naming rights to Villa Park....

[N'ZMAV]

Randy Lerner will NOT sell Aston Villa - but may sell naming rights to Villa Park to earn club cash


Interesting....

Not sure I'd be for changing the stadium name.

[flybo]

It will always be Villa Park to me and I think most of you to

[eastie]

I wouldn't read too much into those comments by nursey - speculative article with nothing to back it up.

[N'ZMAV]

I agree - I was interested in seeing if people would be happy to change the name for the sake of more investment in the club.

[UK Redsox]

No problem selling naming rights as far as I'm concerned.

[eastie]

No problem selling naming rights as far as I'm concerned.

Same here , I have no problem with it either , will still see it as villa park.

[London Villan]

Any company would be mad to buy naming rights for an existing stadium.... no value in it. The only time this works if for new stadiums.

[Chipsticks]

No problem selling naming rights as far as I'm concerned.

Same here , I have no problem with it either , will still see it as villa park.

This is weird, but as probably the youngest member of this forum I have a huge fucking problem with selling the naming rights. I'm surprised you two don't.

I can't wait to sing the lads on from the Genting Casino Lucky Roulette 29 end this Saturday.

[Jimbo]

We need investment, so Randy would be right to weigh up the options. But the other problem we have is a lack of any football knowledge at board level. Historically, Randy appears to have left this to his managers, but when the manager moves on, we're stumped. It inevitably leads to poor appointments. It would also be nice if we had someone who knows the game to show a little leadership and direction off the pitch.

[eastie]

No problem selling naming rights as far as I'm concerned.

Same here , I have no problem with it either , will still see it as villa park.

This is weird, but as probably the youngest member of this forum I have a huge fucking problem with selling the naming rights. I'm surprised you two don't.

I can't wait to sing the lads on from the Genting Casino Lucky Roulette 29 end this Saturday.

My main interest is what happens with the team on the pitch , they can call it what they like but to me it will always be villa park and we need money spent on the team .

[not3bad]

We're stuck between a rock and a hard place.  There's no multi billionaires out there waiting to buy us (as far as we know), so how do we make ourselves more competitive?  It comes down to where you draw the line.  To me this does not cross it, as to me the ground will always be Villa Park.

[paul_e]

in answer to that last question I'd accept it as a necessity.  The key thing is we can't have everything, the last full set of accounts had our turnover as £80m (9th in the league), Tottenham were 6th in that list with £144m.  If we want to challenge them that gap needs to close and really there are 2 sensible routes to that, increase commercial income or increase matchday revenue, the latter meaning increased ticket prices, etc (the 3rd revenue stream is tied to performance and will obviously help but that needs to come on the back of commercial growth or you risk the wheels falling off with 1-2 poor seasons).

Out of interest 7th is Newcastle with £93m, we should definitely be looking to move ahead of them asap.

For me the real question is, would you prefer the ground to be renamed or to pay an extra £5 per ticket?  The latter potentially nets the club £2.5-3m extra a year, I'd hope for a lot more than that for the former, additionally I'd be surprised if the fans accepted a rise like that as a requirement to challenge, in reality it would push a lot of fans away.  I guess someone will mention the TV money but the way that's weighed will actually widen the gap rather than close it.

[Richard E]

This isn't in the same category as changing the club colours or the team name for me. If it resulted in funds which improved our competitiveness and made it more enjoyable to go down there again they can call it St Andrews for all I care. Between ourselves it will always be Villa Park anyway.   

[PaulWinch again]

Any company would be mad to buy naming rights for an existing stadium.... no value in it. The only time this works if for new stadiums.

Agreed, the long standing association means there's no real value to sponsors.

[TheMalandro]

rubbish. He's selling up.