Seattle NHL Brand Discussion

[Brian in Boston]

2 hours ago, B-Rich said:

Now, let's not misquote them. The tweet quote said "mascot", not team name.

 

They COULD very well be referring to a costumed mascot, which as we all know, can be far afield from the  actual team name...

I could easily see "Metros/Metropolitans" having someone in a seal or fish costume.

Solid reasoning. When you think about it, the name Metropolitans doesn't necessarily lend itself to a costumed and cavorting mascot figure. I could easily see the team adopting the Seattle Metropolitans name, a primary logo that revolves around a local landmark like the Space Needle (it is the identifying feature of the Seattle skyline and sits on the grounds of the Seattle Center complex that is also home to Key Arena), and a mascot character such as a seal, sea lion, sockeye salmon, or (   )... a kraken.  

[BBTV]

Not sure why "Totems" would require native tribe sign-off.  It's not like Seminoles or Sioux where they're using the name of the actual tribe.  Unless there is a "Totem Tribe" or "Totem Nation", I'm not sure that would be an issue, since apparently there are totems in the area, and that art is prevalent (I've never been, just going by anecdotes.)

[DG_ThenNowForever]

3 minutes ago, BringBackTheVet said:

Not sure why "Totems" would require native tribe sign-off.  It's not like Seminoles or Sioux where they're using the name of the actual tribe.  Unless there is a "Totem Tribe" or "Totem Nation", I'm not sure that would be an issue, since apparently there are totems in the area, and that art is prevalent (I've never been, just going by anecdotes.)

 

This is just outside of Pike Place Market:

 

And this is at Seattle Center (near KeyArena):

 

So yes, there are totems in Seattle proper.

 

However, there's also this: https://crosscut.com/2018/09/local-native-leaders-want-pike-place-totem-poles-removed

Quote

Colleen Echohawk first started thinking about the totem poles in Victor Steinbrueck Park about five years ago. During a meeting of the Metropolitan Improvement District, she says she heard a police officer quip about the downtown park, “Did you know that that park was originally designed for Native people to go and drink?”

“I was like, ‘Are you fricking kidding me?’” said Echohawk, executive director of the Chief Seattle Club and a member of both the Kithehaki Band of the Pawnee Nation and the Upper Ahtna Athabascan people.

The officer, perpetuating a trope that has dogged the Pike Place Market park, was so casually dropped that it hardly registered in the room. “It’s hurtful,” said Echohawk. “It’s embarrassing. It’s like, this is what the community thought we were capable of?”

So Echohawk began thinking more about how local Native people of the Duwamish region are portrayed. And through that effort she found herself back at the park in question, looking up to the two poles that loom over the Highway 99 viaduct below, each carved and installed in 1984.

In them, she saw something troubling: The poles were created to honor Native history. But they do not represent the people on whose land Seattle now sits. Totem poles did not originate in the Puget Sound area. Rather, they are from the Native people of the Northwest coast — from Vancouver Island, north to Haida Gwaii to the southern edges of Alaska — and the Tlingit people.

The Coast Salish people who have long populated the lands surrounding Puget Sound, such as the local Duwamish and Suquamish, on the other hand, are known for their Welcome Figures — shorter carvings, with outstretched arms — and a more minimalist style of art.

“I think they thought they were doing a good thing,” Echohawk said of those who commissioned the poles. “But because of misrepresentation in the Native community, it has consequences.”

For Echohawk, who works daily with Native people struggling with homelessness, accurately representing Native communities is a matter of life and death.

“One of the things that I know is that the lack of cultural representation in the Native community turns into inequity, it turns into poverty, high homelessness rates,” she said. “These kinds of issues have everything to do with people dying.”

Now, Councilmember Debora Juarez, an enrolled member of the Blackfeet Nation, has taken up the issue and is leading an effort to remove the poles. She is serious enough about the effort that she has said she would consider stripping the park from the boundaries of the protective Pike Place Market Historical District to make it happen.

 

Seattle, like many places with significant native populations, has its struggles with native communities. There are very complicated tribal relations regarding fishing rights, ancestral lands, and all kinds of other issues throughout the region, most that people are completely unaware of. While I think "Totems" in the abstract is a fine name for an NHL franchise, it would take significant work with all local tribes -- and there are several -- to actually bring something like that forward as an actual team name.

