By STEVE MASCORD
NEW London Broncos owner Gary Hetherington has revealed a surprise “well reasoned” suggestion for the club’s new name – and strongly hinted at the identity of the person who suggested it.
Hetherington addressed more than 50 fans at Cherry Red Records Stadium on Monday night in what was billed as a fan forum following his takeover of the club from David Hughes. With him on stage were head of performance Mike Eccles and captain Will Lovell.
He outlined the work being done by Australian strategy firm Freshwater to change the club’s image, including possibly moving away from the “Broncos” nickname.
“There is a project being taken that will ultimately tell us whether it is advantageous to change our name and brand,” Hetherington told fans seated at tables in a larg function room at Plough Lane.
“I was with a fairly prominent person the other day who came up with a well-reasoned recommendation as to what the name should be.
“I was ‘well, I never really thought about that’. It was a well-presented argument.
”We need to really carefully think it through and come up with a decision that’s in the best interests of the club.”
He was then asked by a supporter what the suggestion was and whether he would share it. Hetherington replied: “Since you ask me the question, I will. Yes.
“I won’t give you the name of the person we’re talking about but it’s a very prominent person in the media and he’s a rugby league fan and he’s not an Englishman.
“In his opinion, he said the name should be ‘London Rugby League’. That was his opinion and he actually backed it up with a pretty well-reasoned argument as to why it should be.
“And I said to him ‘well, I never thought about that – thank you very much for your suggestion’ and that needs to be in the melting pot with all the others.”
Rugby Football League vice-president Adam Hills – an Australian – and Sky commentator Brian Carney – an Irishman – are two men who fit Hetherington’s description of the mysterious advisor.
Such a change would be a reversal of Hetherington’s branding legacy at Leeds.
“When I took over and Leeds years ago, Leeds were ‘Leeds Rugby League’,” he recalled.
“The name was the Loiners. The mascot was a Loiner. We did a project and we got a variety of names to choose from. We plumped for the Leeds Rhinos. I can tell you at the time it was very, very unpopular.
“The rank and file Leeds rugby league fan didn’t want to change the name ‘we’re the Loiners, we don’t want all these gimmicky names’.
“But we did change and it’s the best thing we ever did. We created a new logo, a new brand, a new identity in many respects, a new mascot.
“Ninety-nine percent of Leeds Rhinos fans now would say ‘hey that was a great decision’.”