Everyone ignoring the important, worrying part of it again, the destruction of Leeds United. You do realise if red bull take over, they will shut down Leeds United and replace it with their own club? Might as well just switch allegiance to scum if you're that desperate for success, that's what you'd be doing if you were to back the red bull team.
My soul can't be bought for $100m. It would cost at least $110m. And I love Far East tourists (probably be Chinese not Japanese these days). I think this is all hypothetical and won't happen (though actually Leeds would be a good prospect for Red Bull, if they had the vision) but to answer this.... no, I don't realise what they would do, because none of us know, some of us are pretending to. The other teams were all very different, US soccer don't have the traditions, a division 5 German team and an Austrian team are not comparable to Leeds in terms of tradition and history. Red Bull would buy Leeds (if they did, which I think is unlikely) to enhance their image not tarnish it. Anything like the anti-Bates campaigns and demos would be a marketing and PR nightmare for them. And if they did this in an insensitive way, the reaction would make Bates problems look like a vicars tea party. They just might have the brains to stay on the right side of the line. I am not going to define my "red line" but if they crossed it I am quite capable of walking away (I did that under part of the Bates tenure, albeit financially not emotionally). But there's a lot they could do which would not cross the line and would give them the marketing benefits they would be seeking. Red Bull logos all over the shirt, for example, would be no worse than some of the other stuff we have had on our shirts over the years. Won't happen anyway, I think this will either be a sponsorship or nothing.
Oh so predicting what they will do based on what they have already done is madness, but predicting what they will do based on what you hope would happen and what is "common sense" to you, despite going against the entire company policy of a massive multinational corporation, is fine? Good logic there.
To put in simple terms for me... I would be more upset if we did not secure Red Bull investment, however I respect the concerns of others over what this could involve. Lets not make this personal. I know nothing more than anyone else what Red Bull involvement in a Premiership Team would be.
Nothing's happened yet anyway. If and when it does, we may or may not have a reason to be worried about stadium name/club identity changes. But as nothing's happened, I think we need to chill out. We'll panic/rejoice as necessary in due course
End of the day, the story wasn't any more concrete in the YEP as the rumours that were flying around before. The YEP have just regurgitated the rumours from Twitter. I am just absolutely and completely ashamed of the willingness of some fans to completely sell out the club...
Bit harsh ? Were we not talking about shirt sponsorship and stadium naming rights at most ? How many people on here have seriously said yes to renaming the club itself, changing the colour of the strip to red etc ?
We love Leeds. No one is going to change us from Leeds United, even if they got away with prefixing it with "Red Bull" which I doubt they could. If Red Bull wanted tom or could re-brand a club in full they would not buy into Leeds. They would buy a Championship team based in London team & rename them "Red Bull London", someone like Charlton would be the logical choice for this, but I doubt they can so they will look for the best value team with history. Scum would cost them nearly a billion before they started. Liverpool probably half that. Plus Arsenal, Chelsea & City have millionaire owners with deep pockets. So maybe that why we are linked. Who knows.
No, you were all on board with Red Bull getting involved. Red Bull getting involved means destruction of the club and replacement with another club with no character, heritage, history, anything at all. Just a marketing device in place of what we know and love.
And is that fact or opinion ? I realise you're basing your opinion on Red Bull's track record in buying out clubs and forcing wholesale changes. But as far as I'm aware the rumour (and that's all it is) was that Red Bull were in talks about shirt sponsorship.
I'm not saying you're wrong, but every scenario is different - you can make an educated guess based on what they've done in the past with other clubs, and that might be exactly what they do if they get the chance with us - but you can't say with 100% certainty what they will or won't do. All we said was that shirt sponsorship and Stadium naming would be okay. We haven't agreed to selling out the club, we're just talking about a hypothetical situation, however unlikely, where Red Bull would provide investment but stop at the stadium and shirt sponsorship. Nobody would willingly sell out the entire club, at least not anyone on here, judging by the comments. Unfortunately it would be something the club would have to consider though, especially since that's the direction football is heading in.
They don't have a record of taking over capital city based teams. As Gary Cooper has said, they look at clubs 'held for sale' which have high potential to be successful in the near future. No candidate in English football is better than Leeds in that regard. Salzburg fans thought they'd never rename them, lo and behold they did. And we're a way bigger deal than Austria Salzburg ever were. It's no coincidence that GFH have been blatantly product-placing Red Bull for some time - we are right to panic now and make a fuss about it. Sadly most people don't get it how much harm would be inflicted. The original rumour was that GFH were only going to be investors. Did the TOMA saga not teach you these lessons?! They never admit initially that they're steaming in for a full buyout. It's bad business practice.
So basically we're powerless to do anything about it, if they offer enough money to satisfy GFH's investors no amount of protesting will stop Red Bull from completing a takeover. Staying away from matches won't work because the old guard of supporters will be replaced by the new wave of plastics, seduced by multi million pound transfers and a 60,000 seater flat pack stadium devoid of atmosphere. We have no say as it is, what with the unpopular choices of home/away kits when all any of us ever want is plain all white and plain all yellow. If Red Bull want to buy us outright, they'll do it, and they'll do whatever the **** they want with the colour, the name, the stadium, all of it, because sadly money is king, and our owners happen to be an investment company whose job is to get the best return on their investment. The FL sure as hell wouldn't stop it going ahead, it's what they've wanted for years, the obliteration of Leeds United.
