What’s in a name? What Blues re-brand could mean for Welsh game
WITH the re-branding of Cardiff Blues as Cardiff Rugby, where exactly does the regional game lie in Wales?
Is this the beginning of the end of the regional concept? Will we see the “R” word become less prominent and the word “club” used more often?
And might we see any of the other three professional sides in Wales go through a re-brand?
CARDIFF BLUES
At the press conference following the announcement of Cardiff’s rebranding, I asked chief executive Richard Holland how he now saw the Arms Park outfit. Were they a club or a region?
“We are a club with regional responsibilities,” he replied.
It was quite a landmark statement, because for the last 18 years, they have generally referred to themselves as a region, the Capital Region most recently.
Now a clear message has been sent out. The most telling thing about the re-brand for me is the inclusion of the words “Since 1876” on the new logo.
It’s making a statement that rather than shying away from their history, as they have done at times over the past two decades, they are now embracing it.
It’s also a reflection that the current team is very much a continuation of the pre-2003 club side.
In truth, that should always have been the emphasis, given Cardiff paid £1m for standalone status at the time of the re-organisation.
That’s certainly how the Scarlets approached it, having done the same.
But things became more complicated at the Arms Park, with them taking on half the Celtic
Warriors area when that team folded in 2004.
As a result, rightly or wrongly, the Blues often emphasised the regional aspect ahead of the club aspect and the Cardiff history and heritage.
Yet that didn’t result in people from the valleys coming on board to support the team in any great numbers, with the Cardiff name remaining a barrier to many.
The current figures show that just five per cent of the fan-base comes from the north of the region.
In the main (78 per cent), the support comes from the Cardiff & Vale area and when their views have been canvassed, the majority response has been pretty clear.
They wanted a greater emphasis on the Cardiff name and a ditching of the Blues suffix. Sponsors felt the same.
After discussing the situation for the best part of a year, the board has now acted.
There are a couple of things to say on that.
Firstly, they are an independent business and its entirely up to them what they call themselves.
They are also primarily responding to the wishes of their paying customers and their sponsors, which always makes sense in business.
As a sporting organisation, you have to focus your efforts on people who are willing to come and watch you, rather than those who never will.
But, at the same time, they will continue to fulfil their regional obligations in terms of providing a player development pathway within their designated geographic area.
Nothing changes on that front. As for the Blues name, well the truth is it never really added very much.
There are so many of them in sport, it had no real identity or impact.
And I am yet to meet anyone who went to watch games at the Arms Park because the word Blues was in the name of the team.
But what it did do was reduce the prominence of the word Cardiff, particularly when it came to its usage in the media and during match commentary.
Now the B word is on it’s way out and it will be Cardiff Rugby all the way.
DRAGONS
What’s in a name? Well, quite a lot when it comes to life at Rodney Parade.
The professional team that plays out of that ground has gone through a few guises over the years.
It was initially titled Gwent Dragons, following the merger of Newport and Ebbw Vale, back in 2003.
But that had to be changed within a matter of weeks due to virtually non-existent season ticket sales.
So, the team was swiftly re-branded as Newport Gwent Dragons.
It was a real mouthful and it didn’t seem to please anyone in particular.
Newport fans disliked the regional aspect, looking enviously at the standalone status secured by Cardiff and Llanelli, wishing the Black & Ambers had gone down the same route.
Animosity grew as supporters were discouraged by the board from chanting “Newport” at matches.
In turn, fans of clubs like Pontypool, Newbridge and numerous others in the Gwent valleys were put off because the team had Newport in the name and they were playing at Rodney Parade.
So, no-one was happy really. Things rumbled on rather unsatisfactorily for a number of years until the WRU took over ownership of the struggling region in 2017 and changed the name to Dragons.
The idea was that removing Newport from the title would send out a statement about the team truly representing Gwent and that was the message that was hammered home over the next year or so.
But there doesn’t appear to have been any great upsurge in support from the valleys as a result.
So, where does that leave things now? What about the future?
Well, chairman David Buttress, the former chief executive of Just Eat, is very much a businessman.
He is keen to take the Dragons back into private ownership and his priority will be making the operation
successful on and off the pitch.
Part of that is considering any kind of re-branding that might benefit the business and he has often mentioned the importance of Newport as a city really getting behind the team.
So, might we see a return to the old club name?
It’s hard to say for sure, but it was interesting to see how Buttress responded to the news from the Arms Park.
“Welcome back Cardiff RFC, you never really went away,” he tweeted.
