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Post by livi82 on Jun 1, 2016 22:48:22 GMT 1
Hey guys,
I'm born and bread in Livingston and like many of you have season tickets. Recently I've heard rumours of us changing our name to west Lothian (whatever). Please tell me this is nonsense?
Nothing against other parts parts of west Lothian but I'm 34 and followed Livi since they started and a name change as silly as it sounds would really put me off noting we're Livi. I just want us to remain Livi
p.s. Rumours have been circulated by people I know and the Facebook comments therefore nothin tangible
Rich
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Post by Auldnick on Jun 2, 2016 0:09:17 GMT 1
In theory becoming West Lothian FC or West Lothian Thistle would be more "inclusive" for the rest of the county but as many of the towns around here have reasonably well supported junior teams I'd be surprised if it made any difference at all to the level of support. As to the veracity of the rumour....I heard it before & didn't think it would fly but the only folk who do know the truth are usually tight lipped about such things so we'll no doubt find out after it has happened or by it not happening,
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afro
Youth Player
Posts: 68
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Post by afro on Jun 2, 2016 23:41:53 GMT 1
A name change that dropped Livingston would be a backwards step and more than likely alienate infinitely more fans than it would attract.
A solid business plan promoting a transparent, well-run community club is the way forward, not some gimmick like this.
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Pedro
Administrator
Posts: 1,172 
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Post by Pedro on Jun 3, 2016 9:55:59 GMT 1
Nothing would surprise me.
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Post by livimoaner on Jun 3, 2016 16:14:42 GMT 1
If the person p[proposing the change can finance us fully for a couple of years, (not a loan) please feel free to do so.
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Post by ross83 on Jun 3, 2016 19:31:00 GMT 1
May I remind people that there are in fact three precedents for our club changing its name:
- Changed from Ferranti Amateurs to Ferranti Thistle in the late 1940s
- In 1974, the club became Meadowbank Thistle to avoid giving free advertising to the Ferranti engineering firm in newspaper reports, classified results on TV/radio etc.
- In 1995 the club adopted the name Livingston to reflect the relocation.
In fact, Bill Hunter, the chairman of Meadowbank/Livi at the time of the relocation had wished to call the relocated club West Lothian Thistle (or something similar), but the Livingston Development Corporation vetoed that at the time, as he mentions in his autobiography:
"...the club's name would change from Meadowbank Thistle FC to Livingston FC. If I could have negotiated to keep 'Thistle' for example, in the new name, or made it the more general 'West Lothian', I would have, but there were already a number of smaller teams in West Lothian using variations of those names. And understandably, LDC wanted the name to be associated with their 'new town'- Livingston." (quoted from p 144-5 of "The Road to Livingston" by Bill Hunter with Barbara Hunter, published 2014 by Aberlemno Publishing)
I have however been led to believe that the local junior club was formerly called Livingston FC, adopting the name Livingston United to avoid confusion with the relocated Meadowbank Thistle.
The idea of adopting a name containing "West Lothian" was mooted a couple of years back, due to the LDC having been wound up and therefore no longer being able to insist that the name be Livingston. The rationale was that many people in West Lothian feel that the towns beginning with L suck the life out of the rest of the area and are loathe to support a team called Livingston or Linlithgow, but would be more inclined to lend support to a team titled West Lothian, even if it was located in one of those towns. (I cannot comment on this: I live in Edinburgh)
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Post by jonsnow on Jun 3, 2016 20:57:37 GMT 1
More people head through to Edinburgh and Glasgow to watch football, that wont change if Livingston fc becomes West Lothian fc. Others just prefer going to watch their local junior teams, again a name change wont attract them to our games.
Thinking a name change will make a difference to our attendances just seems too simplistic a solution, it'll take a lot more than that, hard work needs to be done by the club to mend the damage that two admins has had on it.
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Post by Auldnick on Jun 4, 2016 11:10:28 GMT 1
More people head through to Edinburgh and Glasgow to watch football, that wont change if Livingston fc becomes West Lothian fc. Others just prefer going to watch their local junior teams, again a name change wont attract them to our games. Thinking a name change will make a difference to our attendances just seems too simplistic a solution, it'll take a lot more than that, hard work needs to be done by the club to mend the damage that two admins has had on it. Agree 100% & ultimately the best way to attract new folk or folk who have stopped coming is to cut out the ridiculous court cases & get a winning team on the pitch. A winning team making progress will draw people in, we saw that in the original climb to the top tier - in fact a good number of us probably fall into that category, I know I do - OK that climb ended due to the fall into administration but I still maintain we were "dropped in it" by someone & made examples of because we were a wee upstart club with ideas above their station. Our debt at the time was still serviceable & was a fraction of the debt being serviced by other clubs who either got off with it entirely or who had longer to sort themselves out. But I digress.... the current climate of cost cutting every season & continued weakening of the squad is taking its toll on the bums on seats. |
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