The Redbirds

[Amor de Cosmos]

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This smells like the first step in a longer term marketing project, particularly with the change of badge. FC Club Wales perhaps? Or something on those lines.

[Ray de Galles]

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That was always Hammam's angle, maybe he left a mission statement lying around the chairman's office.

[ursus arctos]

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Judging from BDG's latest post on the kit thread, the Jacks have gotten their before you (only to find that Wrexham have been there for yonks).

This is pharonically stupid.

[EIM]

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On Sunday I heard a Cardiff fan condoning this move if it meant they got in the PL. I of course smashed him in the mouth with a heavy ash tray.

Sufficed to say Harry is right regarding direct action, and BOE isn't. This has to be fought very vocally, very publicly, and very strongly. And the more vocal, punlic and strong the better.

[David Agnew]

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Bored of Education wrote:

I spent a genuinely enjoyable lunchbreak going
through the historicalkits site. I have
listed below the teams that have changed colours since WWII.

I imagine that in a lot of those cases, the changes were in the first decade or so after WWII, when cloth was at a premiunm, and clubs would be forced to change out of necessity, but decided to stay with the new colours for various reasons.

You've also got occassional things like Rochdale, where the club changed to their original colours for their centenary (from blue to black & white stripes), then incorporated the stripes into the usual kit, because of the popularity.

[David Agnew]

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Erics Inner Monologue wrote:

Sufficed to say Harry is right regarding direct action, and BOE isn't. This has to be fought very vocally, very publicly, and very strongly. And the more vocal, punlic and strong the better.

And the sooner the better. No point waiting until the start of next season, because by then it's too late, and people will spend the season "getting used" to the new colours.

[Third rate Leszno]

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Did Hyde United lose much of their (admittedly small) supporter base when City rebranded them from red to blue and did away with the 'united' in their name?

[Bored Of Education]

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Sufficed to say Harry is right regarding direct action, and BOE isn't. This has to be fought very vocally, very publicly, and very strongly. And the more vocal, punlic and strong the better.

Don't misunderstand me, I am more than happy with vocal, public and strong. Direct action is great when you are talking about protests, boycotts, etc which Harry is presently suggesting. I am just all too aware that "strong" direct action and civil disobedience can spill over into worse and self-defeating actions that you have no control of especially if you end up having to ally with the coterie of numbskulls that we have at out club. As I say, I would be interested to know what the Wimbledon lot were doing as far direct action was concerned. They may have been ultimately unsuccessful but the widespread support they got throughout the football community and outside was notable. That is what City supporters need to do.

And the sooner the better. No point waiting until the start of next season, because by then it's too late, and people will spend the season "getting used" to the new colours.

It is amazing. Apart from the general apathy and acceptance of this, even people totally against the idea are saying that boycotting season tickets and tickets for games is a step too far and people should demonstrate by wearing blue at the first game or only buying blue away merchandise. I mean, good grief, hit them where it hurts by buying stuff from them

[Sixmartletsandaseagull]

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BOE, Brighton also wore an all white kit, both times for one season only, in 70-71 and 74-75.

I have, albeit in a very lazy way, tried to find out why, over the years, but have not come up with a sound reason.

Tim Carder, The club's historian, in Seagulls: The story of BHA, doesn't mention why in the first season (we'd always played in blue or blue and white stripes since being founded in 1901, though two earlier clubs in the town wore non-blue kits). He writes, for reasons best known to the club, they changed back to an all white kit for one season in 74.

I was going regularly in 74-75 but was only 8-9 and don't remember if there was any hoo hah about the white kit.

It's a terrible thing at Cardiff.

[Flynnie]

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psychiatra granica wrote:

Harry Truscott wrote:

I have been wondering, Palace and Stockport have suffered this in the past too of course and there must be more.

Not a lot, as it's mostly accepted that our tradition, if we even have one, is to chop and change. Maybe it's the same with Palace. Sometimes we'll have more white than blue, sometimes there'll be more blue than white, and once every 12 years they give us stripes. The only major departure from anything that had gone before, and so the only thing comparable, is when blue disappeared completely back in the 50s:



I've never heard about any furore or protest about it, but I see that in 52/53 our average attendance fell from 12,000 to 8,000 in the same division. I also think this is true:

I think the culture of identification with a club's colours and iconography is possibly a lot stronger than it used to be.

Our change between 94/95 and 95/96 was so drastic that when the players ran out in a pre-season friendly I thought they were wearing a new away kit, but it was accepted without complaint. However, those were the days before messageboards. The 2009 change, tiny by comparison, seemed a lot harder for people to take.

I love how clubs would change their kit to the world champion's (1979-80). Just another reason to lament Holland not winning one.

[EIM]

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Flashmob and target sponsors. Hit the club where they'll feel it most.

[E10 Rifle]

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When Orient changed from blue to red in the 60s I don't think there was any major protest - though we'd been (white and) red pre-war anyway.

The weird thing is the adherence to 'traditional' club colours by fans now is, it could be said, itself a product of the increased emphasis on branding/merchandising/replica kit sales over the past 30 years. Such a kit change in a less 'branded' era might not have caused such a fuss.

But the Cardiff kit change plan is obviously absurd (and even more so, when it's rolled in as an essential condition along with a whole load of dry and major business conditions), and I wish Cardiff fans protesting against it all the best. And there's no reason why boycotts and direct action can't be part of that.

