This story is one that has rocked City fans across the globe and one which will run and run for a while yet to come. Normally I would have wrote an article as soon as the news broke but although my initial reaction was one of immediate rejection for the official name change, I could not help looking deeper into why?
When Allam rescued Hull City from the mismanagement and spiralling debt caused by the club’s last owners he was as welcome as when Adam Pearson came to our aid at Boothferry Park in the late 90’s. He seemed to be a breath of fresh air as he was “one of our own”. A successful businessman who said he wanted to repay the City of Hull and its people for making him so welcome and helping him to grow his company into a global success. A graduate of Hull University he endeared himself to everyone as a real genuine Mr. Nice guy.
So what has gone wrong and why? The very same man who said he wants to make Hull City a long term stable club was only half sincere. Yes he wants a legacy so that never again would Hull City have fear the administrators, yet only a few years on, Allam himself is the man to put the name Hull City to the sword and there is nothing anyone can do about it.
Hull City Tigers, no doubt soon to become Hull Tigers has been named, according to Allam, so that the club has an international brand and that “Short” names are somehow more dynamic and powerful, and in order for Hull City to achieve this international global success and recognition then this is what has to happen. He may have a point, let’s look at some examples of big brands…Coca Cola is widely known as Coke, Manchester Utd. are more often than not, referred to as Man U, Tottenham Hotspurs, Spurs Alex Ferguson, Fergie, Chelski…Well you get what I’m saying, there may be something in it?
But what about the fans, the history books, the ex players? Does Allam risk alienating the resident KC supporters and more to the point is he bothered? It seems that Allam would rather have 100,000 Asian “Tiger TV” subscribers than 25,000 loyal paying fans through the turnstiles. This so called branding may back fire and do no more than create plastic popularity, and “Hull Tigers” will have “Boy Band “ status instead of British football club dignity and we all know how fast Boy Bands drop out of fashion due to fickle and disloyal support.
There is only one logical motive for this decision as Allam has indicated and that is money and the desire to earn more money which is fair enough up to a point. The one big flaw is that it is not guaranteed to happen. Clubs become great clubs, not because they are re named, but because they are managed well, have good players and always perform as a professional team from the playing staff right through to the back room staff and the calibre of a club is not where it wants to go but where it has come from and the battle scars and honours it carries.
The big risk is that if the newly named “Hull Tigers” fail and drop through the divisions then you can be sure of one thing. Mr. Allam will be looking to offload it as quickly as a stockbroker wants to sell falling shares, but a club without any history and a name that sets it apart from the rest of the “norm” will be a white elephant. If you want an example, try asking a lifelong Wimbledon supporter if he still feels the passion let alone does he even recognise his once beloved club as Milton Keynes Dons.
There is mixed feelings amongst the fans in an 80% lean towards outrage and anger about being called Hull City Tigers and the slant made by Allam that Hull City is “Irrelevant” is not short of insulting. As far as “City” being common then Allam may wish to look across the English Football League and he will see that Hull City are amongst esteemed friends who are also just as “common” but never the less proud of who they are who’s owners have seen fit to maintain their respective identities and build their club on a footballing basis and not a re branding exercise.
It would seem that Allam is preparing Hull Tigers for a shop window gazed upon by rich businessmen looking to pick up a football club up as a trinket and the target market is a buyer who wants a club with a short punchy powerful name that is not common and very relevant which also comes with a ready made contractually obliged plastic fan base with no ties to the playing surface and local supporters. There was a man within Hull City who bled black and amber who was the first casualty of witnessing the ugly destruction from within and was promptly dispatched. Nick Barmby.
On the other hand, are the dissenting fans out of touch and unrealistic? Should we be content with the corporate side of football taking over the running and financing of the game regardless of sentiment? Are owners forced to treat clubs as commodities and players as assets because let’s face it, some players follow the money and the badge on their shirts are no more than a clocking on cards for that particular shift knowing they would take another club next week if the pay packet was better? We’ve heard of player power. Owner power is on the rise.
The biggest disappointment which also shows great lack of understanding of Hull City supporters, is the way that Allam did all this by stealth. If the name change is purely a business strategy then it wouldn’t have been dreamt up last week, it would have been in a longer term business plan which means that Allam has kept it a secret and then painfully, not to mention insensitively, dropped the bombshell a fortnight before kick off. If it is a last minute off the cuff idea and a bit of a punt you have to question his ability to be allowed to own Hull City football club which is the mainstay of our sporting community of which every result affects our Saturday nights. Mr. Allam has every right to earn money from the club but surely not at the cost of selling its soul.
Yes. Mr.Allam saved our football club. Fact. Yes Mr. Allam has closed, locked and thrown away the key to the door of 109 years of Hull City Associated Football Club History. Also a fact. Is he a hero or villain?
Change does not guarantee progress and should not be confused as one and the same.