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Brisbane Roar is this season’s most successful club and are going to be competing in next year’s Asian Champions League. Brisbane have surfaced to be in some financial distress and are rumoured to be receiving help, whether that be large or small, from the FFA.
The club has seen dwindling crowd results for their most successful season, but have proven themselves in the past to have strong support in all areas.
Brisbane has a great position to maximise support and reinvent their image for the next season of the A-League and before the Champions League in 2012. A new business model of sustainable ownership from the community, which has been talked about heavily this season, or a billionaire owner could help their financial issues, but whatever happens they need to have a long-term plan.
So a long-term financial plan but what else? The name Brisbane Roar has never really been taken seriously for a start. From quaint beginnings as Hollandia-Inala Soccer Club in 1957 to the first sporting team to be called the Brisbane Lions, Brisbane Roar have had many name changes and have never been that secure with their identity. But I propose a change that would leave a lasting legacy of a true football club that many people have proposed before me.
As can be seen in forums and discussions across the internet, I would say there is large following for the club to be renamed FC Brisbane – a beautiful name that would suit the club for many reasons and the style of naming, which can be seen across quality football leagues around the world. Not only does the format of ‘FC Team’ work for Barcelona, Inter Milan, Bayern Munich, Utrecht and United of Manchester, but also for FC Tokyo and FC Dallas – proof that this quality title would work in a newer league as well.
Fans might suggest that the club has already had far too many name changes for another one, but I believe the changes, particularly when the A-League was created as the club went from Queensland Lions to Queensland Roar and then Brisbane Roar, weren’t thought out properly and were just commercial ‘franchise’ names that people could easily identify. As the club is trying to grow and be taken seriously, I don’t think a nickname like ‘Roar’ (only suited to sports websites) is professional sounding or within the worldwide culture of football that so many Australian fans follow with passion.
The name FC Brisbane works particularly well for a city with ‘B’ – just look at Bayern, Barcelona, Basel – and it happens to be that Barca and Basel also wear the colour maroon (I’m just pointing it out). Bayern are nicknamed ‘The FCB’ and all of these cities names including Brisbane, really roll of the tongue.
So hopefully this could be the last time the club ever changes its name and what better time to do it than when the team is on a high and about to be crowned premiers for their first season. I think the name change would be respectful to the club’s history, unlike commercial nicknames, and most importantly it is simple and elegant – like Sydney FC, but a bit quirkier.
There has also been talk of the clubs colours with people tossing up whether it should be maroon or orange or whatever. I think the best colour scheme would be similar to what the club already use, but a complete removal of blue and more subtle use of orange with less clashing.
AS Roma and Galatasaray would be the perfect examples for future Brisbane kits, but instead of Roma’s majority maroon with yellow/orange touches they should have a large block of an orange/yellow base and then maroon touches on sleeves and for shorts. Galatasary’s half red/yellow jersey with white shorts should be considered possibly for away.
If the club really wanted to use a third strip they could have an all orange kit to represent their Dutch heritage, and as Barca and Galatasaray use as thirds kits as well, or they could keep their white away kit with touches of orange – almost identical to Roma’s third kit. There have been many suggestions like this across the web and I was inspired by a web design for a new FC Brisbane colour scheme, which would be great if someone knew the link.
These colours are the direction I think FC Brisbane would best represent, and the sole maroon should be left to represent the state of Queensland. There is no doubt that similar colour schemes such as AS Roma, Galatasaray, Barcelona and Basel are all related in the football world and people across the world would then be able to relate to Brisbane.
A new logo would probably be necessary and something with a historic crest of a lion like Middlesbrough could work well. A new logo should have the colours virtually identical to AS Roma’s crest.
So while all this might sound pretty drastic and challenging, it is vital to the team’s long-term success and would unlock a real and passionate brand of football club. The A-League would be better off with an authentic and attractive club and I’m certain there would be a surge of supporters and jersey sales. There is not a better time to do it and Brisbane would finally boast a historic club that is in touch with the football world.
A long-term strategy and final name change will only enhance Brisbane’s prospects as a major A-League city and would show Brisbane off to the rest of the country, Asia and the world.
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