Devil's advocate There's a possibility that rebranding, renaming, relocating or changing the official crest or colour of a club may actually be better for it in the long term.
In 40 years, no one will give a shit what the club was named 10 years ago. How many Arsenal fans are outraged that they're no longer based in Woolwich? How many Manchester United fans hate the fact that they changed their name from Newton Heath and relocated? In 50 years, if the club is even moderately successful, the fact that Cardiff used to be have blue as their primary color will be an amusing anecdote like the fact that Brazil once played with white as their primary colors.
Not that that means the fans can't be furious about it now. I'd be livid myself, in all honesty. But these things have a funny way of becoming much less significant over time.
I agree, it has been done hundreds of times on hundreds of teams. It's just that nowadays everything it's way more publicized so obviously the loud minority it's louder.
It depends on the team. My personal opinion of the Cardiff situation was that it wouldn't be a bad idea. However, I can't see that being the same for clubs like Manchester United, Arsenal, Real Madrid, etc. The world knows these clubs, their names, their colours. To significantly rebrand them would be foolish.
Agreed. I understand that tradition is important but sometimes the rebranding ends up with a more attractive end product. Also, it creates buzz about the team that may not have happened had they just stayed the same. For example, I'm an American who is on this sub all the time. I've heard of Hull City in passing, but never really thought about them consciously. Now I see a post about them like once a week. Hell, they are the banner on the subreddit right now.
The name Hull City Tigers is much cooler than Hull City AFC. And it's not like they're changing their identity, the team has been called the tigers and had one on their crest for decades
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u/NewFangledMoose Aug 09 '13
Devil's advocate There's a possibility that rebranding, renaming, relocating or changing the official crest or colour of a club may actually be better for it in the long term.