The new owners have stated they want to enhance the fan experience also that theres a large slice of the Asian market to be explored... Given our links to China historically and following on from the stated much scope both at the club and town to expand speach when they took over Would the new owners get grief if they set about rebranding the club by getting rid of toby and replacing him with a red dragon, a red dragon which is considered very lucky in china along with the colour red its self would you as a fan see it as the new owners disregarding our history and a sign of disrespect or would you see it as making commercial sense and a way to sell more merchandise and appeal to a wider audience Therefore i would be interested to know what would your thoughts be on the subject if the new owners did indeed retire Toby and brought in new branding and therefore changed our nickname and mascot,. would you have any objection or would you welcome the idea to be known to one and all as the red dragons and the mascot its self was indeed a red dragon debate at will
Personally, my own lines in the sand would be messing about with the colour red, and adding a pathetic suffix to the end of the club's name. If they want to move to a new stadium, change the mascot, sign a squad full of French players, and stick a dragon on the badge, so be it. As soon as we become the Barnsley Blue Bulldogs, though, my season-ticket money is staying in my pocket.
I see it as childish b*****ks...the same crap the RL went down changing clubs traditional names to Rhino's, Blue Sox, Bulls etc ( that went well for Bradford Northern..not )...the same puerile crap that Cardiff City went down with the red shirts etc, these are clubs with a century and a half of tradition of Community that needs to be looked after, not dispensed with to attract a non existent new generation of fans. Tradition is forever...gimmicks are just that....gimmicks.
If they want us to stay longer offer fold up seating in the east stand and big screens showing results from sky lower below seating sell advance ticket after game for drink alcolic or hot drink \soft drink and a pie for £6-00 if bought in advance. If its cold not expecting anyone staying too long patio heaters could be the answer . Or open redferns for after match '- problem is redferns numbers severely restricted due to size
East stand concourse should all be done out like Redfearn's - make it a nice place to come for a few drinks and a pie rather than a freezing cold grey dungeon where if you fancy a pint your choice is freezing cold Worthingtons or ******* Darling or paying nearly 5 quid for a 330ml can of Punk IPA.
Absolutely spot on, I've been harping on about this for years. Clubs made a right balls up with it, adding little bits, signs etc instead of just getting it done. Get the back of the concourse bricked up and enclosed because it's fecking freezing, paint the concourse and build two indoor bars at either end. A change of ownership and we might finally get some improvements.
Guys thanks for taking your time in replying and posting your thoughts on what the new owners ought to do and i agree but the subject matter and question i asked related to toby and our nickname extended thanks to them that have
BFC is already a brand. I agree the existing brand needs new ideas and some investment BUT it does NOT need a full overhaul. Toby Tyke is already a member of the BFC branding and already brings in young support although you don't see many young kids having there photos with Toby nowadays, which is tragic. I for one would be for introducing new ideas and embrace them but I think we need to keep our existing culture and history and add to it with new initiative ideas. At the end of the day the new owners have to consider our existing supporters as well as attracting new ones. If the new owners are smart enough they will think of new ideas to run along side our current fan base
We could bring in a dragon mascot to appease the Asian market whilst keeping Toby as the default mascot for the club I’m sure. As for renaming stadium or changing kit colour,style etc I think if the new owners wanted to do that they’d try to just move eg MK Dons style with fierce opposition from fans but a whimper from FA . That would leave us with AFC Barnsley and BMBC Oakwell
Dogs are lucky in Chinese culture so there would be little value in getting rid - the fact we are already red and have a dog as a symbol works well for marketing in China. No need to change. I suspect the Toby Tyke badge may be used more, perhaps even on the shirts instead of the council logo one.
I’d be disappointed if they ditched Toby but it’s not the sort of thing that would make me stop supporting. They can change the nickname we,d just ignore it. I can’t see us moving to a new stadium or changing the kit from red. I would be very unhappy if they tried to change the clubs name.
This is not likely. These are serious business people backed by serious investors, they are not interested in vain symbols.
Your joking right!!? if it was half that price you'd be lucky to get folk to stop... I'm sure the mentality of sports fans in the USA and the South of France is totally different from the people of South Yorkshire.. And things that "enhance the fan experience" over there will not work here... am sure the new owners will be banging there heads against a wall before too long with this.. If they want to do more for Barnsley folk/fans.. reduce the price and no silly little ineffectual gimmicks like the "meal deal" under the previous owners .. just put out a decent first 11 that can not only compete but excel at this level ..
I'd just like to see them get the simple things right. I couldn't choose seats for the Christmas Cracker ticket and was given a restricted view. They reckoned it wasn't possible to change the seats as they were part of a package, when I finally got to speak to someone 15 minutes before the Reading kick off. It was suggested that I just find empty seats elsewhere once I was in the ground.
