The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Dundee rename Dens Park after sponsorship deal
Dundee have confirmed that their ground will be renamed The Kilmac Stadium at Dens Park for the next two years.
The Dark Blues have secured a six-figure investment from locally-based civil engineering firm Kilmac.
Dundee managing director John Nelms said: “We are always looking for new unique revenue streams and this is a fantastic opportunity for the club and it makes it even better that it is with Richard and Kilmac, who are and have been lifelong supporters of the club.”
Richard Kilcullen of Kilmac said: “It’s an honour to sponsor the stadium. We really feel it takes our already great relationship with the club to another level.
“We realise the importance to the fans to keep Dens Park in the name in what will be the last few years as the home of Dundee Football Club.”
The club hopes to move to a new ground at Camperdown by the start of the 2020-21 season.
As any Dundonian who has enjoyed a pint in Mennies will tell you, people in the city tend to call things what they have always called them.
That’s why – Kilmac people cover your ears – Dens Park will still be called Dens Park by most Dundee diehards regardless of this shiny, new six-figure sponsorship deal.
To be honest, we journos will struggle to embrace the change as well.
Indeed, when it comes to the wacky world of Scottish football ground renaming, I am about as reliable as a Liverpool goalkeeper.
I do boast some classic dinosaur-like tendencies – the term Roachesaurus has come up once or twice – and, for example, absolutely refuse to use whatever name Dumbarton have chosen for their stadium on any given day.
I actually thought it was called after some local radio station only for a quick internet search to inform me that it is currently The C&G Systems Stadium. Let’s just say it’s not just the nation’s satnavs that are confused.
The inconsistency kicks in when I admit I am quite happy to write about the Tony Macaroni Arena down Livingston way, despite it having started off as the perfectly acceptable Almondvale.
There is no shame in admitting it is because it sounds good. I’ve also had a decent meal in that restaurant chain once or twice but it’s not that, honest.
It just trips off the tongue better than, for example, the YOUR Radio 103 FM Stadium.
That brings us to The Kilmac Stadium at Dens Park.
To call it anything other than good, old-fashioned Dens in match reports and previews will require a gargantuan effort on my part. That won’t be done through sloppiness, laziness or any warped desire to rob the sponsors of a merited mention in print.
Rather, it’s just that I’m a Dundonian and the stadium Dundee play football in has been called Dens Park all my life.
So if the pedants go easy on me and any errant colleagues then that would be much appreciated.
Oh, and I might see some of you next season at Dens.