 

To be honest, I don't see Jerry Bruckheimer willing to put in the effort to make that work in a way that satisfies all parties. And quite frankly, I don't know that such an option would exist. It's really complicated.

[tigerslionspistonshabs]

13 hours ago, daveindc said:

 

Seattle Sea Lions is the way to go, in my opinion. Fun, and relevant to the region.

 

I would go with some combo of either navy, steel blue, gray, teal (different enough from Sharks' teal) or lime green.

 

Just a couple concepts I found:

 

 

The Sea LOINS....sounds tasty!

[CaliforniaGlowin]

15 minutes ago, tigerslionspistonshabs said:

 

The Sea LOINS....sounds tasty!

It sounds salty, actually.  

[CaliforniaGlowin]

6 hours ago, AgentColon2 said:

 

It will be tough to have two blue and green teams?

Hold our beer.

 

I stand corrected.

[Brian in Boston]

1 hour ago, Mingjai said:

At first blush, it seems to me there is a strong incentive for Seattle and the AHL for the team to place its affiliate in Portland, which would be one of the larger, northern markets without AHL or ECHL hockey.

I don't know that a Portland-based American Hockey League affiliate for NHL Seattle is a fait accompli.

A strong cultural rivalry exists between Seattle and Portland... and that is particularly true where the sport of ice hockey is concerned. From the 1920s through the present day, teams representing the cities of Seattle and Portland in a variety of leagues have done battle with each other in ice hockey competition. Whether it was the Seattle Metropolitans and Portland Rosebuds of the early 1920s Pacific Coast Hockey Association, the Eskimos and Buckaroos of the late '20s Pacific Coast Hockey League, the Seahawks and Buckaroos of the 1930s North West Hockey League, the Ironmen and Eagles/Penguins of the 1940s PCHL, the Totems and Buckaroos of the 1960s and early '70s Western Hockey League, or the Breakers/Thunderbirds and Winter Hawks/Winterhawks of the last 42 seasons in major junior play, the two cities' hockey teams - and their respective fans - have developed an enmity for one another on the ice.

My point being, I wouldn't count on Portland ice hockey fans being too enamored of the idea of being the minor-league AHL club to their major-league NHL brethren up in Seattle. I think that would be an awfully tough sell marketing-wise. Frankly, I believe that there are plenty of ice hockey fans in Portland who would much rather continue to support their major-junior Western Hockey League Winterhawks than have to shoulder the perceived indignity of ponying-up their hard-earned dough to root on NHL Seattle's developmental farm team.

[IceCap]

On 12/4/2018 at 11:02 PM, Zeus89725 said:

Seattle's gotta do something unique, that can differentiate them from the green/white/blue Canucks from just a bit north.

Ah yes. They need to do something unique. They’re surely going to stand out as a NHL team with a red primary sweater! 

[M4One]

1 hour ago, Brian in Boston said:

I don't know that a Portland-based American Hockey League affiliate for NHL Seattle is a fait accompli.

A strong cultural rivalry exists between Seattle and Portland... and that is particularly true where the sport of ice hockey is concerned. From the 1920s through the present day, teams representing the cities of Seattle and Portland in a variety of leagues have done battle with each other in ice hockey competition. Whether it was the Seattle Metropolitans and Portland Rosebuds of the early 1920s Pacific Coast Hockey Association, the Eskimos and Buckaroos of the late '20s Pacific Coast Hockey League, the Seahawks and Buckaroos of the 1930s North West Hockey League, the Ironmen and Eagles/Penguins of the 1940s PCHL, the Totems and Buckaroos of the 1960s and early '70s Western Hockey League, or the Breakers/Thunderbirds and Winter Hawks/Winterhawks of the last 42 seasons in major junior play, the two cities' hockey teams - and their respective fans - have developed an enmity for one another on the ice.

My point being, I wouldn't count on Portland ice hockey fans being too enamored of the idea of being the minor-league AHL club to their major-league NHL brethren up in Seattle. I think that would be an awfully tough sell marketing-wise. Frankly, I believe that there are plenty of ice hockey fans in Portland who would much rather continue to support their major-junior Western Hockey League Winterhawks than have to shoulder the perceived indignity of ponying-up their hard-earned dough to root on NHL Seattle's developmental farm team.

