And the CTID campaign goes global!

CTWD - 6th Newsletter...

CTWD goes global; national and international media interest in overdrive – hello to our regular subscribers and welcome to the many of you who have joined us recently!

We make no apologies for some shameless self-promotion in this week’s CTWD newsletter! We’ve been struggling to keep up with the media interest ourselves, so we thought we’d put together a summary of the week’s CTWD news in newspapers, on TV and radio to keep you up to speed with the growing coverage we are getting. From RTE Radio, Ireland to the Premier League Norwegian broadcasters TV2 and many more in between, we have been inundated with requests for interviews and comments about our campaign over the past week.

Here's a roundup of the highlights:

Express columnist Mick Dennis wrote a really stirring column about the importance of protecting our footballing heritage.
“Doesn’t Allam deserve gratitude? Of course he does. But gratitude does not equal unthinking servitude. The title City is not ‘common’, as he has said. It is anything but. It is about identity. It is about tradition. It is about a century of history, about justifiable pride. And it is a hard-won, special title.”
http://www.express.co.uk/comment/columnists/mick-dennis/446461/Let-s-stop-this-identity-theft

Across in the States, pundits for NBC Sports discussed the idea of "Hull Tigers", and weren't impressed...
Watch a video: http://www.nbcsports.com/soccer/premier-league/hull-city-vs-hull-tigers

Calendar interviewed City Till We Die spokesperson Ian Waterson for their Monday bulletin. You can watch a video here: http://www.itv.com/news/calendar/up...city-till-i-die-we-want-to-preserve-our-name/ (We'll nail Ian's feet down next time!)

The Guardian contacted City Till We Die on Monday asking us to write a piece for them; Mark Gretton contributed this article: http://www.theguardian.com/football...ity-fans-liverpool-campaign-group-assem-allam

Daily Mail columnist Neil Ashton has dedicated his column to the subject of Hull Tigers:
"The fascination in foreign countries is not just with Sergio Aguero, Arsene Wenger, Jose Mourinho or Wayne Rooney. There is a thirst for history, a greater understanding of why the people of Hull, for example, are so determined to hold on to something they love so dearly. They gobble up the idiosyncrasies of our game."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...-ready-ignore-fan-opinion--ASH-WEDNESDAY.html

On TalkSport, Stan Collymore continued to champion the CTWD cause: https://soundcloud.com/johnny-yen-4/stan-collymore-discussing-hull and Phil Brown, talking on BBC Match of the Day 2 Extra, seems to have turned his opinions on the matter in our favour: https://soundcloud.com/johnny-yen-4/phil-brown-on-match-of-the-day Nice to see Brownie stepping up to the CTWD plate!

The big news of the week as far as the CTWD key aims are concerned was, of course, our meeting with Premier League officials in London on Wednesday 4th December to discuss our opposition to the current name change proposed by Dr Allam.

A positive meeting concluded that:
The heritage of British football clubs is valued by the Premier League as a fundamental element of its brand;
Any material changes to that heritage and brand should be done in consultation with supporters and wider stakeholders in football; and
The Premier League is prepared to approach the Football Association to discuss how these important matters can be protected within the framework of their respective rules.
As the organisers of the competition and the gatekeeper of the rules under which the competition is held, the Premier League and Football Association are effectively the regulators of the football industry. The Premier League recognises this role and will emphasise this in their future dealings with Hull City AFC.

The Independent reported on the meeting here: http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...rts-hull-city-fans-in-name-fight-8983783.html

City Till We Die spokesperson Ian Waterson spoke about the meeting in detail on Radio Humberside's Sports Talk on Wednesday evening. If you missed the programme, you can listen to it online here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p01lg6mg/Sports_Talk_04_12_2013/

Needless to say, all this press coverage has sparked massive interest in our social media outlets with it becoming increasingly evident on Facebook and Twitter that we are now receiving support from fans’ groups, not only from the UK, but from much further afield as well. Football supporters in the Netherlands and the USA especially have contacted us in large numbers offering solidarity and requests for badges and scarves. One message from Kreg in Atlanta struck a particular chord. Kreg says. “Keep up the fight. Last year there was a movement to get our local club's name changed from the rather corny Atlanta Silverbacks to the more respectable Atlanta FC. It wasn't successful, but they did add FC after Silverbacks at least. If anything, the trend in the rest of world football is going in the opposite direction. In the US alone, less clubs are going with cartoon mascot names these days.” We are all volunteers at CTWD and we really do appreciate you going to the trouble of letting us know you are behind us, thank you! We now have almost 3000 Facebook likes with a reach of 64,000 in the last week and over 3000 Twitter followers with 228,000 retweets, and the potential #NoToHullTigers hashtag reach was a staggering 3.49 million! Please keep up the fantastic engagement and continue 'liking' us at facebook.com/NoToHullTigers and following us on @NoToHullTigers.

Of course the BIG event of this week apart from the small matter of trying to take points off Swansea City and Stoke City – we’re expecting some rousing renditions of “City till I die” at 19:04 all round the ground in those games!- is the CTWD public meeting which will take place on Saturday 14th December at Tigers Lair, 64-68 Anlaby Road, HU3 2JA. This is your chance to meet the people behind the ‘No to Hull Tigers’ campaign and share your views. The formal meeting will be held from 3.00-4.00pm with speakers including Dr Malcolm Clarke, Chairman of the Football Supporters Federation and City-supporting film producer/director Mark Herman whose credits include the fabulous ‘Brassed Off’. You can drop in any time between 2.30-4.30pm to buy scarves, ask questions and sign up for membership of CTWD. Please let us know if you are planning to attend by visiting www.citytillwedie.com/meeting

Saturday’s meeting will provide the opportunity for us to officially launch the CTWD membership scheme. Many thanks to the 100s of you who have joined up already, a superb response in a short time! Our membership elves will be working hard to send out the packs, to include your personal membership card and CTWD wristband, at the end of this week. For a minimum fee of £2.00 (annually), you can show your pride in Hull City AFC’s tradition and have a stake in its future. You will join a group that’s dedicated to retaining the name Hull City for a club that is successful and stable for many years to come. You will also be able to have a say in who runs the group, by voting for members of the committee or choosing to stand for election on that committee. We will be actively seeking your nominations to get involved before our first AGM in the New Year. To join up now, please go to www.citytillwedie.com/membership and why not sign up family and friends too as a Christmas gift?

Our aim is for City Till We Die to become an independent Hull City AFC supporters’ trust; our vision is that we will achieve this with a clear mandate from our members, representing a spectrum of Hull City AFC fans, young and old, men and women, parents and children, local and global, East Hull and West Hull! Be part of it, we need you! AMBITION AND TRADITION.

CITY TILL WE DIE