JamesB
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Post by JamesB on May 8, 2012 19:11:54 GMT
It seems as if the rumours are true - that Cardiff's Malaysian owner Vincent Tan will rebrand the club next year, including changing the club's colours from blue (which they have had since 1908) to red, and the club crest to incorporate a dragon instead of a bluebird. It seems this is the cost to the club of a bigger (red) stadium, improved training facilities and a large budget in order to chase promotion
I'm very uncomfortable about this. I know there have been instances in the past of colour changes (Leeds under Revie, Liverpool under Shankley, Palace in the 70s, Luton various times, us to yellow and then blue under Webb - plus the odd temporary switch like Millwall 1999-2001 and Arsenal and Cheltenham playing in ruby) but this is very different - this is a club that has played in a particular colour for over 100 years that is now being changed on the whim of a foreign owner because he considers blue to be unlucky, whilst eyeing increased red shirt sales in the Far East
I'm also surprised some Cardiff fans are comfortable about this - it seems they are willing to trade in the history of their own club to get into the top flight, which is by no means guaranteed as Leicester showed with their big spending last summer. I'm by no means a Cardiff fan despite them being my "local" club but if I was, I'd boycott
I'd be interested to hear the thoughts of people who have been through our colour changes to see if they have a different perspective on this - I know it's slightly different because we've changed colours a lot (even since I started supporting, we've gone through some dramatic variations). Is "rebranding" a historic club for the sake of making more money or simply because the owner doesn't like it right?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 8, 2012 20:42:02 GMT
The first I'd heard of it, but it does seem that you are right.
A good dose of cultural enrichment does indeed seem to be coming their way & it wouldn't surprise me if those who oppose it can't be done under race relations legislation in some way, so I'd advise them to keep quiet & accept it; I doubt they'd get much joy complaining to their local Labour MP anyway .
Tradition in sport went out the window long ago. When the shirt sponsorship rules were first being discussed I would try to imagine an Arsenal shirt with 'Tesco' emblazoned across the front of it & was horrified by the idea. yet a few decades on & we accept that the shirt is primarily an advertising board.
I can't remember an England kit with no blue in it, but it seems there are plans afoot for just that. I never in my wildest dreams thought Arsenal would incorporate blue into their home kit, but I've seen what they'll be wearing next season & I'm sure the shirts will sell in their tens of thousands.
A few people kick up for a week or two when St.James Park is renamed Sports Direct. Likewise there were those who didn't want the wrecking ball taken to the Twin Towers, but it's all forgotten about now.
A rare event for me, I bought a copy of the Herald Express 3 or 4 weeks ago. It informed me that Paignton RFC may be renaming themselves as Pumas or Panthers or something equally silly.
I know next to nothing about rugby but on a visit to Exeter I see plenty of people with T shirts, jackets etc with red indian logos & Exeter Chiefs items. So many historic rugby clubs changed their names, I don't think the dwindling band of traditionalists had much success in opposing it.
In Formula 1 we're used to the teams changing their 'shirts' every season if necessary to please their sponsors. Barcelona are slowly edging towards full shirt sponsorship. Ferrari who at the most would allow the names of the oil & brake pad suppliers to be shown on their car, moved with the times so that Marlboro had a scarlet background.
Football tradition is being pulled down, quite literally it seems in the case of Stamford Bridge, over next few years, due to Platini's war on English clubs. Abramovich could easily provide the funds to keep Chelsea competitive on the European stage if he was allowed to, but under Platini's cunningly named 'Financial Fair Play' legislation he won't be able to & so historic footballing homes such as The Bridge will be bulldozed so that bigger capacity stadiums can provide the money.
You only have to look at Platini's plans to realise why Manchester City's owners had to spend so much so quickly in order to beat the deadline.
Just as Formula 1 takes it's races to all parts of the world, how much longer will the Premier league clubs, mostly foreign owned, want to be constrained by taking their product, for which there is great demand around the globe, to broke northern towns like Wigan, Blackburn, Bolton or Stoke, where the locals can barely afford £20 to get in, rather than charging £200 as an entrance fee to rich citizens of the East ?
I would guess that the Malaysian owners have calculated what the future of football will be and are planning accordingly. A few geriatric Taffs may choke on their pints initially, but they'll have to move with the times or get left behind. Their old Bluebird is very much an endangered species & I predict it'll soon be extinct.
