Red and White – Is change alright?
Melbourne Heart fans have bravely started a campaign to keep their ‘red and white’ colours, and to a certain extent the Heart name. No announcements have been made from the new owners Abu Dhabi United Group, but speculation is strong the new era of the club will start with a rebranding to Melbourne City (from Melbourne Heart), and the primary colours of the club could be changed to sky blue.
The new colour scheme and name would bring the club into line with other clubs owned by the group, ManchesterCity and New York City. ManchesterCity has a long association with the sky blue, and New York is a new entity. Sky blue seems the obvious choice for the new club, except for two major factors. Firstly Sydney is already sky blue, and two teams (in a 10 team competition) just don’t seem to be practical. Secondly our cross town rivals are also blue, although navy blue. Also Victorians are a very proud state and rival state New South Wales has a long association with sky blue. The state cricket team, NRL representative team and Union team all call sky blue their main colour. Taking the argument to a national level you can easily see why fans don’t want to see their team walk out in sky blue.
The original colours of Melbourne Heart were no doubt chosen as a deliberate plan to be a note of difference to the already established Melbourne Victory. Red vs. Blue has both a dramatic affect on either the Fox Sports coverage or if you are at the ground. Sky Blue just won’t have the same affect if the new owners decide to take that road. Fans feel an attachment to the colours of their football club. ‘Showing your colours’ is prevalent in football more than any other sport played around through this we grow very fond of our team colours. Colours are more than just what you see on the Dulux colour chart; spend enough time watching the club and you will eventually get that feeling.
Globally, the move to sky blue makes financial sense. Keeping a common identifying feature through their teams grows their brand globally but it does risk alienating current fans of the club. Having a familiar ‘City’ theme running through the clubs doesn’t give the owners and entity the owners are after. Having the common theme of City and sky blue has the potential to increase the international exposure of the club.
Currently many Melbourne Heart supporters have taken to the MHFCSupporters forum to let others know their feelings on the subject. Whilst this forum doesn’t represent the opinion of all supporters at the club it does give you an idea of the type of passion change can provoke at a sporting club. Currently a poll asking fans would they continue to support the club is about 50/50 with 43 votes Yes and 45 No (No Victory fans this 88 people don’t represent the entire Heart fan base).
Many of these fans have been at the club since day one and would be a great loss but we do need to consider what the new owners are putting forward before walking out of the club altogether. No announcement has been made as yet, and I don’t believe any will be made in the immediate future. When the sale of the club went through it was announced that changed would be announced during the current season. This would cause a distraction to both fans and players for the remainder of 2013/14.
With our season all but over I think now is the right time for any changes to be announced. The club has already announced some re-signings for the season ahead and with finals no longer an option fans need to know what is happening to their club. Speculation will build up through the next few weeks or months and sadly in a situation like this silence is not golden.
With one home game remaining the Yarraside are once again planning a ‘Red and White’ theme for the final home match of the season. When the takeover was originally announced the colours were also a talking point for fans and the supporter group. Our club, our colours is a passionate plea to draw attention to the new owners before any decision is announced.
One thing that I think is being lost during the entire argument is Abu Dhabi United Group now owns the club, and can do what he likes with the club providing FFA approval. You cannot sit back and expect to use their network of scouts, state of the art facilities and potential financial investment and not think it will come at no cost to the club in its current state. Sadly as fans we must play the waiting game to see the future identity of out club.
I ultimately believe over the past four years we haven’t done enough to establish an identity in this city, geographically or otherwise. At present our only point of difference with rivals Victory, is that we are not Victory. We have tried to bring players through our ranks and establish an exciting style of play but failing to make the finals once again probably best sums up where the club is currently at. One finals appearance (and a very average one at that) in four seasons is not what I was looking for when the club was established. I see the new ownership as a new beginning for all Melbourne Heart fans.
Moving forward won’t be easy and it must be done in a prompt and professional manner. Fans will be upset with any decision made by the new regime, but that is human nature; People don’t like change. No matter the decision we mustn’t forget the brief history of the past four seasons, and the will always play a valuable chapter in the history of the club.
Personally I think we will be renamed to Melbourne City and I think this is a great base to establish our new beginnings. I don’t think we should keep the ‘Heart’ nickname and new ownership would be advised to move on from this and refer to the club as ‘City’. The colours are a bigger sticking point to me, but I am very flexible when it comes to the request of the new management. I have always supported the club and always will, no matter what form it comes in. I don’t buy the argument that we will become a mini ManchesterCity, our league has too many restrictions and regulations for this to happen. Some fans are using the ‘I support Manchester United’ argument, again I don’t sympathise with this either. We are not Manchester City, and never will be. The Manchester derby is that, and last time I checked on Google maps Manchester was about 17,000 kilometres from Melbourne and shouldn’t come into the equation. There is nothing wrong with supporting multiple teams throughout the world but fans must learn to separate their teams.
Lets support the team for both what both what they currently represent to us and what potentially could happen in the future. For those fans wanting to leave based on decisions made by the new management, thank you for your support over the last few seasons and I wish you luck in supporting whomever in the future. For those willing to stay with the club we have some very exciting times ahead.
An accepting Heart will lead you to a better City.
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