Planet Swans ArchivesStarting with a positive. Liberty Stadium is a damn sight better than what we could have ended up with. Could easily have been something much more embarrassing so we should be thankful of small mercies. And let’s be fair that is probably the only small mercy in a complete disaster from day one. It’s been fifteen long months since the Stadium name went ‘clean’ in a bid to find a sponsor and this is what they came up with.
I have nothing against Liberty Properties but I have to beg the question on how a Council that employed ‘experts’ such as Bastion to sell the stadium name. Well, these experts managed to come up with a deal to sell the naming of the £27 million arena for £100,000 per year – real value for money they provided us with. And spare a thought for NPower who paid £300k over 2 years to sponsor the Ospreys. Certainly a case of “Look at what you could have won”
Now not that I am suggesting for one moment that we sold out through desperation or anything like that but you and I both know that we probably did. We sold the naming rights of the stadium for a cool half million – just the £9.5 million less than Coventry City got for the sponsorship of their stadium. hell if that is the difference in costs, better pray we get into the Championship very soon. Especially when you consider that it was the same company that sold it – hmmm, wonder where they were putting their efforts?
We have been down the road before of clean stadium name being a load of rubbish and so it finally proved to be at the end of the day. The only thing that was preventing the naming of the stadium was the idiots who were trying to do it. The idiots that proved they had an inability to market what we are constantly told is the best regional stadium in the country. If that is true, then the Ospreys shirt must be luxurious inside.
I’m ignoring the fact at the moment that the current poll on the site suggests that 85% of the fans prefer White Rock anyway and the reason I have chosen to ignore it is that the Council have as have the people at Liberty Properties. Liberty White Rock works for me. Probably worked for more even at that pathetic amount of money. As I said it got ignored as proved on the lunchtime news when ‘the announcement was favourable’ on the name apparently. well, in the council chambers it was – they stopped giving a toss a long time ago what us fans think about anything.
Nobody is suggesting that we ignored better deals to rub a few backs or anything like that but there could have been better options had we gone looking. Most of what we did looks as if it was sit back and wait for someone to knock on our door. You want to sell something you go out and sell it. I don’t think we bothered.
Remind me to dig out my White Rock T-Shirt for Saturday – or is that taking liberties?
