By Chris Wright
Hull City are to be renamed “Hull Tigers” and drop the “A.F.C” from their club name for the 2013/14 Premier League season after their owners deemed the club’s original name to be ‘too common’.
Egyptian owners Assem and Ehab Allam have confirmed that they intend to rebrand the club to put more emphasis on the whole “Tigers” aspect – in much the same way as Cardiff owner Vincent Tan moulded his team’s identity from Bluebirds to Red Dragons to better pique the interest of the potentially lucrative Eastern market.
Any road up, Assem Allam regaled the Hull Daily Mail with the machinations of his masterplan:
“Hull City is irrelevant. My dislike for the work ‘City’ is because it is common. City is also associated with Leicester, Bristol, Manchester and many other clubs.
“In the commercial world, the shorter the name, the better. The more it can spread quickly. It is about identity. City is a lousy identity. Hull City Association Football Club is so long.”
Perhaps that means they’ll go back to playing in their exquisitely beautiful “tiger stripe” kit from the 1992/93 season?
We can but hope.