Season’s greetings
I’m a bit late with this but it’s worth noting that the new Scottish football league season kicked off last weekend.
Dundee United, the club I support, were promoted last season after one year in the second tier, and their reward was to start the new league season with a home game against their near neighbours Dundee.
And when I say ‘near’ I’m not kidding. The two clubs’ stadiums are 150 yards apart so when they are playing each other the visiting players traditionally walk from one ground to the other, exposing themselves to some ‘friendly’ banter from rival fans.
As it happens, the Dundee derby is one of the few local derbies where fans of both clubs often walk to the ground together, and end up in the same pubs after the match.
During the game there is genuine animosity but there is rarely any trouble, inside or outside the ground, and after the match any tension quickly subsides.
In recent times both clubs have been relegated (and promoted) twice, but last season Dundee defied expectations and crept into the top six in the Premiership.
In contrast, and even though they won the Championship, United struggled to impress, so it’s fair to say that expectations before last Sunday’s game were modest, at best.
In the event, United took the lead twice before an entertaining game finished 2-2, prompting one supporter, writer Neil Forsyth, to optimistically hope for a mid-table finish come the end of the season!
It’s a far cry from the club’s glory years in the 1980s, but I think most United fans would settle for that.
Back in April, having travelled to the game that effectively sealed promotion, I predicted:
With several journeyman players brought in from other Championship clubs with the aim of winning the lower division rather than competing at a higher level thereafter, United are going to struggle next season without significant investment in players.
I can’t see that happening under the present (American) owner who, to be fair, has already invested millions of pounds he will never get back. In fact, he’s made it clear he doesn’t intend to hang around much longer (another few years at most), and I don’t blame him.
The good news is that, contrary to those expectations, the first team squad has undergone a remarkable transformation with numerous players ushered out and eleven new recruits brought in.
New players don’t guarantee success, of course, but at least the club recognised that many of the players who won promotion last season were simply not good enough for the higher division. I just hope the club can afford the new players and don’t get further into debt!
Talking of money, United recently sold the naming rights to their home ground which will now be called the CalForth Construction Arena at Tannadice Park.
Dens Park, home of Dundee, has enjoyed similar sponsorship for some time. In 2018 the ageing ground was rechristened the Kilmac Stadium at Dens Park, but this season there’s a new sponsor and supporters now have to get used to the Scot Foam Stadium at Dens Park.
In practise, of course, no supporter would dream of calling either stadium by their ‘official’ name, so you do have to ask what the sponsor gets out of it.
The subject is topical because it has just been announced that Twickenham, home of England rugby, has been renamed the Allianz Stadium in yet another naming rights deal.
It’s possible, I suppose, that some supporters will in future refer to Twickenham as the Allianz Stadium, but for such a change to be universally accepted I think you probably have to build a brand new stadium - like the Aviva in Dublin, or the Emirates in London.
Also, there are already seven Allianz stadiums around the world. Twickenham will be the eighth, but unlike the Allianz Stadium in Munich, for example (which opened in 2005), Twickenham was first established in 1907 and since then it has gradually developed into the stadium we know today, so expecting supporters to call it by a new name may be unrealistic.
Either way, money talks, and few Dundee United fans seem to care that the club has sold the naming rights to the ground formerly known as Tannadice Park, especially if it brings in a few quid that might be spent on better players from Ghana, North Macedonia, and the lower English leagues.
As it happens I missed last Sunday’s match at the CalForth Construction Arena at Tannadice Park because my mother was staying with us, but I hope to visit the rebranded stadium before all the optimism for the season ahead has been sucked dry by a couple of early defeats.
In the meantime I have just purchased a package of tickets to watch Chelsea Women at Stamford Bridge when the WSL starts next month.
If and when Chelsea build the new stadium they’ve been talking about for years, I’m sure they will sell the naming rights, but until that happens the old ground - opened in 1905 - will always be The Bridge.