the Chiefs

Marc Wakeham


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It developed from the position of the Additions to the name need to:

1: be relevant.
2: Not be disrespectful / offensive to others.
3: make some sense.
 

TigerCraig


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My point was those names I gave were never nicknames . They are the official, historic names of the clubs.
It has always been common in England to have clubs that are not geographic. other examples are work based (civil service, police, law society etc) , old boys clubs, and some ethnic clubs
London Welsh, Irish, scottics etc etc

Again, I know. When I say informal nicknames I meant things outside the club name.

Although, I have heard sports reporters here say "London Saracens" and "London Harlequins" in reports, even though its obviously wrong. Similarly even the ABC will say "Waikato Chiefs", "Wellington Hurricanes" etc
 
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crossref


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Harlequins briefly changed their name to NEC Harlequins .
Wasps became London Wasps

Did Quins add a London for a while? Wasn't that the rugby league side ?
 

OB..


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Although, I have heard sports reporters here say "London Saracens" and "London Harlequins" in reports, even though its obviously wrong.
Locally we have Bristol Saracens, Bath Saracens, Cardiff Saracens, and Cheltenham Saracens, not to mention Tamar Saracens, Newport Saracens, Exeter Saracens, Coventry Saracens. There is not usually any confusion because they play at very different levels, but ...

(There is even a Toronto Saracens in Canada.)
 

OB..


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I have just looked up the teams in the old Sunday Telegraph Merit Leagues which immediately preceded the National Leagues. Here is a list, with the London teams preceded by an asterisk.

*Blackheath
*Harlequins
*London Irish
*London Scottish
*London Welsh
*Metropolitan Police
*Richmond
*Rosslyn Park
*Saracens
*Wasps
Bath
Bedford
Birmingham
Bristol
Coventry
Exeter
Fylde
Gloucester
Gosforth
Headingley
Leicester
Liverpool
Morley
Moseley
Northampton
Nottingham
Nuneaton
Orrell
Plymouth
Roundhay
Sale
Sheffield
Vale of Lune
Wakefield
Waterloo
West Hartlepool

By and large, London teams have nicknames because there are so many of them, whereas other teams have town names.

The main misfit is Richmond (they played in Richmond Park, London) which is also the name of a town in Yorkshire. The Yorkshire team calls itself Richmondshire.
 

Lee Lifeson-Peart


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I have just looked up the teams in the old Sunday Telegraph Merit Leagues which immediately preceded the National Leagues. Here is a list, with the London teams preceded by an asterisk.

*Blackheath
*Harlequins
*London Irish
*London Scottish
*London Welsh
*Metropolitan Police
*Richmond
*Rosslyn Park
*Saracens
*Wasps
Bath
Bedford
Birmingham
Bristol
Coventry
Exeter
Fylde
Gloucester
Gosforth
Headingley
Leicester
Liverpool
Morley
Moseley
Northampton
Nottingham
Nuneaton
Orrell
Plymouth
Roundhay
Sale
Sheffield
Vale of Lune
Wakefield
Waterloo
West Hartlepool

By and large, London teams have nicknames because there are so many of them, whereas other teams have town names.

The main misfit is Richmond (they played in Richmond Park, London) which is also the name of a town in Yorkshire. The Yorkshire team calls itself Richmondshire.

Lots of the above towns are vague indistinct areas or suburbs in and around towns and cities - they may have been distinct towns in their own right once upon a time but now lots have been subsumed by their expanding neighbours.

Fylde - a sort of peninsular round Blackpool
Gosforth - Newcastle
Headingley - North Leeds*
Morley - South Leeds
Moseley- Birmingham
Orrell - a suburb of Wigan
Roundhay - North Leeds*
Sale - a town but really just part of Manchester.
Vale of Lune - not a place, somewhere between Narnia and Lancaster.
Waterloo - part of Sefton (Liverpool) on the beach near Crosby.

* Merged to form Leeds/Yorkshire/Tykes/Carnegie - look what a roaring success that's been! :biggrin:

Anyway I don't know what that proves other than I am a dab hand at geography!:)
 
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OB..


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Lots of the above towns are vague indistinct areas or suburbs in and around towns and cities - they may have been distinct towns in their own right once upon a time but now lots have been subsumed by their expanding neighbours.

Fylde - a sort of peninsular round Blackpool
Gosforth - Newcastle
Headingley - North Leeds*
Morley - South Leeds
Moseley- Birmingham
Orrell - a suburb of Wigan
Roundhay - North Leeds*
Sale - a town but really just part of Manchester.
Vale of Lune - not a place, somewhere between Narnia and Lancaster.
Waterloo - part of Sefton (Liverpool) on the beach near Crosby.

* Merged to form Leeds/Yorkshire/Tykes/Carnegie - look what a roaring success that's been! :biggrin:

Anyway I don't know what that proves other than I am a dab hand at geography!:)
My point was simply that outside London, the major clubs usually just had the name of their town, however you try to finesse it. Nicknames are a recent phenomenon.
 

L'irlandais

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It’s difficult for a club like Exeter to change their name again. Their brand will suffer from it. Professional Rugby franchises are businesses. And the hard reality is that professional rugby is a business with pretty small margins. The difference between breaking even and a making a loss comes down to those fine margins on the field of play. The difference between success and failure of the season can come down to getting a home quarter-final or not. Gate money, how far away from Pro soccer we are, in terms of that commodity.

