Centenary celebrations.

Discussion of all things related to the club and first team
Shepperton Supporter
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I am sure the club have several ideas as to how we will celebrate this landmark. Covid restrictions will have an effect on these decisions, but let’s hope we can give this milestone due prominence and success.
One thought for supporters at this current time, is to put forward our team of each decade, starting from the 60s .
Lord Elpus
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Good point Shep. I'd love to see the club take the opportunity to change the name back to the plain old Hampton FC. Never liked the clumsy "and Richmond Borough" suffix. It would bring us back to our roots and disassociate us from the much more toff/rugby element.
As for teams from each decade...that's much too difficult to do off the top of my head. Will have a think.
Shepperton Supporter
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:o [quote="Lord Elpus" post_id=84 time=1611588964 user_id=55
As for teams from each decade...that's much too difficult to do off the top of my head. Will have a think.
[/quote]
Take your time Lord E no rush! Hopefully we will get a variety of views as well as different decades. Tony’s book might help refresh the memory.
RogerB
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Shepperton Supporter wrote: Mon Jan 25, 2021 2:21 pm One thought for supporters at this current time, is to put forward our team of each decade, starting from the 60s .
Great idea, Shep, but why stop at the 60s. You and I (and Shirley, of course) could probably come up with one from the 50s.
RogerB
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Lord Elpus wrote: Mon Jan 25, 2021 3:36 pm I'd love to see the club take the opportunity to change the name back to the plain old Hampton FC. Never liked the clumsy "and Richmond Borough" suffix.
Personally, I think it would be a retrograde step to revert back to Hampton FC. Apart from some Spartan League wins in the 60s, nearly all of our successes have come under our present name. The very length of the name means there is more public awareness of our club up here in Yorkshire than for most National South clubs and I would hate for us to slip back into anonymity.
Lord Elpus
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RogerB wrote: Mon Jan 25, 2021 8:10 pm
Lord Elpus wrote: Mon Jan 25, 2021 3:36 pm I'd love to see the club take the opportunity to change the name back to the plain old Hampton FC. Never liked the clumsy "and Richmond Borough" suffix.
Personally, I think it would be a retrograde step to revert back to Hampton FC. Apart from some Spartan League wins in the 60s, nearly all of our successes have come under our present name. The very length of the name means there is more public awareness of our club up here in Yorkshire than for most National South clubs and I would hate for us to slip back into anonymity.
I do take that point Roger but to me the name is just so clumsy and ill thought out. Hampton is IN Richmond Borough, not alongside it, for example! Ah well, I doubt it'll happen anyway...
Shepperton Supporter
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RogerB wrote: Mon Jan 25, 2021 7:44 pm
Shepperton Supporter wrote: Mon Jan 25, 2021 2:21 pm One thought for supporters at this current time, is to put forward our team of each decade, starting from the 60s .
Great idea, Shep, but why stop at the 60s. You and I (and Shirley, of course) could probably come up with one from the 50s.
I took it from the 60s as that is from where we left junior football. Personally I can remember some of the players from the 50s, Shirley would be better placed than me. By all means submit your thoughts.
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TW2-Beaver
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Apologies in advance to Shepperton Supporter for turning his thread into a debate on the club name, but its a subject I'm passionate about and feel deserves a discussion in this our centenary year.

I'm with Lord Elpus on this one. The name is an absolute disaster. Even the club itself often (embarrassingly) get it wrong after 20 years (think hamptonfc.net / "and" instead of "&"). In my view the main arguments for changing it back are:

1) It failed to do what was intended
Crowds did not increase. Money from borough-wide businesses was not forthcoming.

2) It makes no sense
As the Lord pointed out, Hampton is within Richmond Borough, not external to it, so the name makes no sense at all (the reason for this bizarre name is that it was a compromise after the initial bonkers proposal of "Richmond Borough FC" was rightly rejected. The entire idea should have been dropped though... not a bodge job where the bad idea gets merged with the existing name).

3) External factors could make the name redundant
Imagine if the club had been called "Hampton & Twickenham Borough" before 1965. Well, when the powers that be redrew the boundaries, we would have been left with the name of a borough that no longer existed. The same could well happen to Richmond Borough in future. Boundary review well overdue...

4) Lack of historical links
We are a Middlesex club, affiliated to our county FA. We even have the Middlesex seaxes in our club crest. We participate in the Middlesex Senior Cup. Richmond is in Surrey. You could make an argument that Richmond is the London Borough with the least links between east and west (ever tried taking public transport from Richmond to Hampton?!), logically if any borough is for the chop in the future, it may well be Richmond.

5) Brand awareness
Having a ridiculously long name makes it difficult to establish brand awareness. I have been asked before what the "HRBFC" on my shirt stands for... they have lost interest by the second word. As mentioned above, even official club channels can't get it right. Hampton is far easier to brand. Anyway, we play in Hampton. That is what people need to know about our club! We are Hampton. We are still the borough's senior club and we absolutely should promote that fact. This isn't about being insular or going backwards. Brentford have plenty of supporters in their wider borough (and ours!) but their marketing team know they don't need to call themselves "Brentford & Hounslow Borough" to achieve that. Its not how it works.

