Just listened to some of the RH programme with Burnsey yesterday. One very interesting comment came from someone who deals with Asian students, he said that their countries are awash with Tiger and Dragon names, and they see names such as City, Town, Wanderers as exotic. That's what they like about British football. Perhaps if Mr. Allam actually gets round to doing some market research he may find this out for himself.
Tigers is already a common name, what we have currently is a unique name in Hull City AFC & a stand alone nickname in The Tigers. But I could see how animal names may catch on & make the clubs millions around the world The Sunderland Panthers The Newcastle Magpies The Manchester Blue Tits The Manchester Southern Tits The Liverpudlian Knob Billed Ducks The Everton Peafowls The Arsenal Asses The Aston Vipers The Crystal "Balled" Eagles The Cardiff Sheep The West Bromwich Wood Peckers The Chelsea Blue Faced Boobys The Fulham Southern Screamers The West Hammy Hamsters The Tottenham Spur Winged Geese The Norwich Canaries The Glamorgan Sea Swans The Stokee Two Toed Sloths The Southampton Swallows
Please be part of the presentation group CWTD use, Cheshire Ben - with such insightful postings like that the FA will be blown away. I know the MK Dons thing has been done quite a bit BUT if a club has been allowed to move x miles and change its name (FA could have said you have to keep the name Wimbledon), then why have other clubs not also moved location to benefit their finances POSSIBLY because the FA somewhere has stated that any future club would need FA approval before doing it. NOW (yes it is tenous) if the FA do allow the name change, they could stipulate (trying to sound cleverer than I am) that other clubs would have to get FA approval and with a strong case for changing their name MEANING that all clubs do not automatically change their names the day after Hull have been allowed to, Mr Tan I'm looking at you.
If you read in detail the case of MK Dons you'll see that the FA opposed the move but screwed up the procedure. They lost control of the decision which was made by an independent body. A mistake they haven't made this time.
Hull City name change would be selling their soul... http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/454275/Hull-City-name-change-would-be-selling-their-soul
There's nothing to stop us adopting separate nicknames for different markets, but I really can't see how 'The Tigers' could be simpler or more impactful from a marketing sense.
All of the apathetic fools who put PL football before club identity and heritage should realise that this attention is what Allam craves for his club; he has attracted the attention so deal with it.
You don't need to know, nor do I: it will be decided within the FA and it will be the FA that will issue the final decision - what you are asking for is a distraction from the reality of the issue - why does the name need to be changed - we have not seen one shred of proof to uphold any element of Allam's confused business plan. We have seen and heard many instances of lies and manipulation that should caution everyone to look for proof in anything and everything he says. It might help you to understand that being able to read accounts is a common business skill and not the sole responsibility of accountants; but if you are talking about compiling a legal, accurate and creative set of accounts, then yes, that needs someone who has accountancy training.
The FA council and it's members are available to check online if you can be arsed. They will not be advising anyone on what their decision will be based on, they're just telling everyone that they can make submissions and appear in front of the council, but that their decision is entirely at their own discretion.
Some of us understand the real reason for the name-change, a bitter spat from a rude and bombastic businessman; but it is the fools who do not see the key point you have made that give him credibility - it's simply nonsense.
Tiger, Tiger burning identities One of the most offensive aspects of Hull City’s owner trying to force ‘Tigers’ into the club’s name is that it is an entirely commercial stunt intended to raise the team’s profile around the world. Offensive and deluded, because foreign viewers are drawn to the best English teams, not the ones with the best animals in their title. Hull could start an arms race of names dreamt up by marketing departments. Which Manchester team would grab the meerkat? Come on, everyone loves a meerkat. Others may opt for a more sober association. You can hear Charlotte Green reading out the classified results: ‘Arsenal Auditors 2, Manchester Meerkats 1; Tottenham Tax Exiles 3, Swiss Southampton 2.’ Some will say that if a stadium’s naming rights can be sold to Etihad, Emirates or Walker’s Crisps, why not go all the way and mess about with the names? The answer is that a ground is a building. A name is an identity, rooted in more than a century of sporting and social history. Despite what John Prescott thinks, the size of Assem Allam’s investment is irrelevant in this respect. One thinks of the persecuted John Proctor in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible crying out: “Leave me my name!” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...-hell-for-their-Premier-League-opponents.html
Hull City AFC: A Rose By Any Other Name? Hull City owner, Assem Allam is as misguided as when Juliet addresses Romeo, in the famous play by William Shakespeare named after the two characters. While Juliet’s point might be a modern one, that we are all the same at our base level, a name is not an aesthetic triviality that can be casually dismissed and replaced. ‘What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet;’ Those are the words the Bard of Avon assigned to Miss Capulet. The trouble for Allam, is that the supporters of Hull City, do not find the smell relating to the name change he proposes in the least bit sweet. And why should they? In the last few days the club’s owner has issued a clear and unveiled threat to those opposing his prospective, insensitive name change to Hull City Tigers. Allam has stated that he promises to go away “within 24 hours” if the Hull City community tell him to do so. The owner also stated the same applied if the FA do not ratify his wish, retaining – as they do – an absolute power of veto. At least Allam’s recent comments are more moderate than his previous assertions. In December he echoed of another of the great writers Charles Dickens, when Ebenezer Scrooge speaks on people in Victorian workhouses to say: ‘If they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.’ Allam’s actual comments on the supporters group, City Till We Die, were that “they can die as soon as they want”. He continued, of fans displaying a protest banner: “How can they call themselves fans, these hooligans, this militant minority, when they disturb and distract the players while taking away the rights of others to watch the football, and of companies who have paid good money for sponsorship.” At the time a statement from the City Till We Die group read: “The intemperate suggestion that singing “City Till I Die”, or holding a banner with Hull City’s name on it, constitutes disorder is ill-informed, unhelpful and will be considered by many to be offensive.” Almost as offensive as to brand Hull City, the name of the club of which he is the appointed caretaker, as “lousy” and “common”. The businessman believes his choice of name symbolises power, and will increase worldwide merchandise sales. Anyone hoping that Allam might have been visited by three spirits over the Christmas period will have had such hopes crushed by his most recent statements, that he will be gone in 24 hours, if the fans or the FA oppose him in his quest to rebrand the team. The threat of the owner leaving brings with it great uncertainty given the club’s financial situation. Fans will have happier memories of Allam, from him taking over a club in financial difficulty in December 2010 and immediately lending the club a reported £41 million. Last summer the figure was reportedly £72 million, with these loans are charged at 5% interest. In the Championship, the club’s wage bill was reported to stand at £26 million, a figure which also is believed to equate to the loss they made in achieving promotion to the Premier League. The club’s income was said to be £11 million for the same season. Amongst his comments this week Allam remained bullishly unperturbed on the subject: “No one on earth is allowed to question my business decisions. I won’t allow it. I can give you my CV to give you comfort, for what I do in business, what I have achieved, but for someone to come and question me is not allowed. I’m here to save the club and manage the club for the benefit of the community. It will never, never be the other way round.” For the second time in a week I find myself writing this sentence. Football, at least within this country, is not a business like any other. Football fans are without doubt paying customers of a football club but in no other mode of business are the customers so emotionally caught up in the company they are dealing with and the product they are receiving. It is quite conceivable that the 74 year old, Egyptian born business man could change the name of the generator company that made his millions, and experience the benefits of a more marketable moniker. That is simply not the case with a football club that have played under their current name since 1904. There can be no benefit in naming Hull City anything other than that, to market it more globally, if in so doing their bread and butter fans – the ones who live in Hull, buy tickets, programmes, food and merchandise – are alienated by the move. A football club is a matter of family history, tradition and tribalism. A name gives it identity and continuity as it is passed from parent to child. A name gains value from the repetition, people know what is being spoken of and what is to be expected of it. If you blindfolded a group of people and asked them to sniff a rose, but named it as some new variety of flower, and compare its scent on a scale of one to ten, to the scent of a rose would they say it smells the same? Does a rose by any other name smell as sweet? That could be a very interesting psychological experiment. Foreign owners such as Allam and Vincent Tan at Cardiff are ditching our game’s rich tapestries in the blink of an eye, with no apparent understanding for the industry in which they are operating. Given their financial dependency on their owner, it would be quite understandable if Hull City fans did not agree, but I believe English football would be much better off if all the club owners who know the price of everything and the value of nothing, did disappear from the game in the next 24 hours. Does a football club abandoning its heritage, to whatever end smell, as sweet? No it does not. In fact it stinks. http://www.thedaisycutter.co.uk/2014/01/hull-city-afc-a-rose-by-any-other-name/
Completely agree. My company began working with Asian investors in the mid-70's and I've spent much of the past 10 years dealing with Chinese business people in the money management area. Understanding the Asian mentality and concepts such as Feng Shui which are largely alien to the western way of thinking are critical in developing a marketing approach in the region. The Allams need to get the right people in place if they are to generate the huge sponsorship money that is potentially available.
Most Feng Shui is just common sense, don't put a toilet in view of your front door, don't put water against water, that sort of thing.
The asking the FA question is nothing to do with avoiding answering the real issue, it was to gauge what their field of experience in the game is. I'm certain that the campaign group would be willing to put their entire presentation/submissions to the FA on here/ in the HDM several weeks before they are actually made to the FA so Allam and the board can put a point by point rebuttal of each statement the group makes. Now that statement is daft and loony, but yet you lot are demanding that Allam puts his business plan forward before he has a chance to implement it meaning any market research/confidential financial data (and that will affect what clubs try to demand for transfers/agents for wages when those two lots have information which no other club releases to "interested parties"(the rival clubs and agents)
The FA 100% will NOT back the name change, as it opens a can of worms to Owners Selling their Club name to Brands , Ie red bull salzburg It will not happen
I also listened to the programme and was surprised at some of the views expressed. If this is the level of debate, then all I can say is "God help us!" Already many people in Marketing say to change the name is pointless, as many on this forum have aleady stated. There is NO NEED TO CHANGE THE NAME AS WE ARE ALREADY"THE TIGERS"!! Being a woman, I was pleased that 2 of the contributions with most sense came from Sally and Julie. Sorry about that guys!!
Although I disagree with some of the points you make OLM its good to see a well reasoned and erudite analysis of this contentious issue. We all have our opinions on the subject, and they are just that. As Filey aptly expressed it in his excellent post, nobody has a monopoly on the truth. Above all its good to see opinions expressed in a moderate and literate fashion, without four letter vituperation aimed at those who disagree. Well done!!
