Changes to website design often seem to be negative, at least initially, with most not caring after some amount of time. Has there been a website that has undergone a significant visual change with the initial reaction from its user base being a positive one?
I've worked on two redesigns that had a large positive initial reaction, but I think that was because the original design was very old and very unpopular. If you have something that feels pretty modern and not a large number of complaints from your userbase a redesign will probably be more unpopular than popular, no matter how much you think the redesign will in the end improve some metrics.