Football Club Name Changes - Do They Work?

[Tigers 1945]

This was your baby. Are you going to start following them again?

It was yes. I've had virtually no involvement at all with the club for several years now and none in the push to change the colours back.
I think I'll go along to some games again.
I'm much too busy these days to be able to travel to a lot of the away games up North and the night games up on the Coast.
One of the biggest reasons I left wasn't so much the colours or emblem (although it didn't help things) but moreso I got sick of the dickheads that infiltrated the place.
There are still quite a few of them involved too. The place isn't what it was, that's for sure.
It's going to be a tough year for the Tigers to be honest.
They have a membership in 2008 of 63 that needs to be massively improved upon, the 3rds, 2nds and Seniors look to all be very ordinary squads and will be easybeats.

I'll be at most of the Southern games definitely, but I'm more interested in seeing if the passion is still there or not.
I've gotta say, aside from the text message saying the Tigers are back, I've not really gotten all that excited, maybe it's just me being too busy to get excited about it

But we'll see closer to the start of the season I guess!!

Egan - I see your WAFL and raise you the TFL's name changes:

TFA, STFA, TFL, TANFL, TFL Statewide, TFL Super League, TSFL, SWL, TSL:

[Jeffles]

Wer'nt the Jets previously Bluebaggers prior to 73? they were a founding club of league.

We're moving to different territory. During the 1960s and 1970s most NSWRL changed their emblem and adopted names. mean, Bluebags was never an official name. They were always the Newtown DRLFC. "Jets" was officially adopted with a new emblem and all. I think those example worked because the added a name rather than a wholesale change.

I thnk the answer to the thread is that name changes can work but they need to be a bit organic in path rather than something thought of in boardrooms for no apparent reason.

[Simmo79]

You mean like Westar Rules? Those wacky men with pony tails.

My initial reaction to "A-League" was a bit but then quickly realised it fitted with the Asian leagues we were trying to emulate and that we'd actually used A-League some time in the 90s for the NSL. Now I think it's a perfectly cromulent name.

I wonder what the NBL will be re-badged as?

[redback_original]

Auckland Warriors -> New Zealand Warriors.

That doesn't count because I f***ing hate it.

But most of NZ hates Aucklanders with a passion. By calling the team "NZ' they may at least technically be seen to be attempting to get supporters from south of the Bombay Hills. (Remember people in the South Island/outside Auckland would go for the ACT Brumbies when playing the Auckland Blues)

Another name change that has probably worked is changing "Footscray" to "Western Bulldogs". With Footscray now a home to the local African & Vietnamese communities (among other 'colourful' types) re-branding the team to identify with the growing western suburbs means that the club aims to cater to the growing area from Kensington all the way to Werribee (where you start seeing a lot more Cats fans).

That name change appears to have been largely accepted ok.

JF

That's tue - the bulldogs name change has been largely successful. However.. is ''Western" really a name? No one says they're Western supporters but plenty of people would have said they go for Footscray.

Maybe a similar thing with this Sydney Tigers crowd. Is the nickname more significant?

[Jeffles]

This thread started because APIA changed their name to Sydney Tigers. Yesterday I went to the Sydney Tigers first home game for the season at Leichhardt Oval. I note that they'd played a home game the other week at Lambert Park.

The crowd was no different to what you'd expect at Lambert Park. At the same time, the catering was outsourced (APIA did it in house at Lambert Park), there was no bar (there's a great one at Lambert Park) and ground rent is more expensive than at Lambert Park (where APIA have a 21 year lease). I don't know what APIA were thinking but on the face of it, the name change care factor is nil and the only impact I can see at the moment is a negative financial one.

One highlight of the game was playing The Cup of Life by Ricky Martin over the PA between the seniors and the Under 20s fixture. Hilarious.

Leichhardt Oval's surface has been changed and it looks in mint condition. It is an excellent facility for NSW Premier League but the move doesn't appear to have made much of a difference. It's only the first game and I guess we'll see more as the season progresses.

For the record APIA er SYdney Tigers beat Bankstown 1-0.

[gyfox]

When was the last time a football club changed its name and thus its fortunes on and off the field were reversed?


Canterbury-Bankstown - Sydney Bulldogs ?
Canterbury-Marrickville - West Sydney Berries ?

It is interesting to note that the Canterbury Bankstown Rugby League team was originally "The Berries" before for some unknown reason some idiot decided to change it to the Bulldogs. Those were the days... Les Johns, Johnny Greaves, Kevin Goldspink, Ron Raper, Georgie Taylforth...

PS. How could I forget to include Kevin Ryan in that list...

[Nines]

Nobody has mentioned South Melbourne to Sydney Swans to Sydney .
The Brisbane Lions were technically a merger .
The Western Bulldogs have been a small success .
The Roos were never going to fly .
Port Adelaide has changed from Magpies to the Power.
Subiaco maroons are now going for their 4th consecutive premiership as the Subiaco Lions .
West Perth are now the Falcons not the Cardinals but briefly were Joondalup .
Sydney City was a backward step and Wests Tigers ?
What's wrong with The Western Tigers

.

[deejaybee]

Lose the Victory in the name.
Melbourne A.F.C sounds pretty good to me.

[Hass]

For Rugby League, 1995 marked the nadir of this fad.

Canterbury-Bankstown became the Sydney Bulldogs
Balmain became the Sydney Tigers and
Eastern Suburbs became the Sydney City Roosters

All in the same year - it was unbelievable.

The Bulldogs did win the comp that year, but reverted back to Canterbury the following year, albeit without the Bankstown.

They then dropped the place name altogether in 2000 to become "The Bulldogs". There are now rumblings in the club to bring back the Canterbury-Bankstown name.

Balmain abandoned the "Sydney" experiment in 1997, while Easts transitioned from "Sydney City" to plain old "Sydney" in 2000.

The only one of these name changes that worked/stuck was "Sydney City". The "Sydney City Roosters" rolled off the tongue and still reflected the geogrpahic location of the club. People would call the club "Sydney City" without feeling stupid. But "Sydney" is just too broad and daft. No one calls them "Sydney", forcing everyone to now refer to the men from Bondi as "The Roosters".

I just call them Easts.