Wonga Loans Throw £4m (At 3,000% APR?) At Newcastle For Naming Rights, Vow To Revert Stadium Name Back To St. James’ Park
By Chris Wright
Payday loan sharks company Wonga have concluded a four-year sponsorship deal with Newcastle, chucking a reported £4 million-a-year at the Toon (presumably at a very competitive representative 3000% APR) in order to ensure that their vaunted marque is placed upon the club’s shirts and that they have the naming rights for the club’s stadium.
Telegraph Sport have done the maths: “By our calculations, if Wonga loaned you £4 million, your annual interest would be £164 million (Plus £5.50 transmission fee).”
As of 2013/14, Wonga’s logo will be in pride of place on the Newcastle shirts and, as the company announced this afternoon, the Sports Direct Arena will be no more and the stadium will officially be reverted back to it’s rightful name, St James’ Park.
Shame. ‘The Wonga Dome’ had a nice ring to it.
Anyway, any club thinking about taking a Newcastle player on loan may want to rush it through now, because as soon as Wonga come in, a season’s worth of Gabriel Obertan may well end up costing upwards of £100 million in interest as of next year.
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They will have won over so many fans already by getting rid of that stupid sports direct arena name!! TOON TOON BLACK WHITE ARMY!!!! ;)
I was sceptical of this, simply because of the “Wongadome” tag. However, if they stick to their word and reinstate the St. James’ Park name, then thank you very much for the £4m and welcome to the family.
Mike Ashley has been surprisingly decent over the last few seasons. If history is to be believed, he’s due a catastrophic balls-up sometime soon…
I know Man Utd are a lot bigger club but $80m per year from Chevrolet compared to £4m per year from Wonga, that’s a fucking ridiculous difference.
So, only two more naff names for north east football grounds left- The Stadium of Light (ideas above your station much?) and The KC (And the Sunshine Band) Stadium. Could they make that fat guy who says “WONGA!” in the adverts into their mascot?
Nice news about St. James Park, but Wonga is still an utterly despicable corporation, and assuming they use the same logo for the Toon as for Blackpool, they’re gonna make a colourful mess of those nice black and white kits. I guess you win some and you lose some, as they say…
They could have given that money to Cardiff City and renamed the whole team to the Red Dragon Wongas!