October 9 – Hull City AFC fans have formed a new community group and are campaigning to protect the club’s historic identity from a name change to Hull Tigers by owner Aseem Allam.
City Till We Die, formed at the end of September, have been leafleting fans at home games and distributing badges with the message ‘No to Hull Tigers’, and already claims success locally in uniting supporter opposed to the name change. Over 6,000 badges and 15,000 leaflets have been distributed.
At last weekend’s Premier League home game against Aston Villa supporters held up the leaflet with the number ‘1904’ printed on the reverse – the year that Hull City AFC was formed – at 19:04 minutes into the game. Fans sang ‘City till I die’ to acknowledge the club name’s long history in the community.
Further actions planned include the production of free postcards for supporters to sign and send to the FA and Premier League, outlining their opposition to the name change and urging them to consider our views.
The group has also started an online petition against the name change (www.citytillwedie.com/petition) as well as taking to social media with fast-growing followings on Twitter (@NoToHullTigers) and Facebook (facebook.com/NoToHullTigers).
The group are keen to emphasise that they are not an anti-Allam movement but are grateful to him for saving the club from liquidation and investing in their return to the Premier League, In fact, in one communication they say they “strongly support his ownership of the club”.
But as regards the name change “we just think they are wrong on this one”, said one of the group’s leaders, Les Motherby.
“There was no consultation with supporters about a name change, and that’s what we are trying to do, gauge opinion and see what opposition there is to it and then respectfully put our views to the club that the name of the club is important to supporters and the wider community,” said Motherby.
“In terms of engaging supporters and discussing the plurality of views on the subject, Saturday was very successful, and the owner has stated that he is prepared to meet with supporter groups that oppose the name change and that can only be a positive sign.”
Whether they can get Allam to change his mind seems unlikely. Allam has said he will change the name to Hull Tigers by next year and that he dislikes the word City because it is “common” and a “lousy identity”.
In March the club changed the name of the holding company from Hull City Association Football Club to Hull City Tigers Ltd. And what appears to be a gradual change of identity has been taking place across the club. ‘Hull City Tigers’ has appeared on the training ground gates, an amended club crest removing AFC and ‘The’ has started to be used, and the use of ‘The Tigers’ in reference to the club has appeared frequently on the club’s official website.
Club communications such as emails to season ticket holders used the name Hull Tigers and the club’s commercial website listed fixtures as Hull City Tigers v. Norwich City, and had comments from sponsors saying they were proud to be associated with Hull Tigers.
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