They also confirmed that the Stadium naming rights will form part of the agreement (effective from next season) but that Wonga have agreed to call it St.James' Park Does that count as outsmarting the sharks or will we have to go through this pantomime again in 2016? While that signals an end to the S****s D****t A***a nonsense, confirmation that Ashley's company remains a commercial partner will presumably mean that much (or all) of the existing SD stadium branding will remain. Associated blether from Derek Llambias: "We are building a club that can regularly compete for top honours at the highest level. "As everyone knows, a strong commercial programme is vital to this goal and I am delighted to welcome Wonga into the fold as our lead commercial partner, alongside Puma and Sports Direct. "Throughout our discussions Wonga's desire to help us invest in our young playing talent, the local community and new fan initiatives really impressed us and stood them apart from other candidates." Club press release: Newcastle United has agreed a new four-year deal with wonga.com which will make the digital finance company the Club's lead commercial sponsor. In addition to sponsoring the team shirt from the start of the 2013/14 season and working on a range of other initiatives with fans, Wonga will invest at least £1.5m in two of the Club's most important projects. Wonga is investing in Newcastle United's young talent by providing significant financial support for the Academy. The investment will enable the Club to transform its Academy into one of the leading centres of youth football development in the country, enabling us to nurture the top playing stars of the future. The Academy has around 150 boys between the ages of nine and 18 on its books. In addition to standard evening and weekend training sessions, the Academy has 35 boys attending on weekday afternoons from Monday to Thursday for classroom learning as well as training. Wonga has also committed to invest in the Newcastle United Foundation Enterprise Scheme. The existing programme helps 15-16 year-olds find employment by developing their skills and experience through practical and educational courses. Wonga's investment will vastly expand the scheme and help more young people in the North-East in their future careers. Other initiatives with Wonga will include a straight talking forum with the fans for discussing ideas for fan involvement in the Club and working on a specific new initiative to involve fans in the design of the shirt. Hopefully "fan initiatives" involve more than loans for season tickets at a special rate of just 2000% APR.... United's proud history of shirt advertising 1980 Newcastle Breweries - Blue Star, Kevin Keegan, jumpers for goalposts, new boy Peter runs like a... etc. 1986 Greenalls - Warrington-based brewer/pub owner who sponsored United as part of their attempts to break into the North East market. However a lack of success in doing so (thanks to undrinkable tosh like Grunhalle lager) was mirrored in our on-field demise and relegation. 1990 Newcastle Breweries - hastily reappearing in mid-season and causing the club to distribute shirt patches to obscure the defunct Greenalls branding. After numerous highs and lows during their time in charge, the iconic Brown Ale logo disappeared from our shirts, to be followed by the brewery, which was relocated to Yorkshire after finding a temporary home in Dunston. 2000 NTL - Cable/Satellite TV company who arrived with grand plans to buy the club but soon hit the rocks and bailed out a year before their scheduled end date at around the time they filed for bankruptcy protection. Joining forces with Telewest, they merged with Virgin. 2003 Northern Rock - Once a proud and dependable regional brand, but floundering by 2007 as the banking crisis worsened. Nationalised in 2008, that move left shareholders out of pocket and United's relegation the following year did little to lighten their mood. 2012 Virgin Money - another hastily-conceived mid season deal (cue more shirt patches) seen in some quarters as an attempt to curry favour on Tyneside as Branson's mob bought former Northern Rock assets. 2012 Wonga - sliders, that's how we roll 'ere...
like I said in the other thread - it's just commercial shirt sponsorship, bringing in a decent amount of money every year, have agreed to invest in the academy as well, and have agreed to revert the stadium name back to St James' Park, so it's win win if you ask me
tell you what no wonder ashley has made millions the cunt even getting money to call the ground by its proper name ffs that fucker could sell tea to the chinkys
Token Gesture (again) Its gone down well though the Geordies where choking now this has been a little sugar to help the foul tasting Wonga medicine go down, Medicine go down.... la la la
