So degree's of it are okay?
Not really, but they're better than all of it. Since we already whore out our shirt for sponsorship, I am more willing to concede who goes there than our stadium's name, for instance. But Red Bull have proven time and again that they're in it for more than sponsorship.
In an ideal world it would not be this way but Sky and modern times have changed it all.
Should we not be aiming towards an ideal world?
Ideally a large investor would take us over and bring us some glory back but this is not an ideal world. Under GFH we are going to fair no better on the field than when we were under Bates control.
We are doing a little better than when you average out the Bates years which included Division Three. Off the pitch, we are doing way better. We still need further investment in order to be a modern football success story, of course.
Would I prefer several years of GFH or Red Bull - GFH if the plan was to make us stable, invest in a youth programme and sell us on to someone who cared but they are money men, investors for the Arab world who's customers just want to see a profit on their money, no different to anyone else.
Thankfully they have the business sense to realize that you should tap into a 'brand's' existing potential, not start from scratch and use a football club purely to try sell energy drinks or Middle Eastern finance in their case.
I was dubious about GFH from the very start and I will be until the end, they do not care about the club, they are just more savvy than Bates. They pretend to listen to fans reducing ticket prices yet keep Bates on as some president and Harvey. If they could have charged last seasons prices and filled the ground or at least hit 30k fans they would have done so, the reduced prices are nothing to do with helping the fans spread their money further, it was a necessity that any half clued business man could have seen.
They have sidelined Bates and Harvey, who now have zero influence. And I agree that ticket price reductions are business sense, fans want their input handled wisely. Good business sense delivers that. Business and fans aren't always apart, when the business' aim is primarily to have a successful football club and not a hollow marketing machine. This all said, I'd rather a local businessman or fan consortium owned us than GFH.
What if: Red Bull deal is off.
So we still have no money to spend on the squad improvements, we wont see loan deals for Henry or Cahill to push us on in January.
We should still achieve Promotion and success with Noel Hunt & no wingers (not).
We don't have to worry about having one Shirt from Adidas with the same Sponsor every year, no now we can look forward to Macron with a new unheard of company on the shirt every year.
PS. The stadium will still be called Elland Road & yes you guessed it we still will not own it.
Great news for some....
Why would we say that? All the proof states that there are potential investors out there, we just have to reach them. You're making this an 'A or B' choice, which is really isn't. There's plenty of C, D, E and probably F.
Also....
You can not change the team name in England (so it was never going to happen).
Its worth noting that in our terrace songs we are normally just Leeds (not Leeds United).
MOT (We love you Leeds, Leeds, Leeds)
WACCOE (No mention)
We Are Leeds!
I have no fear that even if Redbull could have re-brand Leeds United, that we would still not be signing loud on the terraces, we know that you can not silence Leeds fans.
We are better than that, I have followed this team through some right ........ why would I walk away because a drinks company wants to spend money. They want the global presence & brand, I want to support my local team and I see no reason both can not work together.
Years of crap from Bates has made us too scared of change & new people. Its to be expected, so lets see what happens.
You can't change the name of an existing club, but you can "re-found" a club like Bates did with us, and the FL would probably allocate the 'vacancy' to the new RB Leeds. And come off it with the terrace songs. MOT: "here we go with Leeds United". Forever and ever: "we're Leeds United, we rule supreme". Play all the way with Leeds United. Leeds United calypso. United... Leeds! We're Leeds United, we'll never be defeated (except by Red Bull's profiteering apologists).
You can silence Leeds fans, Bates went some way towards doing it. Confiscate any banners which are 'offensive', ban troublesome fan representatives, monopolize club media output, have stewards intervene and turn fans against each other. Easy. RB did it at Salzburg, they'd do it at Leeds. It's not years of Bates which makes Leeds fans like me want us to keep our identity. It's years of Charles, Bremner, Strachan and Radebe, all of which would be officially forgotten/disappeared by Red Bull if they were able to take us over.
