Emmy Award-winning Producer Mike Young Asks Where’ve all the “Cardiff City’s Greatest Players” Murals Gone?
Over twenty years ago, BAFTA and Emmy Award-winning TV and film producer Mike Young was asked by Cardiff City F.C. management to offer suggestions on how to make the fan experience more family-friendly on match days.
Young, whose first successful venture into production began in 1980 when his children’s books and productions based on a crime fighting Teddy Bear, SuperTed, became the first ever outside animated production acquired by The Walt Disney Company.
Young had been based out of Cardiff and that initial production success saw him re-locate his offices to Los Angeles where his growing list of productions have included: Once Upon a Forest for Fox Studios, Clifford’s Big Movie for Warner Bros, Rock Dog starring Eddie Izzard for Lionsgate, Woody Woodpecker for Universal Studios, Norm of the North starring Rob Schneider, Heather Graham, Ken Jeong and Bill Nighy for Lionsgate Films, and a co-production with Universal Studios of All I Want for Christmas is You, starring Mariah Carey.
At the same time, Young, a soccer and general sports fan, had noted how American sports teams attracted supporters, along with their families, hours before actual games. By and large, football/soccer fans in the UK went directly from pubs, buses, cars, and trains into the grounds, just in time to watch the games.
Not here in the U.S. where tailgating and pre-game festivities had taken hold, not only before NFL games, but all sorts of other sporting events.
So, when asked for his counsel by CCFC, Young gave them suggestions about creating community and family-focused events in parking lots and other outdoor areas.
He explains: “I talked about everything from picnic meals in the car parks to entertainment within the grounds. As noted, the main bulk of the footballing crowd went directly from the pubs, buses, cars, and trains into the grounds. So, I helped sponsor and set up a family enclosure area with competitions, entertainment, video games, and several other interactive fun initiatives. A part of this was us creating and decorating the family area with fifteen feet tall, cartoon mural images of ‘Cardiff’s Greatest Players’ — players such as legendary 1927 FA Cup-winning captain Fred Keenor, heralded superstar John Toshack, and the irrepressible Robin Friday.”
As a result of these and other suggestions and actions, Cardiff City won the Family Team of the Year, twice beating out their bigger brethren such as Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool etc. Charismatic and genial Young quips, “At least we beat them at something!”
Over the years, CCFC has also introduced Foundation Day Family Funfair, Family Stand (offering additional entertainment options for junior supporters), and Football Zone & Entertainment within the Family Stand.
Previous to these “family area” suggestions, Young had also offered another innovation to the club, using the rising and already high visibility of his SuperTed franchise in the early 1980s, explaining:
“SuperTed was well into production and had been sold Worldwide by S4C. It became the first ever show acquired by Disney from an outside studio. Licensing and merchandising was well underway. We were also in talks with Hanna Barbara on an American production of SuperTed which got produced a few years later. The stage show version starring Victor Spinetti, Melvyn Hayes and Jon Pertwee was playing all over the country.”
So, using that visibility, Young had helped Cardiff City become the first English league team to have shirt sponsorship in the early 1980s. Young recalls: “The iconic SuperTed ‘flash’ adorned the shirt for a season. It was a natural as a template for a shirt, as our SuperTed franchise was going international. Funnily enough, in 2012, when new majority shareholder Vincent Tan temporarily switched Cardiff City’s colors to red from blue, disgruntled fans still bought the only blue shirt available from the club shop — the SuperTed ‘flash’ version.”
Later, after getting promoted from the Championship after the 2012–13 season, Cardiff played their first ever away Premier League match on 18 August 2013. Young recalls: “We were in the Premiership for the first time, and I remember seeing shots of the crowd still wearing the SuperTed flash and blue shirt — it was such a buzz.”
But, something odd happened recently with Bluebirds’ fans asking, Where’d all those great legendary murals go? For some reason, Young says, “Those beloved legendary murals just came down and fans didn’t like it! They were up for twenty years!’
But with a new football season underway, hope springs eternal for Young and other Cardiff City fans, as the team leads the League One table, after 5 games — undefeated and unbowed. And, with their passionate Welsh fans still doing, “The Ayatollah” chant set to the tune of the Macarena.
By the way, Cardiff-born team captain Fred Keenor received the FA Cup trophy from England’s King George V in 1927; and that season, Cardiff also won the Welsh Cup, to become the only club to win the national cups of two countries in the same season.
Check out Cardiff City FC on YouTube, and do yourself a favor, by clicking on the link to “Do the Ayatollah” to hear the chant.
NB: Mike Young is the founder of the rapidly expanding Kabillion VOD networks which are available on all cable platforms as well as freely available on ROKU, Amazon Fire and Apple TV apps. And, it’s not just one channel, it’s a whole galaxy of fun. There’s Kabillion Action for thrill-seekers, Kabillion Comedy for giggle-fests, Kabillion Movies for big-screen excitement, and Kabillion Girls Rule, which spotlights shows for both young girls and preschoolers. Each channel features a mix of Kabillion Studios’ awesome own originals and hand-picked favorites from other top-notch producers.
