheryl Cole. And I don't even mind foregoing the stadium name, not least because it sticks two fingers up at UEFA and FIFA and says, "Go on then, fuckers, what else are you going to try to keep us out of the Champs League?"

And I'll tell you something else too - I don't even mind that we're being used as a centrepiece for a massive redevelopment of East Manchester either. If our name is forever linked with improving one of the most deprived areas of the country and provides work, I'd be happy with that.

It has more than something to do with Manchester Newton, it has everything to do with Manchester. It's the home of Manchester City, the only football team to come from Manchester, and everyone knows that no matter what it's called.