Rename Villa Park??

[Dante Lavelli]

People have said that Man City'd deal makes a mockery of the FFP Rules. Does it?
It works out at roughly £10m a year and it's not just for the stadium but the whole "campus" or whatever it'll be called. We've just signed a £8-10m shirt deal pet season so I think sits in line with the man city deal.

Furthermore the rules state that such income can be adjusted if the accountants think the sponsorship is in excess of the market rate.  This could still happen
But I have no idea what the Market rate for stadium sponsorship is.

[Dave Cooper please]

Yes, it makes a mockery because it's effectively the owners of the club (Etihad being the airline owned by the owners of Citeh) sponsoring their own club for as much as they think it takes to buy the players they need to circumvent the rules.
Need more cash? Change the shirt sponsorship to another of their companies for another astronomical amount, or sponsor the fucking floodlights for half a billion or something.
It's a loophole a lot of us saw, that UEFA obviously knew about, and it shows how pointless these regulations are.

[Redman]

We don't know what UEFAs response will be yet.

The Etihad deal might be worth £400m but UEFA don't have to account for the full amount in their assessment. If they have cause to believe it's worth half that amount, FFP gives them the power to account for half the amount.

[Drummond]

I couldn't care less, frankly. The 'game' is dead anyway.

[Witton Warrior]

I still call the North Stand the "Witton End" and can never quite remember which is supposed to be the "Doug Ellis" stand so it doesn't matter to me ;-)

This may be my age of course...

[Steve67]

Villa Park has to be one of the most famous names in the game.  F.A. Cup semi finals, the World Cup, European Championships and the UEFA Cup final all at VP over the years.  If we can sell the naming to rights to, I don't know, Coca-Cola Villa Park or Honda Villa Park and we make millions, I don't think we'd mind as long as the team on the pitch is given the funds to improve.  VP will always be known as VP to us, come what may, just like Eastlands will be called Eastlands by the fans. It's only the media who give a shit about these things.

[GJH]

If there is money to be made then it will happen!

The premier league clubs are £3.1billion in debt (on paper) spending beyond their means. I think if a decision was made to ban all fans from the grounds to have a "Sky TV season ticket" for your favourite club then they would consider it, the fans count for nothing anymore. Look at the Arsenal 6% increase in the ticket prices! Over £2300 for the most expensive season ticket! joke!

The premier league needs reshaping and bring the fans back on side. Same as in Germany, grounds are full every week. Even Man Utd struggled to sell out every week at the end of last season.

[Clampy]

I've not read the whole of this thread, but what have the Man City fans made of it?

I'd be appalled if Villa Park's name was changed. Unless the offer was seriously silly money, i don't think Randy would anyway.

[olaftab]

I have had a rethink. If Aston Manor brewery was to become a global  giant like Carlsberg or Carling than we  could have an association like the "Aston Manor Park"

[RunRickyRun]

If there is money to be made then it will happen!

The premier league clubs are £3.1billion in debt (on paper) spending beyond their means. I think if a decision was made to ban all fans from the grounds to have a "Sky TV season ticket" for your favourite club then they would consider it, the fans count for nothing anymore. Look at the Arsenal 6% increase in the ticket prices! Over £2300 for the most expensive season ticket! joke!

The premier league needs reshaping and bring the fans back on side. Same as in Germany, grounds are full every week. Even Man Utd struggled to sell out every week at the end of last season.

They could always cut costs...

[saunders_heroes]

What an absolutely vile idea. Never in a million years.

[pablopicasso_10]

villa park is one of the few great stadiums in the country...

it has history, tradition, heritage... to even think of changing the name is nonsense...

its different for manchester citys plasitc identikit stadium... they dont even own it, and it is a crap plastic bowl full of crap plastic fans...

they have only been borrowing it for a few years, so it makes perfect sense for them to get around the so called "financial fair play" rules and help keep themselves into the "top tabl", despite eufa doing their best to keep the status quo as it was and keeping the rich rich, and the rest of us, scrapping around beneath their impossible to break into diamond strength glass ceiling unnoficial european super league...

the game is in a huge mess, and if it ever implodes on itself, i for one will piss myself with laughter... i hope its one of these clubs who have bent the rules to keep themselves within the "status quo" that goes out of business that then forces eufa to do something about the game... i wont hold my breath though...

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

"etihad" is apparently the arabic word for "United".

Now THAT's selling your soul.

[Chico Hamilton III]

villa park is one of the few great stadiums in the country...

it has history, tradition, heritage... to even think of changing the name is nonsense...

The last of Villa Park's "history, tradition, heritage" went when the Trinity Road was demolished ( and, in my opinion, to a lesser extent, when the Holte went). There's not a stand at Villa Park now that's older than 35 years.

Why not finish off the job and sell the naming rights?

[willywombat]

its different for manchester citys plasitc identikit stadium... they dont even own it, and it is a crap plastic bowl full of crap plastic fans...


I think that's a bit harsh. Citeh fans aren't to blame for the current situation and they stuck by their club when they were in the doldrums