 

The Flames sort of did the same thing when they put their AHL team in Abbotsford, BC a few years ago, which, of course, is Canucks territory.  It did not go well.  The only time they really drew any fans was when the Canucks farm team played them. 

 

I agree that if Seattle were to put their team in Portland, it's not going to work and they'd probably move it within a couple of years.  With every other team in the division, except the Canucks, having their AHL team in California, I would think Seattle would do the same to cut down on travel costs as much as possible.

[kiwi_canadian]

We could have the name by June:

 

https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2018/12/06/seattles-new-nhl-team-likely-to-have-name-by.html

[tigerslionspistonshabs]

The nickname list may have just gotten narrowed down a little bit. According to Steve Mattson – the Director of Operations for the New Arena at Seattle Center – the name is going to be “water-related”.

 

https://www.bardown.com/new-information-on-seattle-s-potential-name-may-eliminate-some-current-favourites-1.1223118?fbclid=IwAR06t0_ULbEwnuinnSEse0mKo_Uve8AwCGY5pZN3AMNtUlugESl5B7hK-6Q

 

Kraken

Seal Lions

Seals

Whales

Sockeyes

Totems

Evergreens

Emeralds

Eagles

Cougars

Firebirds

Rainiers

Renegades

[bowld]

I can't see them using Seals since that has already been used in the league. My money is on one of these 3-

KRAKEN

SOCKEYES

SEALIONS 

[DG_ThenNowForever]

Sea Lions are way more a San Francisco thing. Seattle aquatic life includes orcas, seals, and several variety of salmon.  Of those three, Sockeyes is the best local option.

[VancouverFan69]

Kraken is my least favourite. However, if worse comes to worse, the name can be abbreviated to "Kraks", like Avalanche are the Avs and the Predators are the Preds.

 

Furthermore, Kraken is pronounced "Kray-ken", not "Krack-en". 

 

Sea Lions would then be my choice but not with the Seahawks' navy and lime. Go with Hunter/deeper Kelly green with light blue. An aquatic water predator is perfect. Green needs to be the primary dark colour.

[Krz]

Sockeyes (imo) rolls off the tounge the best and sounds less minor league-y than Kraken or Sea Lions. Also no other teams in pro sports have a specifically fish mascot (that I recall).

[AgentColon2]

Marlins

[Brian in Boston]

2 hours ago, KRZYBDGRZ said:

Also no other teams in pro sports have a specifically fish mascot (that I recall).

 

Currently?

Carolina Mudcats
Clearwater Threshers
Gwinnett Stripers
Idaho Steelheads
Jacksonville Sharks
Jupiter Hammerheads
Miami Marlins
Monterey Amberjacks
Pensacola Blue Wahoos
San Jose Barracuda
San Jose Sharks
South Carolina Stingrays
Tampa Tarpons
Toledo Walleye
White Sands Pupfish
Winnipeg Goldeyes

[daveindc]

3 hours ago, DG_Now said:

Sea Lions are way more a San Francisco thing. Seattle aquatic life includes orcas, seals, and several variety of salmon.  Of those three, Sockeyes is the best local option.

 

 

That's not true. Both the Stellar Sea Lion's and California Sea Lion's range are throughout the Pacific northwest. Any city in that range can claim it. The Sea Lion population is so high, measures were just passed to curb it. Seems like they're eating up too much of the Salmon:

 

 

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/boom-times-on-the-columbia-for-california-sea-lions/

 

https://www.opb.org/news/article/sea-lions-orcas-puget-sound-washington/

 

 

 

 

All these pics are from throughout Puget Sound.

 

 

1 hour ago, KRZYBDGRZ said:

Sockeyes (imo) rolls off the tounge the best and sounds less minor league-y than Kraken or Sea Lions. Also no other teams in pro sports have a specifically fish mascot (that I recall).

 

 

Sharks, Marlins, Rays...

 

 

 

[charger77]

Any chance of a Naval tie in?

 

 

While this is just a generic template, i'd love to see this color combo

 

[VancouverFan69]

1 hour ago, KRZYBDGRZ said:

Sockeyes (imo) rolls off the tounge the best and sounds less minor league-y than Kraken or Sea Lions. Also no other teams in pro sports have a specifically fish mascot (that I recall).

 

I'm actually starting to dig "Sockeyes". There's Marlins in MLB. If Sockeyes is chosen, I still hope for green as a primary with, perhaps, reddish- orange as a secondary.