Sports World
Encyclopedia
SportsDirect.com is a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 sporting goods retailer, the primary retail asset of Sports Direct International plc
Sports Direct
Sports Direct International plc is a British retailing group. Founded in 1982 by former county squash coach Mike Ashley, the company is now the UK's largest sporting retailer through a number of retail subsidiaries and sports equipment brands. Although now a publicly traded company on the London...

. The company was formerly known as Sports World and before that Sports Soccer, but since 2007 branches of the chain have been rebranded as SportsDirect.com, the domain name
Domain name
A domain name is an identification string that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control in the Internet. Domain names are formed by the rules and procedures of the Domain Name System ....

 of its online presence.

Founded in the late 1970's by former county squash
Squash (sport)
Squash is a high-speed racquet sport played by two players in a four-walled court with a small, hollow rubber ball...

 coach Mike Ashley
Mike Ashley (businessman)
Michael James Wallace "Mike" Ashley is an English millionaire retail entrepreneur in the sporting goods market...

, the group Sports Direct International is now the UK's largest retailer of sports clothing and accessories.

Their sales usually consist of 90% and 80% off. This began in late 2004 when the company began to introduce 30%, 50% and 70% discounts off many of their own brand items (brands like Donnay and Dunlop
Dunlop Sport
Dunlop Sport is a tennis, squash, golf, badminton, clothing, travel and bicycle equipment brand, that specializes in sporting goods.After Dunlop Holdings was acquired by BTR plc in 1985, Dunlop Sport was combined with the Slazenger brand which Dunlop had acquired in 1959 to form Dunlop Slazenger...

 which make up the vast majority of the stock in their stores). They have now, however, introduced the promotion to the bigger brands, such as Adidas, Nike and Reebok.

It was confirmed on the 4th November 2009 that sportsdirect.com @ St James' Park would be the new name for St James' Park
St James' Park
St James' Park, known for sponsorship reasons as the Sports Direct Arena, is an all-seater stadium in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It is the home of Newcastle United Football Club and is the sixth largest football stadium in the United Kingdom with a capacity of between 52,387 and 52,409.St James'...

, home of the Premier League side Newcastle United.

On the 9th November 2011 Newcastle United released a statement informing the fans that the stadium would be undergoing a name change to the Sports Direct Arena. The announcement was hugely unpopular amongst the club's fans.
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