Hartlepool United are renaming their Victoria Park ground as ‘The Super 6 Stadium’ after agreeing a sponsorship deal with Sky Bet.
Honorary Pools president Jeff Stelling said Super 6 had helped the club fulfil it’s ‘Never Say Die’ motto, as a landmark sponsorship deal for the naming rights of Victoria Park was announced.
The Soccer Saturday presenter attended Hartlepool’s opening home game of the 2018/19 season, a 2-2 draw vs Harrogate Town, the first fixture at the newly-christened Super 6 Stadium.
The sponsorship deal, described by Pool’s Chief Executive Mark Maguire as ‘huge for the club’, will also see the club display the Super 6 logo on the back of shirts.
Stelling said: “At the end of last season, we were on our knees, we were close to liquidation and while we haven’t exactly been littered with success over the years, this is a football club with great support, great tradition and Super 6 have helped it survive.
“The club motto is “never say die” and Super 6 have helped us fulfil that club motto.
Stelling, an instantly recognisable face to football fans, is well known to be a huge supporter of the County Durham club and dipped into his own pocket to save the club from going under.
“The club was financially on our knees and we needed a saviour. That saviour is the current chairman, Raj Singh.
“Craig Hignett, who’s the Director of Football, introduced me to him and we worked together as best we could.
“Raj put most of the money in to guarantee this club’s survived. I helped in a much smaller way and continued as president of the club.”
He added: “I think one of the great things this season, though, is the fans have been fantastic.
“They’ve been realistic, they know that our regime is going to be a bit more austere than the previous one, this football club is going to be run like a proper football club, rather than a plaything.
“And the fans accept that, and they accept that if this is a season of consolidation, they’ll take that. Of course, like any football fan, they hope for a bit more!”
Soccer Saturday Super 6 is a free to play game where entrants can win up to a million pounds by correctly predicting six results from selected matches featured every weekend during the season.
Maguire commented “This is absolutely huge for the Club, it’s been a really positive summer but to secure this deal elevates us commercially and will demonstrate our ability to deliver value to a multi-national company.
“Of course a huge part of this has been the involvement of Jeff Stelling in the Club. Jeff is held in such high esteem at Super 6 that they were keen to support him in the venture with his beloved Pools.
“Super 6 will be a partner who challenge us and educate us as we work to create an environment worthy of a return to the Football League, we are hugely ambitious and look forward to seeing highlights of Jeff’s celebrations on Soccer Saturday during the season.”
To enter this weekend’s Super 6, with a £1m jackpot up for grabs, visit: https://super6.skysports.com