“Well done to the off-field leadership for being brave, clear and bold. You are what you feel, not everyone will like it, but I like the honesty.
“I’m pleased for Cardiff, because it’s obviously what they wanted to do years ago.”
When asked whether that was something for him to think about the Dragons, in terms of restoring the Newport name, his response was telling.
“I’ve already said publicly I’ve been looking and thinking about this for some time. It is a matter of being thoughtful, thinking, consulting and listening. We will do what is right for us.
“You have to do your best and make tough decisions with integrity. You can always look yourself in the mirror then.”
Of course, what Cardiff have done is pretty risk-free because so few of their supporters come from the north of the region.
Buttress will have to weigh up how the 15 or so per cent of his supporters who don’t have a Newport post code would react to the restoration of the city name.
Then he would have to balance that against the potential benefits.
He has much to ponder.
OSPREYS
On the same day as Cardiff announced their re-branding, the Ospreys unveiled former Manchester City executive Nick Garcia as their new chief executive.
An interesting appointment in itself and a bold statement of intent.
But what also caught my eye was how they termed themselves in the press release.
The wording was very precise – a “regional rugby franchise”.
I don’t recall the use of the word franchise in Welsh rugby for quite a while. It harks back to the kind of language used around about 2003.
It was intriguing to see it employed on the very day Cardiff were announcing themselves as a club.
But, of course, the same rule of thumb applies.
Like Cardiff, the Ospreys are an independent business and can characterise themselves as they see fit. It’s entirely their call.
There was a time when they heralded themselves as “the one true region” of course.
Those days have gone, but the regional concept remains very much part of their DNA.
And there’s certainly no indication whatsoever of them looking to
change the name.
In some ways, it appeared the least likely region to prosper back in 2003, as it meant a coming together of sworn enemies Neath and Swansea.
But it worked. They ditched the club names, built the Ospreys brand and have been the most successful team of the regional era in terms of silverware.
They have their own distinct marketing model and it responds to their market.
After a testing couple of years, they are looking in a good place on and off the field and that is great to see.
SCARLETS
When chairman Simon Muderack was talking about Scarlets recently, he referred to them as “a club that proudly represents a region”.
Now to a large extent, that’s what they have always been, before and after 2003.
That’s certainly how I saw it growing up in Carmarthen and going to watch them at Stradey Park every other week.
They felt like a side representing west Wales.
The other memory that stands out from those days on the Tanner Bank in the 1980s is how people used to chant “Scarlets” back then.
So, while they removed Llanelli from their title in 2008 – five years into the regional era – they still retained a traditional name.
They also retained their history and embraced it.
From the outset in 2003, they made it clear that the regional team was a continuation of the existing Llanelli club side, the same team that had beaten the All Blacks in 1972.
And that’s how they have progressed, with little baggage and proud of their heritage.
They are comfortable in their own skin and they won’t be shedding it.
CONCLUSION
Well, the first thing to say is that in one sense all four teams are the same and fulfil the same function.
They are all professional rugby teams and they all run player development programmes in a geographic area.
In that respect, they are just the same as the Gallagher Premiership clubs. The difference, of course, is that those English clubs have never been shackled with the regions tag.
In terms of their regional responsibilities, all four Welsh sides fulfil them in just the same way. They provide a route to professional rugby via their development pathways.
What is different is how they name and characterise themselves.
But then that’s been the case from day one in 2003.
You had two standalone sides, one (Llanelli Scarlets) who took on pathway responsibilities for north Wales for a period and another (Cardiff Blues) who inherited the valleys area within a year.
You then had three mergers. One (Neath and Swansea) blossomed into the Ospreys, a brand that remains strong today.
The other (Newport and Ebbw Vale) saw the Steelmen bow out of the picture within a matter of weeks, with the WRU taking on first 50 per cent and then eventually 100 per cent ownership.
To this day, the Dragons is a brand under review.
The third merger (Bridgend and Pontypridd) produced a fantastic rugby team in the Celtic Warriors, but it collapsed within a year for financial reasons. So, the regional revolution was never really that. It wasn’t one thing or another.
It wasn’t super clubs and it wasn’t “true regions”, with club identities removed.
It was a hybrid mish-mash, a right old mess, a legacy of the loyalty agreements the clubs had with the WRU and their inability to agree on which five of them should form the new elite.
Hence, the highly unsatisfactory compromise, one we have had to live with to this day, with the R word having become truly toxic.
And to this day we have something of a mixed bag, yet all four fulfilling the same purpose.
As one leading official said to me this week: “We all operate identically, just with different labels on the tin.”
It was ever thus.