Hull fans need to chill out and get on with it. Clubs have changed and evolved since their inceptions. If you don't like it you can change it back when the owner sales or dies, but it might end up being the making of that club and I admire their chairman for trying something.
Exactly...I know it's more difficult for a group to be pragmatic, but thats what Hull fans have to be. They need the chairman to keep the club afloat and this is a relatively small compromise. They can still sing City songs if they want too and it can be changed back. Cortese has sacked Adkins & ditched the stripes and whilst we've had mutterings of discontent it's blown over as we realise it's for the greater good(Hot Fuzz voice). Steve Bruce got it right when he said it's been allowed to fester on. If he had just changed the name in a short sharp kill we would all have moved on by now.
Well, if you were the next owner through the door at Cardiff or Hull, you have an opportunity for immediate brownie points. Reverse the club name changes and the kit change, and the fans will come round soon enough.
Southampton Super ****s has a nice ring to it. "Come on you ****s" we could all sing. Indeed, many shout it already.
He's done it on a whim because our council won't let him get what he wants ie the land around the ground. He wanted it handed to him, but they refused and he's dragged us into this dispute. The name change was done on a whim without fan backing or even us knowing about it. He did it pretty snidely. From the usual rubbish about saying it's too common, it's irrelevant, we can all die when you want, Hull Tigers is shorter than Hull City (the list goes on) you can see he's not got much of a business plan. Nor can he talk respectfully to his fans.
If he wanted something really short he could call you HCT or HT. I can imagine the interim headline as your team score the first goal: HT take lead. That's my second go at groan humour, and I know it's crap. OK..? I think they still say, I'll get my coat, on TSW.
But that's just it. To us, we don't care much what Hull is called. We're not suddenly going to stop supporting Southampton or even choose Hull as a second side because "Tigers" is just so cool a name. So where is this massive marketing revenue going to come from? The name change is catered to US, not them. It's insulting really to ALL fans to think that we should just all go out and support the side with the coolest name. And "Tigers" isn't really all that cool. I have not noted here in the States that the LSU Tigers or Clemson Tigers or Detroit Tigers have huge fanbases because of the name. While Cortese has a tendency to dismiss fans as somewhat fickle and stupid, he at least realizes that *winning* (right or wrong) solves a lot of ills and that's what really brings the neutrals in and turns them into followers. So if he has to annoy some followers to win some games, he'll do it. But no one is going to watch a comparatively lousy (no offense) Hull Tigers over Man U because "Tigers" is cooler than "United" or "Red Devils" or whatever. Changing a name or uni color is really annoying as a fan, but in the end it's not a big deal. I would be less upset if Cortese named the team after himself than if he decided that Southampton should be Tigers because that's going to bring in the big bucks. The first is just a mark of a big ego, the second is the mark of an idiot. Yeah, the next owner can just change the name back and fix that problem. But if your owner is that clueless, how much other not-so-easily reversible damage can he do to the club in the meantime? PS Are Hull supporters still going to do the "Mauled by the Tigers" thing?
I can't help agreeing......I too would be up in arms if our beloved club decided to change it's name to Southampton Dolphins or some such. However I do understand the need to be commercially viable......and if in the owners mind the only option he can see is to call them the tigers.....well so be it. It is after all their nick name. The players are the same the manager may come and go but to all and sundry it will still be Hull.......Time will tell whether it is a good decision......For me I can't see that it is, as tradition holds a lot of sway for the bread a butter (the fans that attend) but hey they are just the little guys so who knows? I really do not see their attendances dropping by that much because they have become the tigers!!
If the owner believes that this will make the club more commercially sustainable then I don't see an issue with it personally. If changing our name to Southampton Saints would increase our turnover enough that it would propel us higher up the league then I'd tell Cortese to do it in a heartbeat. At the end of the day ifthe name does change but Hull stay up, sign a few players and have a cracking season next year then the fans will all be singing the owners name again. It makes no difference what the name is, they're still Hull.
"Commercially viable" Go on, say that again and think about it whilst you do. Outside of Sky's TV money, who do you think puts the most money into Hull City FC? Answer: The Hull City FC supporters. The ones who have supported them through the leagues, through the years, through the generations. THEY are the most important cashflow the club has, especially if it drops out of the Prem. Part-time fans in Asia will not support the "Tigers" if they are in the Championship. And how many "Tiger" shirts & scarfs do you really think they will sell outside of the UK... actually, outside of a 40 mile radius of Hull? Very few, certainly not going to make them Millions of pounds of extra revenue. So its absolute bollocks about "Commercial viability". The only thing the owner is correct about is that modern fans often give in very easily to these sorts of things, because like in most of the country outside of football, this nation is pretty spineless these days and accepting of anyone in position of power. To me its clear he wants to change the name in a desperate attempt to attract a buyer for the club so he can get his money back and make a profit. Good luck to the Hull City AFC fans standing up against this.
Rather depends whether you think everything in life can be quantified in purely commercial terms, or if you believe that things like loyalty, identity, community, and yes, tradition, have more enduring value than money. Isn't there a saying about the person who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing? sounds like the Hull City chairman to me.
Tbf, he has put money into an unfashionable club. I bet most fans would say that he has been good for the club overall.
You may indeed be right CBK........what is Commercially viable to you and me is not the way he and his advisers see it. While I have sympathy with the Hull fans, football clubs these days just have to move on and be a proper business. WE know to our cost what a disaster it is not being run the right way as does Pompey. The new owner rises or falls on the decisions he makes, the club will rise or fall or maybe it will not make a blind bit of difference. All the fans can do is to raise objections as they are doing, their choice is simple it seems, accept it, or change the habit of a life time perhaps. What else would you propose they do, that they are not doing?
