Mike Ashley may hope he can sell the naming rights to St James’ Park, or rather the ugly @St James’s Park, but getting even a penny from a sponsor presents a whole range of difficulties.

Some of the problems are basic: Newcastle United are a Coca-Cola Championship side, and the gulf in exposure between the top flight and second tier in English football is huge. However, as large as Newcastle believes it is, no international brand will be excited about the prospects afforded by away ties to Blackpool or Scunthorpe United.

“The gap between the big four clubs and the rest of the Premier League in terms of international appeal is not a gap, it’s a chasm,” Kevin Alavy of sport+futures, a specialist sports marketing consultancy, said. “And the Championship is clearly miles and miles below the Premier League”.

Then, there’s the cultural obstacle. While the practice of selling naming rights to a ground is well established in the United States or Germany - it is rare in the UK. Arsenal may have sold its naming rights to Emirates as part of a £100 million 15-year deal, but it remains very much the exception - accepted by Arsenal fans as a necessary transaction to help the club compete with Manchester United without relying on a billionaire owner like Chelsea do.

Yet until Liverpool, or United, with all their heritage are willing to sell the rights to name their historic grounds, the idea will always be greeted by British fans with, at best, scepticism. But the problem is compounded for Newcastle given the hostility that exists amongst Geordies towards Mike Ashley. “The risk for any sponsor coming forward is whether they will be seen on the side of Ashley, or the club,” Alavy said.

Experts believe that a leading Premier League club could sell the rights to name its ground for close to £10 million a year. In theory, Newcastle would be doing “very well to earn low single digit millions a year from sponsorship”, according to Mr Alavy - but in practice it will be major surprise if the club manages to sell the naming rights at all while it is languishes in its current division, and while Ashley is its owner.