The suggestion to remain the Chiefs and rebrand the logo and mascot as some sort of Celtic chieftain seems a reasonable one. (See #35)
What does a Dumnonii chief look like?
207FD8A3-9C3D-4EB5-BE9E-85C0B4B7FF05.jpeg
Little evidence of war chariots or horses ever found by archaeologists in Devon or Exeter, except, perhaps, a tiny fragment called a linch-pin that was found very recently at Loddiswell. But a little imagination could concocte one for the prematch arrival of the aforementioned chieftain. Surely that would move the club from cultural appropriation back to the realms of cultural appreciation.
 
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chbg


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The main misfit is Richmond (they played in Richmond Park, London) which is also the name of a town in Yorkshire. The Yorkshire team calls itself Richmondshire.

The latter formed over 120 years (1984) after the former (1861), so needed to play second fiddle. In Catterick (3 miles from Richmond) in 1984 I played with Mowden Park, at that time the lesser (and more friendly) of the two Darlington (13 miles away) clubs, as (without the internet) I knew of no clubs closer.
 

crossref


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It’s difficult for a club like Exeter to change their name again. Their brand will suffer from it. Professional Rugby franchises are businesses. And the hard reality is that professional rugby is a business with pretty small margins. The difference between breaking even and a making a loss comes down to those fine margins on the field of play. The difference between success and failure of the season can come down to getting a home quarter-final or not. Gate money, how far away from Pro soccer we are, in terms of that commodity.

The suggestion to remain the Chiefs and rebrand the logo and mascot as some sort of Celtic chieftain seems a reasonable one. (See #35)
What does a Dumnonii chief look like?
View attachment 4030
Little evidence of war chariots or horses ever found by archaeologists in Devon or Exeter, except, perhaps, a tiny fragment called a linch-pin that was found very recently at Loddiswell. But a little imagination could concocte one for the prematch arrival of the aforementioned chieftain. Surely that would move the club from cultural appropriation back to the realms of cultural appreciation.

Or just go for an animal .. like every other 21st century branding
Eagles ?
 

SimonSmith


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It’s difficult for a club like Exeter to change their name again. Their brand will suffer from it. Professional Rugby franchises are businesses. And the hard reality is that professional rugby is a business with pretty small margins. The difference between breaking even and a making a loss comes down to those fine margins on the field of play. The difference between success and failure of the season can come down to getting a home quarter-final or not. Gate money, how far away from Pro soccer we are, in terms of that commodity.

The idea that gate money is essential to the financial well being of the top tier of soccer is simply laughable.
It's all about TV rights.
 

didds

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ive always found the "recent" animals additions somewhat pathetic. its always perceived agressive animals etc.

Its never the wotsit butterflies, or the whojits slowworms, or the wibbleton sloths.

childishly peurile.
 

TigerCraig


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ive always found the "recent" animals additions somewhat pathetic. its always perceived agressive animals etc.

Its never the wotsit butterflies, or the whojits slowworms, or the wibbleton sloths.

childishly peurile.

The older ones are the best - in the AFL the Sydney Swans were previously the South Melbourne Swans - because they were based next to Albert Park Lake

My favourite collection are in the Newcastle Rugby League - you have the Maitland Pumpkinpickers, Cessnock Goannas, Western Suburbs Rosellas (a native parrot) and Central Charlestown Butcherboys (because of their blue & white striped jerseys)

My vote for the cleverest is the rugby team from the NSW country town of Vincentia - the Vincentia Van Goghs
 

L'irlandais

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Well no, gate money is also very significant, even in football ..

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...guide-2017-18-accounts-manchester-united-city
Ignore him. I never suggested Gate income was essential to Football, my point was Elite Rugby clubs are struggling and loss of gate income isn’t helping. Interesting to see a club like Crystal Palace takes £11million in Gate receipts & Everton £16 million. Certainly not insignificant. Club like Man Utd are the exception not the rule anyway. For comparison with those Football figures:

Munster are now a €16.9m annual revenue business. With debts of €6.9m, due to construction of stadium in Limerick.

Back in 2009 Munster had an average of 25,384*spectators for the 10 matches at Thomond Park. Meaning all 10 games sold out.
The season ending 2019, saw averages of 16,891.
Only around 30 percent of tickets are ever Limerick-bought. Add to that season ticket holders only attend few of the games they have paid for. Gate income is down by over €2.7m. Which doesn’t help with clearing the debt.
Source: Rugby pass

And lots of other clubs would be delighted to have 16 thousand plus fans at their home games.
Exeter Chiefs CEO said gate receipts were vital to their club.

2017/18 said:
In the Premiership, the average home match-day crowd was that of 11,780 compared to 11,483 the previous year, while the average home crowd for all fixtures rose to 11,383 from that of 10,421 in 2016/17.
 
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crossref


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i can remember going to very interesting evening with Mark Evans, back when he was CEO of quins. He always brings a lot of clarity to Sports administration.

He observed that the biggest clubs in football and rugby always their own stadium, from which they make substantial matchday income (tickets & spend), and cannot break into the top tier without that.

The other pillar be mentioned is a very strong academy structure to develop your own playing talent
 

Rich_NL

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Or just go for an animal .. like every other 21st century branding
Eagles ?

They have plenty of local wildlife in the region... Exeter Otters? Exmouth Ammonites? Dartmoor Ponies?

Google says the Exeter Otters is already taken by a wheelchair basketball club, alas.
 
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