Dropkick Murphy wrote:That wouldn't work at all, and would be ridiculous. Before you say it works in other sports, yes, it has done in cricket for example where the whole point was to attract new fans to an already very well known and popular sport but which doesn't really have the passionate fan bases Rugby League clubs have. If cricketing traditionalists ignored The 100 it made no difference as it wasn't designed for them anyway.
Look at the opposition in Hull to the attempted rebrand of Hull City to Hull Tigers (with Tigers already being their nickname anyway), and the opposition in Cardiff to the switch from blue to red of Cardiff City's kit despite it being the colour of the country they are the capital of. Tradition matters. Including them in the name of clubs they already have no interest in won't make people in Liverpool and Manchester start supporting Saints or Salford. Cheapening the existing identity will 100% cost you existing fans though.
It might....but if you did it regardless, how many would you really lose....people would come round to it, would still be their club. You're risking losing perhaps a 1/4 who would be too pigheaded and parochial not to go. The rest would come around to it and you'd open so many doors in terms of new fans and commercial revenues into the sport.
Do nothing and the game is probably dead and heading towards the top clubs merging back into union within ten years anyway!
