16/04/2008

Pirates - What's In A Name?

Seemingly there are issues by some people about the possible name change of the club.

MD Allan Paul was approached by the Paisley Daily Express to say that someone had anonymously written to them complaining that the Paisley name had been omitted from the club title.

MD Allan Paul was approached by the Paisley Daily Express to say that someone had anonymously written to them complaining that the Paisley name had been omitted from the club title.

Allan said, 'When I was asked to come in and run the club, which was about to fold when Bill Elliot and Gill McDonald had decided to walk away, the club was called the Braehead Paisley Pirates, a name change that was made by the previous owners.

We have operated under that banner for this season but I am aware that to take the club to the next stage we need to attract more sponsors and fans from all the surrounding areas and not just from Paisley. However despite the noises being made in certain quarters there has been no decision made as to the name of the club.

Only yesterday I was told by Braehead Arena that we require permission from their Head Office to use Braehead in the club name, something that has never been approved to date, despite the use of Braehead in the title.

Once again ... NO decision has been made about a name change except that we will always be known as Pirates; that will never change.

I will not be dictated to by people who think they should have a say in what's going on when that right was given up by them.'

Allan continued, 'There are much more pressing matters to be addressed when, at present, we are unsure if we have a long term future at Braehead. I currently have sponsors who want to support the club on a two year contract but we cannot give them this as we don't know how long we will be playing out of the arena.

I have put together a schools and community programme to take around the area, to attract kids to the sport but cannot put that into place as yet as we still don't have our future secured. How can we plan for the future of the sport in Renfrewshire and surrounding areas when we ourselves still don't know where we stand? So for some people to moan about a name change that hasn't been announced, and not have the courage to put their name to the complaint, is pretty trivial. To contact the press and not come directly to me is cowardice and quite frankly pretty pathetic.

There are issues that need to be addressed urgently and the name of the club is NOT one of them. After all, what does a name matter if there isn't a team?'