The Hotel End

Hi, I am Fraser, a third year student at the Manchester Metropolitan University carrying out my dissertation project on the significance of football stadium names within fan culture. It would be greatly appreciated if you could click on the link below to answer a questionnaire, it will only take a couple of minutes. Thanks ever so much for your help.

https://goo.gl/forms/9NJHIeStOoymMYKt2 (https://goo.gl/forms/9NJHIeStOoymMYKt2)

Great job,

Most questions have a 'doesnt matter' option, but the last one has which name do you prefer... Sixfields or PTS accy stadium.

I chose sixfields but thought 'no preference' would have been a good third answer, simply because if it generates income for the club I like it.

Thanks for completing and appreciate the feedback. I would encourage more people once they have done the questionnaire to give feedback like yours (the point about income) because it gives me more qualitative data to analyse.

I've completed it as well. To summarise my responses, I recognise the financial benefits of stadium branding and don't blame the owners for maximising their income, but to me it always has been and always will be called Sixfields.

I've yet to refer to it as The PTS Academy Stadium in any context other than talking about naming rights and every time I hear the name used it's like nails going down a blackboard for me!

Thanks! Really appreciate the comment

I think you are going to find a pretty consistent theme - most fans prefer the traditional location name, most fans also appreciate the income derived from commercial naming.

Maybe ask another question to really assess the feeling like -

"would you pay another pound on your ticket to offset not having the income from a commercially named stadium?"

I suspect the answer would be a resounding no  :)

That would be an interesting question to ask!

Thing is supporters generally don’t use the name anyway. I can’t every remember me and my Dad discussing “going to Sixfields”. Come to think of it we never used the terminology “County Ground” either. The only people who use the term regularly are journalists, so who cares what it’s called? A bit like shirt sponsership and complaining about the branding on the shirt, money for nothing as far as I’m concerned.

Ditto. Plus the current name reminds me of the Post Traumatic Stress following the Cobblers has inflicted on us down the years. ;)

Nobody does. Doesn't exactly roll of the tongue does it?

True that. I would say we're going Cobblers, not we're going to Sixfields. I'd say I'll meet you at the ground, not Ill meet you at Sixfields. Or if talking stats/form I would refer to home form not form at Sixfields. And with all this I've never referred to it by its sponsored name that I can't be bothered to type.