[Bored Of Education]

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Yes, like I say, it's not that so much boycotts and direct action. It is the sort of direct action that people are talking about that could affect people who have nothing to do with Tan's announcements. You know, for Clerks fans, the contractors on the second Death Star, cleaners, caterers etc who have to run the gauntlet of any pickets outside the club or lose a day's pay or get their cars parked around the ground damaged if anything turns nasty which, considering the numbskulls at our club start at 'nasty', wouldn't take long. If people's jobs, livelihoods, pay, pensions are at risk and plenty of warning is given, it is a different matter.

[My Name Is Ian]

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Re: Hyde.

I'm not certain that they alienated a large amount of their support, but they won the Blue Square North at a canter this season and every time I looked, I did notice that their crowds were low, considering the position that the team was in. Whether this is connected to the Manchester City rebranding or not, I have no idea.

Six Martlets: Quick Brighton trivia point - Albion switched from blue and white stripes to blue shirts in 1980 because, I found out yesterday, plain blue shirts showed up the newly-won sponsors names better.

[Sixmartletsandaseagull]

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My Name Is Ian wrote:

Six Martlets: Quick Brighton trivia point - Albion switched from blue and white stripes to blue shirts in 1980 because, I found out yesterday, plain blue shirts showed up the newly-won sponsors names better.

At the time, Mike Bamber, the chairman, promoted the switch by saying that the stripes were a relic of our lower league days hence the move (back) to blue shirts (which we'd worn in the first 3-4 seasons of our history and with white sleeves at different points). Once we slid back down the leagues the stripes were brought back, to great acclaim I remember.

I would think that the sponsor angle was likely determinant! Where did you find this out? Do they know why we moved to all white a couple of times?

[Bored Of Education]

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Re: Flashmob

The only flashmobs I have ever seen have involved group singing and dancing so that thought of the Soul Crew coming out like a scene in "Glee" is the one moment of levity in this whole farrago.

[Ray de Galles]

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Erics Inner Monologue wrote:

Flashmob and target sponsors. Hit the club where they'll feel it most.

Our shirt sponsor is...er, the entire country of Malaysia! Tricky target.

But yeah, that's along the lines of some of the things being discussed.

[Bored Of Education]

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The whole story has just made it onto the Radio 4 1pm main (not sports) news

[My Name Is Ian]

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It was mentioned in passing by the guy that edits The Seagull Love Review.

(Sorry: to Six Martlets, that was)

[Sixmartletsandaseagull]

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Thanks Ian.

[My Name Is Ian]

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On the subject of this Cardiff business, I think my main objection is the change of colours rather than a change in the way in which they've been arranged. Most clubs have a base of two - or three - colours and many have switched those around over the years. For example (and I'm doing this off the top of my head), over the 25-odd years that I watched St Albans City they wore:

Yellow shirts and blue shorts, blue shirts and yellow shorts, all blue, all yellow, blue and yellow stripes (both narrow and wide), blue shirts with yellow sleeves, blue and yellow quarters, blue with a yellow chevron, blue with a yellow diagonal sash, yellow with a horizontal blue band and yellow with blue splodges. There were probably more than this, but no-one ever seemed to object so long as those two colours were the main ones. There are a lot of other examples of this, particularly in the lower divisions.

Those actual base colours themselves, though, is a different matter. That's the core identity and it's the biggest reason why Cardiff supporters are so - rightly, I think - angry about this, particularly as they're effectively being told that this identity is being sacrificed for £100m. It kind of feels as if the amount of coverage that this is getting, though - precious little of it positive, might I add - will mean that they won't end up going through with it. It's a PR disaster.

[NHH]

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Fans can reluctantly accept the reality that their club is owned by a company, but when that company starts to act as if it owns the IP too, then it starts to piss off people. This shit taps into the most tangible aspects of the club's real power as a social construct, a product of collective identification by its fans who make it real by continuing to hold these things in common.

[Janik]

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E10 Rifle wrote:

the Cardiff kit change plan is obviously absurd (and even more so, when it's rolled in as an essential condition along with a whole load of dry and major business conditions)

As I understood the reports, this kit change is happening regardless of whether the other changes happen. Probably because the FA have a deadline at some point in the summer for when the club must register it's home kit.

Leicester's Thai owners have so far resisted making similar moves to this. It probably helps that their corporate colours are blue with a bit of yellow, and seem focused on using the football club to promote that buisness.

[rick derris]

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hi, sorry I am late to this depressing party but I have been pretty ill

i am with Harry on this. No way. some guy who hadn't heard of the club 3 years ago has no right to randomly change the teams colours on his own personal whim. I don't care how much money he has. of course if we are not in blue we ain't the bluebirds

I will now never watch another match ever again. the club are dead to me. a bit of a pain is i have already paid for next seasons ST. it was to be my 30th season as a fan

i have no real loyalty to the city of cardiff or even s wales, haven't lived there for 25 years. I just happened to be living near there at the age you choose your team. I chose the bluebirds, not some corporate inspired marketing exercise .

i wish them the worst

[ursus arctos]

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Sorry to hear you haven't been well, Rick, and hope it is getting better.

Bastia are up as champions of Ligue 2, so at least you have that to look forward to. They'll still play in blue, too.