The first of what we’re sure will be many Sporting Fare “You Could Not Make It Up”s comes from that “hotbed of football”, Newcastle, where owner Mike Ashley, on the look out for a stadium sponsor, has decided to rename St. James’ Park.

Yes, with immediate effect that famous old stadium will now be known as the sportsdirect.com @ St James’ Park Stadium.

Doesn’t quite trip off the tongue does it.

In an attempt to appease angry Newcastle United supporters, managing director Derek Llambias said:

With the renaming it was always going to be whatever brand it was, at St James’ Park. For the remainder of this season, we already have sportsdirect.com on the Gallowgate so we’d like to take that branding through the rest of the stadium.

Oh yeah, that’ll work, Derek.