Listening to Talk Sport today... the subject of "Hampton & Richmond Vs Torquay United" being discussed.
Have to say very embarrassing.
As they have no idea why the name is what it is.
Comments along the lines of "Hampton & Richmond, but it's in Hampton, but Richmond also have their name on the shirt"
Yup... and that's what happens when you don't use Borough in the name.... it's embarrassing in truth, as the club just being mocked.
I do notice when the football results are read out they use the full name including Borough.
The club is still registered with the FA including Borough, can the club please just use the correct name, because it's just ridiculous without using Borough, it's doesn't make any sense, and the club is being mocked constantly.
Confusion of Club Name
-
- Posts: 422
- Joined: Tue Feb 07, 2023 8:40 am
It's obviously the brothers behind the confusion since Ramayana registered trademarks for Hampton & Richmond FC, #HAMRICHFC etc. and use these in all social media etc. They have not changed the official name though. Obviously once they are gone things may well revert. Personally I still try to use HRBFC and obviously fans can avoid merchandise using the brothers trademarks.
https://trademarks.ipo.gov.uk/ipo-tmown ... 6&domain=1
https://trademarks.ipo.gov.uk/ipo-tmown ... 6&domain=1
- TW2-Beaver
- Site Admin
- Posts: 276
- Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2021 6:02 pm
This isn't really a new thing. In 2007 prior to our FA Cup 1st Round game against Dagenham & Redbridge, Mark (not so) Bright famously messed our name up three times live on BBC (calling us "Hampton & Borough" and "Hampton Court"). He had a howler and it got a laugh, but nobody running things at the time seemed to pick up on the important underlying point: even a professional pundit got confused by our ridiculously long and complicated club name. The problem goes back to 1999 and the bad decision to add "& Richmond Borough" to the name in the first place, in my opinion. The number of times I've been asked who I support and had to repeat myself because the name is such a mouthful..
I don't think the recent re-brand to remove "Borough" has had any impact on the confusion either way. I think the problem is the 1999 decision and the failed marketing gimmick to add the Borough of Richmond into the club name, which should have been shelved after one season when it clearly hadn't worked.
I do agree it's messy that we are "Hampton and" with Companies House; and "Hampton &" with the FA; and in 25 years I don't think there has been clear brand guidance to opposition clubs or media which has led to all sorts of abbreviations and acronyms being used such as "boro", "H+R", "and", "&". The identity does need a tidy up. Hampton FC is the obvious and most sensible option - just my opinion.
I don't think the recent re-brand to remove "Borough" has had any impact on the confusion either way. I think the problem is the 1999 decision and the failed marketing gimmick to add the Borough of Richmond into the club name, which should have been shelved after one season when it clearly hadn't worked.
I do agree it's messy that we are "Hampton and" with Companies House; and "Hampton &" with the FA; and in 25 years I don't think there has been clear brand guidance to opposition clubs or media which has led to all sorts of abbreviations and acronyms being used such as "boro", "H+R", "and", "&". The identity does need a tidy up. Hampton FC is the obvious and most sensible option - just my opinion.
-
- Posts: 422
- Joined: Tue Feb 07, 2023 8:40 am
Interesting to know the history but that doesn't excuse #HAMRICHFC 

