I would suggest the success of Leeds and Bradford has had far more effect of growing the club and reaching out to people than an animal name.

Had they both always been xxxx no amount of Rhinos or Bulls paraphernalia would've made a blind bit of difference, equally so, they would still be big clubs now (relatively) if they still went by their original names and had the recent success they have had.

Although I'm not a huge fan of the Wolves moniker I'll always be a Wire I can see why the club continues with it appealing to a younger audience, the mascot, the merchandise and in our case we have rolled Wolves out to a club affiliated Volleyball Team covering all ages and genders so it's not something that I can be offended by and in our case we don't really use it on the terraces other than asking said mascot to reveal a message on his underpants.

Each to their own and I believe Salford were Red Devils before United

Jeeeeez how can someone write so much e and still sidestep what I asked... I never said Leeds didn’t have pride or heritage so you might want to read that back and maybe edit your response?

I’ll ask again word for word:

What thought has gone into the naming of Leeds Rhinos?
How do they market the brand/team any different to any other club?

Just providing another side to the debate. Been plenty of criticism and mocking of Leeds and Bradford etc. so why can’t we have a closer look at the others and question them and their suitably? Your right I did say Trinity is marketable now, but nothing wrong with questioning why? In case it appeals to the older generation, why is that any better than appealing to the younger generation?

I can reply to you because you can have a proper debate, Vastman no point, he has clearly snapped at the first questioning of his club whilst hypocritically forgetting how many times he and a few others have ridiculed and mocked Rhinos, Bulls, Wolves and Co. during this thread. I’ve not written anything worst than they have about other clubs.

TBF you could say the same about the recent Trinity rebrand with your jump up the table in recent seasons. Would it have gone as well if you were still near the bottom?

headingley!! you can see the exhibits most days running free on the grasslands

More on the western terrace, I'd have said

I understand.
I have beef with Rhinos (apart from the rugby). They picked a nickname that I don't think was used in major sport anywhere else and made it work.
Peter Deakin at Bulls learned his trade in America and visited Chicago Bulls. He took the idea and sprinted with it. Both went for a new audience and got them.

Wakefield with less money to market and less success to bond to did a half decent job with Wildcats. I saw plenty of kids go wild for the mascot before they even noticed the game.
It was pushed out mainly because the brand was associated with the financial mismanagement and the Trinity name still retained a lot of integrity in the city.
I prefer wearing a leasure shirt with the Trinity logo than the Wildcat one and I bwonder if we sell less kids ones now. But more adults......that's more money so not a bad thing. .

I think we'd still have sold more gear because Wildcats was such a lame moniker. Had it been Wakefield Rhinos instead, a rebrand to Trinity would still have been just as popular too. As others have said, if it works for the club then that's what's right for the club.

I think it was a case of “speculate to accumulate “ the rebrand undoubtedly created more funds to build a better quality playing squad.

Are you being serious and suggesting we decided it would be a good idea to "borrow" United's nickname ????

You really should have some idea what you are talking about before putting it to print, if you said United decided to use our nickname which proved to be very successful for them you would have been correct.



[iSalford were the first club to be invited to tour France who saw them as the premier side in the game. Their trip in October and November 1934 was to promote rugby league in the country. They won all six matches in spectacular fashion and were given their unofficial nickname; Les Diables Rouges (The Red Devils) by French journalists. The opening game was in Paris on Sunday 21 October, following an overnight ferry journey, having beaten Wigan 21–12 in the Lancashire Cup final the previous afternoon.[/i

[iSir Matt Busby,legendary united manager, adopted this nickname for his team which he was rebuilding after the Munich air disaster of 1958.He no longer wanted to continue with the nickname "The Busby Babes" and hence took the nickname of the aforementioned rugby team which was performing very well at the time.[/i

What sort of gats did Salford get in the early days if you were so good do you know

That's interesting. I didn't know that.
Lot of potential in Salford if it can be harnessed.

Gates?

I’m not sure of their crowds when they played in Manchester when they were first formed (they started out in Hulme and then Moss Side) but when they moved to the Willows they used to get 15-20000 and then 20000+ at times in the 1930s. Just after the French press gave them their nickname of “les diables rouge” they got a crowd of 26470 against Wire.

Even a Salford schools’ final in 1932 got a crowd of 10000.

