Quote: ThePrinter "Look at you just trolling having at go at other clubs that aren’t yours....who are you to tell Gary Hetherington how to run his club etc etc etc.
In seriousness there’s a big difference between Leeds and Wakefield when it comes to marketing itself. Wakefield doesn’t have another big sports team under that name like Leeds do with Leeds United in football.
In a city where if you call yourself a Leeds fan people automatically assume you mean football, then the Rhinos name does help differentiate us and give us our own identity, Wakefield or St Helens not having a football team don’t have that problem.
When it comes to these names though why don’t people ever criticise NRL clubs for having them? Or NFL clubs, with worldwide name like Dallas COWBOYS, New York GIANTS and Miami DOLPHINS, these more successful leagues and sports do just fine with them yet apparently they’re a problem for the stuttering SL.'"
I actually agree with much of what you say and how I’m trolling I don’t know. It does excuse Leeds a bit but I don’t reckon it’s needed now. Leeds RL does the job and many people in Leeds automatically refer to United as United whilst calling the RL team Leeds. I’m not from Leeds but have worked there for years and that’s my experience FWIW.
However Rhino, there has to be better.
The NRL is very different that’s why no one is so critical. They have embraced the American style of franchise for want of a better word.
Few of there clubs are original line ups. Many are off the shelf brand new. I suppose you can do what you like where there is no tradition.
Also a lot of the NSWRL teams were already known unofficially by their nicknames long before they started marketing it. Bulldogs, Roosters, Sea Eagles were all in common parlance even when I lived there in the early seventies.
It was already part of their game, they just rationalised it to suit them.