On the 3rd May 2010, Hull City Association football club were relegated from the English premiership. Just 3 years later, Hull City Tigers ltd return in their place to take on Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea at Stamford bridge. Today I attempt to understand why this change has occurred, and whether it is just the start of another phase of footballs transformation.
Since 1904, Hull’s top club has been known to all as Hull City AFC. Here is a club that has perhaps always been dwarfed locally by its Rugby playing counterparts. However, Hull City AFC have competed at all levels of the national game and are very much a part of the sports heritage in England. Any football fan will recognise the black and amber stripes of Hull, but how many overseas would make this connection?
In short this is the argument that Assen Allum, Hull City’s Egyptian owner, puts forward for the reasoning behind the change. With the English Premiership being the most lucrative league on the planet, attracting worldwide audiences and revenues to follow, Hull have decided that rebranding the club with a new identity will help distinguish them from the other 19 clubs that are constantly under the magnifying glass of the Premier league.
Allum stated in an interview that “in the commercial world, the shorter the name the better. The more it can spread quickly”. This will grow association with the club and ultimately attract a greater overseas following. It is a clear business move from a clear business man to attempt to market the club outside of Yorkshire and England. No club will turn down new fans and a greater income, but the heart of Hull’s following is not beyond our shores. They live just down the road in and around the city and they spend a great amount of their time and income on the team that has forgotten about them.. Having grown up and been loyal to Hull City AFC, a name change has come as a huge finger to their loyalty from the club owner. Is this enough to deter the local crowd? Perhaps not of those fully committed, but for new fans making the choice, will they follow the commercial ‘Tigers’, or a long standing historic club down the road? Only time will tell.
What we should also ask ourselves is whether the name change is actually that big a deal? The shakeup of the league system to introduce the Premiership itself was a much greater deal. Perhaps the biggest commercialisation of the game itself reduced the number of clubs in the top flight and broke away from the football league system that was in force. This has introduced revenues to clubs beyond belief and allowed domestic teams the platform to market to audiences further from their doors.,
And how about the changes at Cardiff City? For the same reasons given by Alum, Cardiff’s owners stripped their clubs identity as the bluebirds and changed the home kit colour from blue to red. As well as this, they have introduced a dragon on the clubs emblem, with a very small bluebird still present, but ultimately awaiting the time when it is forced to flee from the nest.
It seems that foreign owners are quick to forget a clubs history, but the renaming of grounds is another money spinner, with Englishman Mike Ashley making many Geordie enemies when he changed the sacred St James’ Park name to the Sports Direct Arena.
So how far will clubs go in the race to increase revenues from across the globe? Will it stop at colour changing and introducing catchy titles? Or will advertising space go even further and follow suit of the New York Red Bulls? In the next few years it could be Manchester McDonalds United VS Chelsea Coca-Cola. We can only hope that some thoughts are sparred for the traditions of football. However, ultimately the game is a business, a very big business, and business decisions will always rule the way forward.
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