6) The name works against our best selling point
With people becoming increasingly disillusioned with the Premier League/EFL due to the crazy money, dodgy business deals and multi-millionaire prima donnas... surely our best selling point is that we are a small village club, made up of real people, who are punching above our weight and that is why you should come and support us... but having a name which tries to imply we are a large borough wide outfit (presumably with a posh riverside headquarters in Richmond-upon-Thames?!) actually works against our best selling point. The name should compliment, not contradict, the selling point.

7) Anecdote
Just an anecdote to finish. I remember the day that I wore my HRBFC scarf into school for the first time, around 2001. One of my classmates read the club name, scoffed and muttered to himself "BOROUGH football club" (emphasis on the word borough, as though a "borough" football club isn't a proper club). That was a young person's first impression and his negative reaction to the club I supported obviously stuck with me as I remember it very clearly (my classmate, Ross Montague, become a Brentford fan and funnily enough later played for the Bees, including at Beveree)

--

All I have really heard from those who want to retain the current name is that it would be difficult to change or it would be a step backwards (without much explanation) but I am yet to hear any truly convincing arguments in defence of the name.
TW3 Beaver
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Did I read somewhere that Tony is hoping to do an update to the History of Hampton Football Club book?
Tony
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Les and I are updating the book or should I say writing volume 2 from where I finished in 2001. It has been interesting re-reading some of the old forum comments as part of my research. It’s probably a good thing that the old forum is being closed own to spare some of our regular posters embarrassment given some of the very misplaced predictions made at the time. Hindsight is of course a wonderful thing. One of the best comments was that Charlie Moone wasn’t a striker just before he went on to score over a hundred goals for Hampton.

As for the name change, I am in the Hampton FC camp. The Richmond Borough suffix was a marketing ploy pure and simple and didn’t work. Success on the pitch is 90% of what drives attendances and in the modern world of social media the ability to market the club is quite a different thing to what tools were available back in the 1990s.
Jamie
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This is a really difficult one. I was in the u18s team or going into it when the name was changed. It seemed really stupid at the time, and the name really doesn't work for the reasons Chris goes through.
I remember one centre half we had in the 18's who would constantly bark encouragement "come on Borough", and me and others who had grown up watching the first team had to keep asking him not to.

The name itself is poor. It's too long, and always gets abbreviated by third parties incorrectly, "Hampton & Richmond" and "Hampton & R" the use of "and" even more bizarre. It must be confusing the the outsiders, as when new people come into the club and do the media bits, they often get it wrong, but then do the club even have a brand guidelines or such like information for staff and volunteers to work to? The new stadium sponsor winner doesn't even have the name used on the clubs Twitter bio.

The branding needs to be consistent, however my worry is, that after so much time removing the "& Richmond Borough" could cause issues. The name should be used to attract wider sponsorship, however that's down to whoever is doing commercial. I did it many years ago, and went door to door around Twickenham, Teddington, and Richmond. The problem is you have to keep interacting. Not just do it once and leave for a few years. There doesn't seem any effort or work done to appeal to the wider Borough.

The issue really is, what is the clubs plans? short term, mid term, long term.
If the club is really attempting to get promoted, to play at step 1, and stay there, or even progress further? In that case, Beveree just simply won't be big enough to develop. So what do the club do? Land is a premium, and I can't see any viable places in Hampton - is Oldfield Road Hampton Rangers ground big enough?
So then, the club needs to move, or even ground share, probably moving across the borough, and then the name becomes important again to get locals on board as fans, or to appeal to others.

The thing is, if the name is to go back, it can't be done on a whim, at the last minute because it's the clubs 100th year. It needs to really be planned, even studies done and questionnaires or focus groups to asses the impact.

The club does need to interact better. Look at other clubs going public with how they voted out of the three options of the recent decision to pause the season - I haven't seen "HRBFC" do that, and why not?
Jamie
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Regarding Centenary celebrations, I would think the club will have making making plans behind the scenes for at least 6 months. You can't just leave things until weeks, or even a couple of months before.

Things I have previously suggested, and would be willing to help organise, if only from a far would be the following;

* Full Club Presentation Day / and Centenary Celebrations
Large Marquee on the pitch, bar and pop up bars open, food stalls, stands of local organisations.
HRBFC Youth having their age group awards through the day, leading on to Academy, Ladies, 1st team awards at different times.
NOT at a third party venue at Lensbury with limited guests and all bar revenue going somewhere else, the junior section must have 400 kids, plus parents, then the senior teams plus fans. Could easily have well over 700-900 if not more attending through the day all spending money on food and drink. Massive opportunity to have massive income to the club, and make it feel like "one club" again and kids teams seeing what they can aspire too (even ones who have never been to a game then nagging parents to take them back)

* Legends game
Ex HRBFC players Vs a select team...... what about "rivals allstars" get a well known manager to run that team, see old foes against Hampton. Delroy Preddie and the likes, I'm sure they would be up for a laugh.
This was done by Dev v a West Ham team a few years ago. Another great event. More income to the club.

* Music event.
A club I've watched in the Midlands the last few years have a one day music event "Suited & Booted" - music and people on the pitch, bars and food. They make £30-£40k for a one day event!


things like these would be brilliant and offer massive revenue for the club.
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