Fan power: Hull, Bolton and Everton see supporters making their voices heard in the board rooms Events at Hull, Bolton and Everton show if supporters work together they can push through changes at their clubs â write Jack Pitt-Brooke and Martin Hardy For the second consecutive Saturday, there were thousands of leaflets and thousands of amber badges at the KC Stadium. This was Hull Cityâs home game against Aston Villa, which they drew 0-0, but there was something at stake even more important than another three Premier League points. The fans of Hull City were protesting, again, against the proposed change of name away from Hull City AFC to Hull Tigers. Quite understandably, they see their name as an integral part of their identity and not something that can be changed at the whim of an owner, regardless of how good Assem Allam has been for the club so far. Ever since Mr Allam announced his desire to change the clubâs name for marketing purposes, Hull fans have been in uproar. A campaigning group â No To Hull Tigers â soon formed, made out of existing fanzines and supporter groups. âWe want to make our objections known to the club, and to persuade fans how important it is,â said spokesman Andy Dalton. So the Saturday before last, as Hull played West Ham United, they handed out 10,000 leaflets to City fans and 3,000 âNo To Hull Tigersâ badges. The same happened again last weekend. And, when 19 minutes and four seconds of the game had been played (the club were founded in 1904), the leaflets were held up and the fans sung âCity Till We Dieâ to make their point. The club clearly know how the fans feel, and there will be meetings with club officials in the next few weeks. Engagement was what the fans wanted all along. If the Hull fans are successful â and they are âcautiously optimisticâ that they will be able to retain their name â it would be the latest success of football supporters grouping together to achieve their aims. The modern fan is often accused of passivity, of allowing him or herself to be numbered, filmed and monetised. But there are increasing examples of the opposite, as seen at English clubs this summer. At Everton, the fans have recently won a campaign against a new badge and chosen a far superior motif for next season. In May, the club chose a new badge, removing both wreaths and the famous motto, â Nil Satis Nisi Optimum â and changing the character of the central tower. It was instantly unpopular, with 22,000 Evertonians signing a petition against it. Rather than riding out the opposition, Everton reacted, handing control back to the fans. âWe want to put this right,â said chief executive Robert Elstone. The club set up a panel to design three new crests â all including the motto â on which the fans voted last month. There were 13,229 respondents and 78 per cent of them chose the first of three options. âI was impressed straightaway when I saw it,â said Evertonâs manager Roberto Martinez at the unveiling. It will be in action from next month. âIt captures what we were looking for: to have a modern touch and to be a global badge without taking away all the key icons of the football club. It has been terrific work from the club as it was important to come up with something which pleases everyone.â That was the second big success of the summer, after Bolton Wanderers fans stopped their club from taking shirt sponsorship from pay-day lenders QuickQuid. There were just eight days between the announcement of the deal and its scrapping, after 4,500 people signed a petition against it. Local energy company FibrLec is now on the shirts instead. Julie Hilling, MP for Bolton West, led the campaign and was at a protest outside Bolton town hall. âIâm very proud of Bolton fans for their opposition to having a pay-day lender sponsoring our club and very proud of Bolton Wanderers for listening to their fans and the wider community,â Hilling told The Independent. âHaving a pay-day loan company as the shirt sponsor legitimises pay-day lenders.â There are many bigger battles left, not least over prices and safe standing, but it feels as if supporters are just starting to drag things back their way. âThe number of recent cases where fans are making their voices heard suggests a trend is emerging,â said Kevin Miles, the chief executive of the Football Supportersâ Federation. âSome of the concessions won may have been on secondary matters â itâs more difficult when the issue at stake runs directly counter to the immediate economic interests of owners â but the willingness of supporters to get organised is a definite positive, and each little victory builds confidence. âThere are growing indications of a new realisation among supporters that they have the ability to change things, and that we have huge common interests regardless of which team we support.â Making a stand: Fans fighting back Everton supporters won a campaign against a new badge after the club removed both wreaths and the motto, âNil Satis Nisi Optimumâ, which means ânothing but the best is good enoughâ. Bolton cancelled a two-year sponsorship deal with payday lenders QuickQuid after a 4,500-strong petition called for the club to find a different backer. Although Cardiff fans lost the battle to keep playing in blue, the club let season-ticket holders decide the colour of their shorts after complaints about the initial new design having a different shade of red to their shirt. Brentford were forced to let their own fans have an additional stand at Griffin Park for a friendly with Celtic following threats of a boycott. http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...-voices-heard-in-the-board-rooms-8865115.html
City Till We Die getting really organised now - on all fronts: http://notohulltigers.tumblr.com/post/63494471276/last-thursday-pete-mills-from-the-campaign-group http://notohulltigers.tumblr.com/post/63494646370/article-about-ctwd-and-fan-power-printed-in-the http://notohulltigers.tumblr.com/post/63495250770/just-a-few-photos-from-the-home-game-against-aston
More coverage.... http://www.insideworldfootball.com/...te-in-their-opposition-to-tigers-name-change?