Lets move on from the emotional stuff. Nowadays the English clubs that get the investment get it if the owners ego requires it (eg Chelsea), or there is a good Corporate reason (eg Man C) or there is financial benefit to be had (eg Man U and - I believe - GFH at Leeds, except they seem not to have the wherewithal to make the investment). So what exactly are we worried about? A few questions for the obliteration brigade (and others, for that matter). Where are your red lines?: 1. what would the kit need to change to, to obliterate Leeds United? We already have our players running around wearing shirts with huge corporate logos on them. To be honest, the shirts teams like Salzburg wear are more attractive than the rubbish our current squad turn up in. For me, the answer is - provided the core colours remain white plus blue and yellow/gold, I see nothing wrong with the Red Bull logo being on the shirt, its business as usual. I would have an issue if our core colours were thrown away (obvious example - if they have us wearing essentially red shirts). 2. What would be too much for to swallow on the stadium name? For me, if they built a new stadium in a new location, I would have no problem with it being called the Red Bull stadium. But if we are talking about the current stadium (or even the current site with a new stadium) that would go too far for me. I could probably cope with a formula like "The Red Bull stadium at Elland Road" or the "The Elland Road Red Bull Stadium" where fans would carry on saying ER and the commentators would say the full name. 3. What would go too far in renaming the club? For me "Red Bull Leeds" would be too far. I could contemplate a form of words but anything without Leeds and United in it, with those two words standing next to each other, would be too much. 4. What would be going too far in terms of presenting the club as a new entity? For me, almost anything would be too far - anything that ceases to pay homage to the great names of the past on whose shoulders this club rests, any stupid websites talking about 2013 being the year we were formed as "Red Bull Leeds" (which, to agree with the anti-red Bull brigade on this, is a bit how the websites of Salzburg and Leipzig read), would be a problem. I also think that, given the strength of the LUFC brand, there would be benefits to Red Bull in leveraging that, not throwing it away. Plus, a club with our heritage is not going to have fans that just roll over, if they do go beyond the red lines I have indicated would be mine. I think there would be serious unrest, and it could be extremely bad for Red Bulls image (imagine how SKY would feel if Chris Frome and co all get done as drugs cheats, it would be a bit like that - you can imagine more articulate people than fatty Cooper on the box, talking about how this big corporate entity had destroyed 100 years of British football heritage....... don 't tell me they'd like that, they would bloody well hate it.
The colours won't remain white, yellow and blue because those are not the colours of Red Bull. The name would likely survive. I hear elsewhere that it is against the rules to have advertising in a club name in the English league. That doesn't stop them changing the badge though. which they inevitably will. Red Bull will basically do everything they can to remove the identity the club currently has and replace it with a marketing machine. That is wrong. Entirely wrong. I stand against the whole thing on principle.
Marko, you kinda just missed the point of 2020's post imo... You seem so set on arguing your points that you don't take a step back and reply with sensible posts. Your replies are all the same just worded differently. He had clearly said lets move on from all the emotional stuff and this is what in his book he could live with without it becoming a big deal. You just replied with "well this is what they'll do..." I have to agree with 2020 though, with the current state of the kit as long as the core colours stay then I would have no issue with a red bull logo on the shirt. We already have sponsorship and in truth I have no idea how it'd be any different to any other shirt sponsorship deal we would have. I also agree with 2020 with the stadium, both "The Red Bull Stadium at Elland Road" and The Elland Road Red Bull Stadium" would be understandable in current football. If a new stadium was built (which I couldn't imagine they would never do in Leeds' current state) then I have no idea how it'd be any different to The Emirates and we'd get a lovely new modern stadium which would likely be one of the best in England (they won't build one that's worse than ER because what'd be the point). As for me, no name change would be acceptable in any form whatsoever. All of the FL rules I believe are just rumours so I'm not sure whether it would be sanctioned. I'd have a funny feeling that if they can do it elsewhere if they really wanted to they could do it here but it would not be acceptable to any Leeds fans and I think it would be a stupid marketing point anyway. Leeds would become somewhat of a laughing stock in england and lose many many supporters. They would then have to completely fund Leeds with little to no return on the club, it would be stupid business sense imo. As for the badge as well, any change in the badge would not be acceptable in any way whatsoever. I would imagine they would try and maximise Leeds' potential rather than strip the club and start again anyway. Otherwise why not go and buy Donny or Udders' for much cheaper and do it there. Anyway, it was only talk of shirt sponsorship, everything else has been fabricated by the wonderful minds of our supporters.
When and if this deal does or doesn't happen, what can we argue sorry discuss about then... I don't want a new stadium, or ER renamed, or any red tops or any of that crap and if that means staying in the Champ for a while longer, well so be it.
