I applaud your vision. Should we use real blood?

??

Adding a fancy suffix by itself is not going to improve the Google PageRank.

No but when you searched for Blue Sox you only got one result.

I just think that having an identity greater than the name of the town you play in is beneficial. Every Super League club has one even if it's not a suffix. It helps to distinguish who you are from other sports sides in the same town, and also allows for people who don;t care for your town to identify with your club.

Off on a tangent, [url=http://www.jimwegryn.com/Names/TeamsSorted2.htmall names used by major sports teams in the USA ever[/url and [url=http://www.cracked.com/article_15646_worlds-most-ridiculous-sports-team-names.htmlsome to avoid...[/url

That would be the RLFC bit at the end of Halifax then.

Gets used in the vernacular about as frequently as 'Leeds Rhinoceroses'.

People think this is some recent, American-imported thing but they forget that suffixes have been in the game for a long time. Look at Bradford - the RL club picked up Northern and the soccer club Park Avenue because they were needed to distinguish the two clubs from each other and Bradford City.

This is the NEW LOGO

Looks like Homer sat in front of the electric heater too long.

Purely as Devil's Advocate here, isn't 'Sox' a winning formula too in America?

If you believe the problem with 'Blue Sox' was that there was nothing to automatically associate with it (i.e. no bull, rhino, hawk, cougar or whatever), how do they manage in Chicago or Boston? Are they not successful marketeers?

This was one of the very reasons THE BOARD at that time VOTED for that name instead of going for the Bombers or Hunters (the other two options on the table IIRC). Many of the game's most respected journalists and commentators at that time applauded the Club for not going for the obvious, including Dave Woods, Martyn Sadler, Bill Arthur and RFL Marketing Director at that time, Mark Newton.

Sponsors liked it - including Burger King, who were sponsors of Halifax Blue Sox before being introduced to yourselves (it was the appeal to children of Billy and Bluey that hooked them), and the kids themselves loved it. They'd no idea it was 'crap' until the grown-ups told them.

The problem with ground breakers and innovators is they are often slated by those who prefer the comfort zone of banality.

A good marketing ploy. Should bring in plenty of DOH!

I'd agree that Blue Sox only became crap after the event. Yeah, we all took the p.ss but 'Bullsh.t' comments have been pretty much ever-present since 1995 and the name was till a success because it was pushed aggressively with no half measures. Northern had served its purpose and was eradicated, much to my chagrin at the time. Now I realise how necessary it was.

I wonder if Fax are gearing up for a 'Black Cats' suffix. Could work. I suspect pretty much anything could if you really go for it.

The logo looks classless and tacky, but I guess that befits the modern game and its current "made for tv" outlook, as we blindly move towards a WWF style "product".

However, some of us used to prefer Rugby League when it was a sport.

Forgive me for not expecting a mass flow of people down to the Shay to watch Fax as a result of this change.

Unlike yours I doubt this post will meet with the approval of this forums self-appointed judge and jury, but what the heck.

That being the case, the level of respect they engender should be forever tarnished. These journalists and others have never had to graft to keep a club afloat, to get punters through the door, get the media and local businesses on-board, so in this instance who gives a stuff what they think? Going for the obvious, the most transparent merchandising and marketing ploy is exactly what Halifax should have done.

The board smugly sitting back and thinking they've been really 'out there' by adopting an unmarketable nickname was a huge diservice to the fans. Judging from the Fax fans posting on here, they seem to recognise this sad fact. I might be a Bulls fan but I think its a shame too.

That's a stupid comment as it's obvious the Board at that time didn't at all consider the name unmarketable, or adopt the name simply to seem 'really out there'.

And, as stated before, neither (presumably) do the people marketing the Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox.

It was you that made reference to any number of apparently sensible people applauding the foolish move of the board to avoid the safe potential names and take a very bad punt at one that...ooh might just work at a pinch.



Lots of things work well in America and singularly fail to transfer into the UK psyche thank god. I can't see the relevence in how popular the 'Sox' monicker is in America. It doesn't translate elsewhere unlike, for example, a Bull which clearly does.

I guess those teams in Chicago and Boston have always been called the Sox, it might be a perfectly good name for a team, but maybe not a team who'd had 100 years of history before. Also, Halifax Blue Sox had a really crap logo as well.

Didn't a Fax fan change his name by deed poll to Mr Halifax Bluesox?

Yup, then Halifax Rugby League, then Harry Gration.

I think he last changed his name to Leeds Rhinos

Come on Asim. It is a way of showing that the club is modernising. Your in no position to start critisising the crowds. Bulls average crowd four years ago was around the 15K mark, I believe, I was at Odsal when you played Leeds in from of 26K (number may be wrong), but what is your likely average crowd figure going to be this year, languishing at the bottom of the league?

Asim isn't a Bulls fan. You'd need to ask him questions about the crowds in Bradford Northern times.

Good hyperbole. Lovely anger. Like it!

Rugby League still is a sport - the central part of all the glitter and marketing remains. Not sure where your'e looking but it's there in the middle in two bursts of 40 minutes and IMO it's a lot better than 20 years ago.

The rest of the show may not be to your taste but then it's probably not meant to be. It's for the people that hadn't been watching before and it has attracted in over the last decade and a half to the clubs that got it right. It's for the people that still haven't made the trip yet. It's a show to focus people's attention on the game in the hope that they may enjoy the sport. It's called marketing.

Again, good luck Fax.

I'm not criticising your crowds, there's probably more RL knowledge in the couple of thousand of regulars at the Shay than there is in the 9k who are, (currently) still turning up at Odsal, and having been to Fax games a couple of times last season it is a much better matchday experience for it.

Indeed, you know what they say about opinions.

Personally the glorified touch and pass affair that "Super" League has morphed into does nothing for me, and as proven by the World Cup debacle, has done nothing for the playing standards of RL in this country.

Most of the NL clubs have to realise they have no chance of ever getting a SL license, so trying to emulate how things are done in SL is not going to work for them.

Has AP stolen your login Asim

Be careful, you're not allowed to mention "him" on here!

Not you mate! I meant Agent Provocateur!