Serious question; If you were given the choice of retaining your current name or losing Allam, which would you choose???
That isn't the choice, so it's a somewhat irrelevant question. There is no campaign against the owner, merely a campaign against a decision to change the clubs name.
It's his choice to change the name is it not? He's got some logic behind his reasoning as well hasn't he? My point was really, has he not earned the right to make a decision of this nature, given what he's done for the club so far? & shouldn't you trust his decision that it will be of benefit to you commercially in the future? It's surely akin to what the Cardiff owner did with the shirt colour, but on a much smaller scale? (as you can call them what you like ffs, but the shirt colour is far more drastic a move imo)
What reasoning is that? We haven't got a cat in hells chance of breaking the Asian Market, because nobody gives a toss about us, we're not successful enough on the pitch and we haven't got the money to make a decent fist of it. Secondly, he's had a petty arguement with the council, which is probably the real reason behind all this.
How do you know? My club - Everton, have a massive following in the Far East & we haven't won a pot in 18 years. The reason we've got massive numbers in China for example is down to having a main sponsor from there a few years back & taking 2 Chinese players (one of whom was a first team regular - Li Tie) So to claim you've got no chance of developing your club in the Asian market is defeatist crap imo. As for his issues with the council, I don't see the relevance, as he's intending keeping the 'City' tag in the UK isn't he?
You increase your interest there by doing well, or by signing players from there. You don't do it by binning your 109 year old name and calling yourself a tiger.
We've spent 3 years in the top flight in our whole existance and won nowt. Whereas you've won stuff in Europe, won domestic titles, never been relegated and have 30k+ crowds every week. I'm being realistic in saying fighting relegation for some years to come won't get us anywhere. There's no point having ideas above your station. We're not going to attract anything with that record. And if we go down we're stuck with that ****e name. Furthermore, you're (Everton) keeping your tradiitonal name, and your club's listened to your fans over your badge adjustments. You have a decent sponsor while we have Cash Converters ffs!
You're taking it in isolation & ignoring the fact, that it's almost certainly part of a wider strategy. I very much doubt this is a decision that was made on a whim.
I think a whim is exactly what it is. Nobody who'd done any research into international brand marketing would be doing such a stupid thing.
haha I'll give you Cash converters mate I can also see your point tbh. I know your club well as I live in East Yorks these days & have visited City on many occasions when we were playing away etc. The first time City made it up to the PL, the buzz around the area was great & the clubs catchment area showed how it could fill the stadium with ease every week. You're doing yourselves down to think that you always have to be relegation fodder, I like the fact that Allam is looking bigger than that, I admire him for it, & whilst it's easy for me to say, I just don't see the massive deal over the name, especially when you're keeping the City element. As for my club btw, our board are ****ing inept. They tried to move us to a Tesco carpark in Knowsley a few years back & not one of the board has invested 1p into the clubs coffers. The badge issue was just another in a long line of **** ups, that tbf they did address, but only because the outcry was so loud.
I'm not against the Allams. I think they've done a top job and still are. I just wish they'd listen to the fans, and we've got a meeting with them, so who knows. I can see what you're saying about a brand name, but i don't think you need to go about ruining the tradition of a club to seek the money/ investment. We could easily do things in the next 5 years as HCAFC, and on the same note get relegated as Hull Tigers (i'd hate it if that happened). You talking about the buzz around the City. True, there was. However, after all this name change bollocks i felt quite deflated about the season tbh, and so did a lot of City fans i go regularly with to matches. i'm not talking City down- i just think we can be successful as HCAFC, and not use some ****e gimmick. I'm not a doom and gloom monger- i'd love City to stay up and build year on year. It'll be tough, but that's life.
