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Added: Saturday, 7 November, 2009, 11:56 GMT 11:56 UK

I can understand unset at a name change, but to describe losing a game as a "fans grief" you really need to get into the real world mate, there are soldiers dying and being maimed - sort out the real priorities in life, oh and it is just a game.

Greg, UK

A priority in life for anyone should be to ensure that soldiers don't need to die and get maimed, so that the worst grief someone faces indeed would be something like their team losing. And I bet some of those soldier are footie fans too.

I am spEak You're bRanes, London

Added: Saturday, 7 November, 2009, 10:57 GMT 10:57 UK

UK Ltd is pretty well owned by foreign Countries via direct purchase or Sovereign Funds. If these people want to call anything they own by another name then who are we to stop them. Football is just another business.

[Cant-make-it-up], QATAR and, United Kingdom

Added: Saturday, 7 November, 2009, 10:50 GMT 10:50 UK

Perhaps places named after saints are out of fashion now. St.Andrews next?

[desnol], London, United Kingdom

Added: Saturday, 7 November, 2009, 10:46 GMT 10:46 UK

I used to love soccer as a kid. But sadly, the amount of money in the game (and it is only a game) has completely and utterly destroyed it.

PJ Hughes, Sheffield, United Kingdom

Added: Saturday, 7 November, 2009, 10:45 GMT 10:45 UK

As the old saying goes, 'What is in a name - a rose etc.' I am not sure about Mike Ashley's reasons for changing the name of St, James's Park' but lets be fair, if a company is sponsoring a football club to the tune of many millions of pounds, is it unreasonable to display their name prominently, even to re-naming ones stadium after them. As a director of a non-league football club, I just wish I was in the position to have to chose. So fans, count your blessings, don't live in the past.

Alan Johnson, Middlewich, United Kingdom

Added: Saturday, 7 November, 2009, 10:39 GMT 10:39 UK

It doesn't matter what the powers that be call it...the fans will used the name they are comfortable with. A carpet sweeper is still a Hoover which ever brand it is, and a rose by any other name is still a rose.

A.Clanger, Bakewell


Not the best structured aggument... a Hoover is a Hoover because that IS the brand it is - if it wasn't a Hoover it would be an ordinary vacuum cleaner. This actually epitomises the whole reason for NOT changing names.

[jackmaxsam]

Added: Saturday, 7 November, 2009, 10:37 GMT 10:37 UK

Only commentators and journalists will use the new name because they have to. Fans will still call it St James' Park, and this whole sorry episode will be forgotten once Mike Ashley leaves Newcastle.

[Downhillfromhere], London

Added: Saturday, 7 November, 2009, 10:35 GMT 10:35 UK

Of course a name is important! It was important for him to have a name he wanted. He owns it, so he changed the name! He has a reason to do so, and he could do so, so he did!

Don't get me wrong here! I don't like old names I've grown up with disappear! Why, De Havilland became Hawker Siddeley. Then British Aerospace. Now it's Airbus UK, or for me Airbus SAS down in Toulouse!
But we still designed and built bloody good aircraft! And we will continue to do so. The names are a part of us.

John Alexander Langley

Added: Saturday, 7 November, 2009, 10:26 GMT 10:26 UK

It doesn't matter what the powers that be call it...the fans will used the name they are comfortable with. A carpet sweeper is still a Hoover which ever brand it is, and a rose by any other name is still a rose.

A.Clanger, Bakewell

Added: Saturday, 7 November, 2009, 10:20 GMT 10:20 UK

I think football is a great sport but when I have to pay £40+ to sit on a plastic seat in the open for 2hrs to watch a 21 men who pay more tax in a week than I earn in a year is taking the "unrine". You have to be strange to pay that money.
Thats the price you pay for big buisness in the sport.

For £40 I can go karting in the warm and dry for 2hrs and actualy take part. And it fun exercise to!

Greg, Wigan

Added: Saturday, 7 November, 2009, 10:18 GMT 10:18 UK

Intense greed and worship of money has destroyed any national pride on the part of western nations, generally. A handful of comparatively recent billionaires from a dusty, hotter than hell pile of sand (not long ago), are able to make Americans, Britons, French and others crawl and drool and sell their honor and history for cash.
Renaming this stadium is a travesty of all things British. Where is the pride in our own culture and history? Don't ordinary citizens have any say in these matters?

Ivan Bawa, United States

Added: Saturday, 7 November, 2009, 10:12 GMT 10:12 UK

To Jim White

"It seems that just as you should never dismiss a true football fan's grief at losing with the phrase "it's just a game", neither is the title of their stadium "just a name". "

I can understand unset at a name change, but to describe losing a game as a "fans grief" you really need to get into the real world mate, there are soldiers dying and being maimed - sort out the real priorities in life, oh and it is just a game.

Greg, UK

Added: Saturday, 7 November, 2009, 10:08 GMT 10:08 UK

Name changes to Corporate appended names are a depressing sign of the times.

We have seen New Labour, carry on from the Tories, in turning the UK into a State where Corporate power rules. So the Tories will follow New Labour this time round if they come to power - whilst the New Labour Cabinet will take up Corporate jobs. Look at the shameless War Criminal Tony Blair - he is doing fine cashing in on his US poodle role whilst i power

Football fans are rightly offended by name changes.

John P, Edinburgh, UK

Added: Saturday, 7 November, 2009, 10:05 GMT 10:05 UK

I dislike traditional pub names being changed to silly names such as The Slug & Lettuce.
Therefore the same applies to sports grounds, as they have a history.
Will Councils aim to make money buying seeking sponsorship for Leisure Centres, Old People's Homes, Offices etc..
On the same line of thinking, if a company wants me to change my name, please contact me with your cheque for several million pounds.

Andrew Lye, Johnston, Pembrokeshire, United Kingdom

Added: Saturday, 7 November, 2009, 09:52 GMT 09:52 UK

In the early sixties many lovely bits of Edinburgh, around the old Uni,lost their old trad.names, which were replaced by PC choices.Names, and how we perceive them , are v.important.My daughter Electra has been ridiculed ,for the first time, in her 40s, since Coronation St.character Natalie said "Electra" was a trailer trash name,NO appologies from Cor.St. despite complaints.Names tell us if a person/place is Christian, muslim, PC,likely to be "chav" or "posh".Sorry, its a fact!

Elderly Anon, Scotland