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JamesB
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Post by JamesB on May 8, 2012 21:08:29 GMT
I generally agree, Joe, although one point: A few people kick up for a week or two when St.James Park is renamed Sports Direct. Likewise there were those who didn't want the wrecking ball taken to the Twin Towers, but it's all forgotten about now. I don't think it has quite been forgotten just yet. Even though I only ever went there once as a small lad, I miss the old Wembley terribly. The new one doesn't quite have the same magic for me - white will always trump grey, the Twin Towers will always trump the arch, and the players have to go into what looks like a car park before getting to the new Royal Box which is absurd I don't think Newcastle fans have forgotten the renaming of SJP either, although to be fair I think that is something different - at the end of the day, it's just a name, and most people will still refer to it as SJP anyway. Even Jeff Stelling mistakenly referred to it as SJP on air on the most recent Soccer Saturday. It's happened plenty of times at our level as well - we visit the Coral Windows Stadium, the Abbey Business Stadium and the EBB Stadium, although I'm sure most people still refer to them as Valley Parade, Whaddon Road and the Recreation Ground. It doesn't change the fabric of the club The things that do change the fabric of the club are moving to a new ground, changing the colours and changing the name. The former is pretty much accepted as standard these days, but the latter two are pretty much unforgivable these days - I should imagine that Torquay playing in anything other than yellow and white or blue in 2012 would be controversial, even though it was only as recently as 1989 that we played in a predominantly white shirt - maybe it's just me but it feels that fans are almost getting more sensitive towards colours, or it could just be that because we've changed a few times already, people aren't/weren't as bothered Of course we may well have ended up with all 3 of the above under Mr Roberts - I don't know if he ever planned on changing our colours alongside our move to become Torquay Athletic but it wouldn't surprise me if that was the case. Had it been announced publicly, I should imagine it would have been very controversial not just amongst Torquay fans but most English football fans What is going on at Cardiff (as the Supporters' Trust have now confirmed that this is what is planned) is even more radical. This is a complete change of identity. Granted, hardcore Cardiff fans aren't the nicest bunch and there may be a need to distance themselves from that, but do they need to go this far? Some may excuse it because the club was previously called Riverside FC and played in amber and chocolate until 1908, but it's not as if anyone can remember that - they have pretty much been the Bluebirds forever. Now the owner has come in and wants to throw away a century of history because he doesn't fancy blue and thinks red will sell more shirts on the other side of the world, and is trying to blackmail the fans into accepting - it's a total disregard for the fans. And this of course in the week that another group of foreign owners have been punished for watching from a distance and ignoring the fans - seemingly the lesson hasn't been learned Wales already has one club that plays in red that's nicknamed the Dragons, and look where they are. Not to mention the national team. Not working out well for either, is it? A lot of foreign owners (and Pete Winkelman) are misunderstanding the concept of an English football club - it is a club, not a team. Hopefully it's an empty threat, just a consideration, not actually a genuine plan. But it's looking more likely the longer this goes on, especially after the load of corporate waffle that appeared on the official CCFC website tonight. A real shame that owners are allowed to get away with this |
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Jon
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Post by Jon on May 8, 2012 22:35:20 GMT
I'd be interested to hear the thoughts of people who have been through our colour changes to see if they have a different perspective on this I recall a great deal of unhappiness at the 1984 change to blue - but that was probably due to all the other negative changes that happened at the same time. It was a very tough time to be a TUFC fan. In contrast, the 1967 change to blue came at a great time to be a TUFC fan. Does that mean that the change was more easily accepted? Someone on here will know. We did go back to gold after just one season though. I can't remember the swapping between predominantly gold , white or yellow through the 70s and 80s causing much of a stir. The first mostly white kit was very popular as far as I know. It holds a special place for me as it was the kit when I graduated from casual to obsessed fan. Perhaps Chelston could let us know how the stripes to plain white in 1934 and the Magpies to Gulls in 1954 went down with the fans at the time? A link you probably all know: www.historicalkits.co.uk/Torquay_United/Torquay_United.htm |
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JamesB
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Post by JamesB on May 9, 2012 0:04:14 GMT
Reading through one of the Cardiff forums, anyone speaking up against this is being branded "ungrateful". So short-sighted...
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Post by Budleigh on May 9, 2012 5:51:09 GMT
Although a couple of years later, I still have my old late-seventies white Bukta shirt tucked away in a drawer somewhere. Peter, Ian, Les, Steve etc, etc... they 'lived' that shirt.
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JamesB
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Post by JamesB on May 9, 2012 11:48:54 GMT
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Post by lambethgull on May 9, 2012 20:40:04 GMT
Reading through one of the Cardiff forums, anyone speaking up against this is being branded "ungrateful". So short-sighted... "Ungrateful"?!  I've heard everything. Some people really just ask to have their faces rubbed in the sh*t. |
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wolfie
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Post by wolfie on May 10, 2012 21:18:01 GMT
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JamesB
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Post by JamesB on Jun 6, 2012 11:07:38 GMT
It's back on. That it was "binned" due to the protests was a blatant lie from the owners - canning it only served to get more fans on side as they were afraid the club would die without the Malaysian money (which is nonsense of course). Couldn't have worked any better for them - they now have more fans on side and can force through their ridiculous idea
I think we'll be playing them in the league in a few years
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2012 12:45:55 GMT
I was also a little surprised to hear on the lunchtime news that it's all systems go for the new red Cardiff.
News like this must put a huge smile on the faces of Swansea fans who will have been feeling a bit disappointed at losing their Manager to Liverpool.
Having watched the BBC turn the Jubilee Thames Pageant into a 5 hour long episode of The One Show I reached the conclusion that tradition was well & truly dead in Britain; red Cardiff is a further sign of the times.
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JamesB
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Post by JamesB on Jul 24, 2012 19:48:02 GMT
The group Keep Cardiff Blue held their first meeting tonight. Unfortunately, I'm told it was disrupted by a group of club loyalists, all known trouble-makers, who have threatened to assault anyone who protests in the stadium during a match
I have a feeling this isn't going to end well...
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