LONDON, England (AFP) - Cardiff City's Malaysian owner Vincent Tan on Thursday admitted he hasn't ruled out changing the newly-promoted Premier League club's name.
Tan oversaw Cardiff's controversial change to a red home kit from their traditional blue last year, as well as the introduction of a new badge prominently featuring a red dragon alongside a bluebird.
In February, the tycoon had to deny reports he may seek to further rebrand the club by renaming them as Cardiff Dragons.
But Tan, speaking at a press conference for his 'Thanks a Million' initiative, which has seen Cardiff donate £1 million (S$1.97m) to local charities, again broached the subject of a name change when asked about Hull's recent rebranding as Hull City Tigers.
"I read a bit about Hull City's name change. They are back in the Premier League and I admire their owner Assem Allam for what he has done," Tan said.
"One thing that I read that I liked is he says there are so many teams with the name city.
"There is Hull City, Leicester City, Cardiff City, Bristol City - everyone is called City.
"Who doesn't know Cardiff is a city? Who doesn't know Hull is a city?
"I think that his strategy is good but I'm not saying that we are making any similar changes.
"I don't want nasty e-mails written to me tomorrow but I always say 'never say never.' "Businesses need to evolve. If we all stayed the same there would be no internet today and we would all be living in caves.
"But definitely we are not changing anything now." The Bluebirds are preparing for their first season in the top-flight for 51 years and the campaign gets underway with a trip to face West Ham United at Upton Park on Saturday.
Tan has backed manager Malky Mackay in the transfer market, breaking the club's transfer record three times since last season's promotion with the acquisitions of Andreas Cornelius, Steven Caulker and Gary Medel.
And he expects to see a return on his investment once the season gets under way.
"I thought £25 million would be a nice number to spend on players," Tan said.
"Reading spent less than £10m last season so I thought £25m would be about right.
"But I like to look upon that as an investment. I hope these players will work out well for us."
Majority shareholder Tan also reiterated his plan to make the club debt-free in the coming months after reaching an agreement with Langston Corporation over a long-term debt, and that he is looking to buy out the club's minority shareholders.