I cannot see why you dismiss the adding of "and Richmond Borough" to the name as a "failed marketing gimmick" which "clearly hadn't worked".TW2-Beaver wrote: Wed Oct 09, 2024 5:51 am I think the problem is the 1999 decision and the failed marketing gimmick to add the Borough of Richmond into the club name, which should have been shelved after one season when it clearly hadn't worked.
On the contrary, the club has never been so successful as in the last 25 years in terms of results, attendances and national and local awareness. We did have some playing success as Hampton FC in the 1960s but that was at a much lower level in the Spartan League. Then we had three decades of drifting in the doldrums until the change of name.
I live in Yorkshire and my experiences of telling locals who I support has been directly opposite to what Jamie and Chris have related on here. People up here with a passing interest in football have generally heard of Hampton and Richmond Borough but I doubt that many have heard of, say, Aveley. Yes, long club names do make clubs more memorable! Ask one hundred football fans to name some Swiss football clubs and I wager they're more likely to come up with Zurich Grasshoppers and Young Boys of Bern than FC Basel.
- TW2-Beaver
- Site Admin
- Posts: 276
- Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2021 6:02 pm
The attendances are primarily driven by success on the pitch and league position/level of football, which in turn drives the awareness. None of that has anything to do with the name change. I say its a failed marketing gimmick because there was no increase to the average attendance in the season immediately following the name change. I also cannot find evidence of even one new sponsor from the wider borough secured for the 1999/00 season. Attendances really started climbing after Conference South was introduced and we played a higher standard in a league with more exposure. They dipped again when we dropped back to step 3, climbed again after promotion to step 2. None of this is related to the club name.RogerB wrote: Wed Oct 09, 2024 12:27 pm I cannot see why you dismiss the adding of "and Richmond Borough" to the name as a "failed marketing gimmick" which "clearly hadn't worked".
On the contrary, the club has never been so successful as in the last 25 years in terms of results, attendances and national and local awareness.
Correlation not causation. Again I don't understand why you link the name to playing success.RogerB wrote: Wed Oct 09, 2024 12:27 pm We did have some playing success as Hampton FC in the 1960s but that was at a much lower level in the Spartan League. Then we had three decades of drifting in the doldrums until the change of name.
I think you'll find people say "Young Boys" and "Grasshoppers" rather than "Young Boys of Bern" or "Zurich Grasshoppers" though! So in other words they don't know the name of the clubs.RogerB wrote: Wed Oct 09, 2024 12:27 pmI live in Yorkshire and my experiences of telling locals who I support has been directly opposite to what Jamie and Chris have related on here. People up here with a passing interest in football have generally heard of Hampton and Richmond Borough but I doubt that many have heard of, say, Aveley. Yes, long club names do make clubs more memorable! Ask one hundred football fans to name some Swiss football clubs and I wager they're more likely to come up with Zurich Grasshoppers and Young Boys of Bern than FC Basel.

Aveley are a smaller club than Hampton so it's not really a fair comparison. Perhaps Weymouth is a better example, I'm sure they've all heard of Weymouth...
RogerB wrote: Wed Oct 09, 2024 12:27 pmI cannot see why you dismiss the adding of "and Richmond Borough" to the name as a "failed marketing gimmick" which "clearly hadn't worked".TW2-Beaver wrote: Wed Oct 09, 2024 5:51 am I think the problem is the 1999 decision and the failed marketing gimmick to add the Borough of Richmond into the club name, which should have been shelved after one season when it clearly hadn't worked.
On the contrary, the club has never been so successful as in the last 25 years in terms of results, attendances and national and local awareness. We did have some playing success as Hampton FC in the 1960s but that was at a much lower level in the Spartan League. Then we had three decades of drifting in the doldrums until the change of name.
I live in Yorkshire and my experiences of telling locals who I support has been directly opposite to what Jamie and Chris have related on here. People up here with a passing interest in football have generally heard of Hampton and Richmond Borough but I doubt that many have heard of, say, Aveley. Yes, long club names do make clubs more memorable! Ask one hundred football fans to name some Swiss football clubs and I wager they're more likely to come up with Zurich Grasshoppers and Young Boys of Bern than FC Basel.
Eh?
I didn't say the club should be called Hampton.
I said not included "Borough" doesn't make any sense, the "& Richmond Borough" part includes the whole of the Borough that Hampton sits in.
"Hampton & Richmond" doesn't make any sense, the two places aren't even next to each other.
It's like having Sunbury & Kingston.
- TW2-Beaver
- Site Admin
- Posts: 276
- Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2021 6:02 pm
Splitters!

-
- Posts: 422
- Joined: Tue Feb 07, 2023 8:40 am
One thing I'm sure about is that fans should be consulted on any name change (official or otherwise). The brothers didn't do that.