THE FANS have spoken and by a majority of 2-1 they have given an impassioned plea to Hull City owner Assem Allam to keep the club's historic name.
In a poll of 3,450 fans by the Hull Daily Mail, 2,370 (68.7%) said they wanted the club to retain its full name of 'Hull City AFC' – which has stood with the club since 1904 – or simply 'Hull City'.
A significantly smaller 604 were in favour of renaming the club 'Hull City Tigers' or 'Hull Tigers', Mr Allam's preferred choice. A sizeable minority of 476 said they didn't care what the club is called.
But in its simplest form, the results show a majority of fans polled oppose Mr Allam's plan. In total 59.7 per cent wanted the name Hull City AFC, with another 9 per cent opting for Hull City.
Fans who preferred Hull Tigers, Hull City Tigers or who "didn't care" accounted for 31.3 per cent.
The results show some weakening in the opposition since Mr Allam's plans were first revealed by the Mail in August. Then, in another Mail poll, 77.7 per cent, voted for Hull City AFC to remain.
But the new results continue to undermine Mr Allam's insistence that only a minority of fans oppose his controversial plans.
Our poll also gives an indication of how much opposition Mr Allam can expect if he presses ahead with the rebrand. It suggests a significant number of fans could boycott games, cancel season tickets, stop buying club merchandise and hold protests inside and outside the KC stadium on match days.
Although 61.5 per cent of fans said they would continue to attend "Hull Tigers" games, 24.7 per cent said they would not. A further 13.8 per cent are undecided. A sizeable 61.5 per cent of all those who voted said they would not buy 'Hull Tigers' branded merchandise. And 22.5 per cent indicated that they may not renew their season ticket for the club.
Those statistics will be troubling for City as any commercial loss will be keenly felt by the club. It also appears to call into question the immediate economic benefit of a rebrand which Mr Allam has been keen to suggest, although there is still a suggestion the Tigers branding could itself be linked to a key sponsorship deal.
Fans opposed to the name change also indicate that they will continue with protests, despite appeals by manager Steve Bruce not to bring the dispute into the ground during games. In total, 40.7 per cent of those polled said they would protest inside or outside the ground, while 22.8 per cent said they would limit protests to outside. A further 31 per cent said they would not conduct any protests.
In the light of Mr Allam's comments that he would consider leaving the club if his renaming plans were opposed, a significant number of fans did appear to have concerns about the longer-term impact on the club.
Asked if fans would drop opposition if there was a threat to future investment, 32.6 per cent said they would with a further 10.9 per cent saying they would consider it.
Another 7.1 per cent were undecided. A slight minority, 49.4 per cent, said their opposition would continue even if it threatened future investment.
Hull City have declined to make further comment on the name change but in an interview with the Hull Daily Mail last month, Mr Allam insisted he was acting in the club's best interests.• The poll was conducted from Thursday December 12 to Sunday December 15 on hulldailymail.co.uk with data being gathered with independent survey software. Entries were automatically restricted to single computer IP addresses to prevent multiple submissions.