Salford were always the red devils as far as I can remember.
I thought they cut "devils" during that period of sooper dooper nfl/baseball/basketball re-branding, I dunno.

Not everything transposed from those sports looks as crass, the marketing of the event, corporate and event entertainment and the general hyperbole introduce was a decent refresh of an old format.
But once you start messing with a hundred years of club identity, it riles people up, not surprising really.
It was when it was introduced, and its now.
Not picking on Leeds particularly but I guess there'll be paying fans now that have never known them as anything other than the Rhinos, which I think is a shame, and I kinda wonder how they'd feel about dropping it after 20 years.
If not dropping it then at least putting something on there that ties them to 130 years of history playing Rugby in Leeds.
Leeds Rhinos sounds like they were formed yesterday and that it could be something else tomorrow, it gives no hint of their stature or level of participation in creating our sport over the years.

See your PM Rollin

The Leeds Rhinos Rugby league football club, ties in with history fine thanks, and being a supporter since the early 80’s i have lived with the Rhinos badge and without it, and I prefer the Rhinos brand, i have friends all over the country who do not know too much anout our game, but know the Leeds Rhinos are a Rugby league side.

We have got something on their that ties with 130 years of playing rugby in Leeds.....it’s the “Leeds” part of Leeds Rhinos.

If we reverted back to Leeds RL it would be a step back imo. Adding something to it would just be akin to the Wakefield scenario where they had both Trinity and Wildcats in their name and it didn’t work.

As much as people saying these names are poop and don’t work, where is the evidence that Rhinos HASN’T worked?

Again Leeds were in a much different position to other rugby clubs around the start of SL in that we had a football team in the city who were one of the top 4/5 names in the country at that time and playing in and reaching the SF’s of European competitions, even now with all the troubles they’ve had they’re probably still around the top 10/12 names in the country. When it comes to sport and you say Leeds, people think of the football team first. Others like Wakefield, Saints and Warrington don’t have the football club problem and even the SL clubs that do have football clubs in their cities like Hull, Wigan, Huddersfield....those football teams were languishing in the lower leagues back in 1996 (Hull and Wigan were in the 4th tier) and even now that each have had spells in the Premiership aren’t as big and recognised names as Leeds United.

If the Wakefield city had historically one of the top teams in football called Wakefield Trinity FC, do you think just being Wakefield Trinity RL would be the best for them?

Just because a club changes its name it doesn’t mean it erases or ignores it’s history. After all Leeds first name was Leeds St Johns and virtually clubs changed their names when the Northern League was founded to include RLFC.

As for Salford, I understand entirely why existing fans would be against it but I still think they need to change their name to Manchester to prosper.

I couldn't disagree more about there being any benefit to Salford changing their name to Manchester they are two completely different cities all be it they are neighbours. Salford need to find a way of interesting the people of Salford first and foremost and that's not an easy task given the the demographic that makes the city difficult to deal with including it's proximity to Manchester and its football culture

What Pm, I see you have removed my post, why, there was nothing wrong with it?

snipped, not to discount your posts, I'm just saving ink in saying I don't agree with any points in either of them, but crack on all the same.

To be fair to Warrington, the grey wolf of Cheshire has long been associated with the crest of the club and the town... even if the animal moniker hadn’t been adopted you’d still see plenty of wolf-related stuff and almost certainly a Wolfie mascot...

So my post was not offensive, it did not break any rules, you just removed it because you do not agree with it. So vastman starts a post with the sole intension of having a did at Leeds rhinos because lets face it thats what it is. But my response questioning the redressive attitude is the one that’s removed, i repeat this post is a pointless pathetic post started by bitter jealous Wakefield fans serving no purpose. If you do not agree then come back eith some valid arguments against rather than just deleting my post.

I cut IT and PRINTERS post (as I was quoting both at the same time) to save space, it CLEARLY say's that at the beginning of my post, not because either of them are offensive, they aren't.
It also clearly states I'm not interested in arguing any points they make because I just don't agree with them.
You've said your bit, I've said mine, there is no point in taking it any further.
I don't think the thread is about Leeds, as 5h1t as Rhinos is, its hardly forging a lone expedition in to juvenile RL club monikers.

now just go back to arguing with yourself in an empty room, in fact take Printer with you, he's an expert a manufacturing a position from which he can have a good argument about FA.