Steve Tucker's Thoughts on rebranding.

..says writer Steve Tucker who watched his first City game aged eight in 1974. A lifelong fan, here he argues why he believes the club’s proposed changes may be good

CARDIFF CITY supporters uncomfortable at the changes being planned at the club should ask themselves a simple question. Not, what price tradition? Rather, what price the future?

There’s no doubt the decision to switch the team’s home colours from blue to red and to change the badge are emotive.

Cardiff is a club with a long and proud history and a successful one, too, at the highest level, which I’m sure you will remember fondly if you are 100 years old.


And that’s just the point. For decades upon decades Bluebirds fans have been bemoaning the fact that no one has taken an interest in the club, that no one has stepped forward to wake the ‘sleeping giant’. Well, now they have and this time they look serious.

Before chairman Dato Chan Tien Ghee and Vincent Tan stepped into the breach, the club was in real danger of slipping into administration or worse, with transfer embargoes being put in place for non-payment of tax bills.

That sort of thing now seems to be a thing of the past and if supporters do not want to come along for this ride then it looks like they will be the ones missing out.

There is a lot of anger, misinformation and teary-eyed nostalgia surrounding the proposed changes.

For a start, the name remains despite absurd talk of a re-christening to the Cardiff Dragons, and the seats are not going to be changed to red either – there will just be more of them.

Look, I’ve served my dues as much as the next man watching the City. I’ve stood on bitter afternoons on the terraces of Ninian Park with a small group of other diehards watching them take on Torquay, and I enjoyed it.

I didn’t enjoy it because of the colour of their kit, I enjoyed it because Cardiff is, and will always be, my club. Our club.

For me, the faith Vincent Tan is showing allows him to have the right to change the kit if he wants. It’s his club, but cosmetic changes are not going to make it any less the supporters’ club.

If red is a more fortuitous colour in Asia and will lead to an even higher profile for Cardiff City in the Far East, then surely this can only be a good thing.

Even if it’s simply the colour of Vincent Tan’s bathroom tiles then surely he who pays the piper calls the tune.

I’m sure when in 1910 the club changed its kit from chocolate and amber to blue there were blokes falling off their Penny Farthings with shock.

But this is the 21st Century. Embrace change; accept change or die.

What would the diehards have? AFC Cardiff running around Pontcanna Fields in front of one man and his dog in Dorothy’s Fish Bar League Division Three just as long as the players are wearing blue?

Provided the promises made are delivered by the Malaysians – and, let’s be honest, they haven’t reneged on anything yet – then this is not the end of the club, this is just the beginning.

Within the proposals, the club will get a new state-of-the-art training ground, even though I guess many will wonder if they need one considering the one they have now is only a few years old.

The answer to that particular question is yes, they do. My understanding is that the pitches at their current Vale Resort home are too easily affected by inclement weather with Malky Mackay and his men forced to train at the Cardiff City Stadium before their play-off clashes with West Ham recently.

Secondly, I know Mackay is keen to get the club’s Academy on the same premises as the seniors team.

His reasoning is clear – young talent will develop quicker when exposed to the totally professional methods used at such a facility, and he is right.

This will be a great move for the future.

The decision to increase the capacity of the Cardiff City Stadium to 35,000 is harder to fathom right now, but becomes clearer when again we look at the future.

The Bluebirds will not fill it in the Championship, but these changes that Cardiff have announced make it quite clear the club is not planning on remaining in the second tier for longer than is strictly necessary.

Mackay has already excelled in his first season in charge, earning a top-six finish and an unprecedented trip to the Carling Cup final.

This summer, as part of the transformation, the City boss will be handed a war chest to finally build a squad that can challenge even harder at the top end of the table.

I think there is little doubt if Cardiff can make the Premier League a 35,000-seat home will be needed.

Once all the emotion and window dressing surrounding the kit is set aside, let’s really look at what the club are planning to do.

The Malaysians are finally to pay off the club’s debts and seize full control for themselves. For a long time people have speculated what their real involvement in the club might be. Now we have our answer and it’s total commitment to the Cardiff cause.

The money involved will be sizeable, even for a man of Tan’s wealth.

Supporters watching their team at home next season will obviously notice the red kit, but they might also notice something different too, which is a team capable of finally ending 50 years of hurt and getting the capital club back into the top flight.

The Bluebirds, will always be the Bluebirds whatever happens, whoever comes and goes.

But it is the supporters who are forever and surely we must buy into this chance to finally move our club forward.

If we don’t, if you don’t, one is left wondering at this point in time what the alternatives might be.



Read More http://www.walesonline.co.uk/footballna ... z1uMqcaAvL

its in the interest of the club and its fans to support VT otherwise we will be lucky to have a club anymore! FACT!

This is the first time I have agreed on an article written by Steve Tucker, normaly I cringe with some of the nonsense he writes.
Before anybody starts to throw insults, I have put a lot of thought into this before I declare where I stand on this issue, and As much as I don't like the loss of the badge, I can live with it, the colour change, I'm looking forward to it, I think the blue was getting a bit stale anyway.
When I was younger, my mum or my nan used to ask me if I was going down the city, never am "going to see the bluebirds" to me the term bluebirds was never used as a figure of speech, it only really started from the seventies onward, so tradition I don't think so. And I still say I am going down the city, not I am going to see the bluebirds.
Make what you want of this I really don' t care. I've been rocking and rolling since 1954, so some of you bully boys don't bother me, because that 's what you are, jumping on people because they don' t agree with you and using foul and insulting language, I got more respect with people, who put their views in a forthright manner, without insults and name calling, where do you get off on this anyway.

What would the diehards have? AFC Cardiff running around Pontcanna Fields in front of one man and his dog in Dorothy’s Fish Bar League Division Three just as long as the players are wearing blue?

I don't see the problem. I've never been a person to support my club based on performance. Cardiff are our team because they represent us. Be it in the CCS, Leckwith, Pontcanna or wherever.

To compete we need investment, VT and TG are willing to invest. Now we can see why no major financing was there in January. Malky and the team actually were ahead of schedule.
This summer there will be a lot of money made available to MM . We will push for and get promotion, we will have better facilities a bigger ground , a better team.
Remember leaving NP , we didn't want it , but we knew we had to move to compete . This is the same.
OK nobody wants colour changes or badge changes (even though our badge as changed many times and our colours once).
Nobody likes change.But changes are coming.
I think the choice is a Cardiff team playing in red or no Cardiff team.
Without VT we would be another Rangers or Pompey or maybe worse, just a memory.

In all walks of life , you have to have ambition and change with the times.
How many of us still have a black and white tv, 8 track stereo, Betamax video, do your wife's still go to the stream to wash your clothes ? If you don't move with the times you get left behind.

My first Cardiff City game was 1968 I didn't go to watch them because they played in blue, I wanted to watch my local Team.
Nothing as changed I still want to watch Cardiff City be it in BLUE ,RED or PINK (well maybe not pink)
Lets all move forward together. hand in hand whatever colour we are

Now that's what I call a well thought out reply, don't have to agree or disagree, just respect the man for use of the queens English, no swearing, no insults, no name calling, I'm with you man!.

Now that's what I call a well thought out reply, don't have to agree or disagree, just respect the man for use of the queens English, no swearing, no insults, no name calling, I'm with you man!.

Probably due to the fact you're a whore and c**t

Well Well Well we got a live one crawling out of the wood work,did you have to get your o level in english to write that sentence out, or did you have to think about it,maybe you can't think about it, maybe it just falls out without thinking about it.

:lol:
Well Well Well we got a live one crawling out of the wood work,did you have to get your o level in english to write that sentence out, or did you have to think about it,maybe you can't think about it, maybe it just falls out without thinking about it.

It was a joke, you were asking for it.
But no, I don't agree with you, some of us aren't happy to sell our identity for the promise of money.

1) If your sense of humour includes swearing and calling me names then I don't think a lot of it.

2) You have every right to disagree, you could have left it at that.

3) As for selling our identedy, then that depends which side of the argument you are on, and for that argument, I have every right to disagree.

If it's red, or no more City, then it's red. No more discussion. Conversation over. End of.

Somehow I don't think it will or should be that easy, people have a right to discuss this subject, as long as it bis done in a grown up educated manner.