Ferdinand Cesarano

21 minutes ago, leopard88 said:

Interesting that Baltimore and Maryland are listed separately.  I assume "Maryland" would be used for a team in Annapolis . . . or maybe "Chesapeake" again.

The location name "Chesapeake" worked only because the nickname "Bayhawks" starts with "Bay", so the full name made "Chesapeake Bay".  That wouldn't be true for any other nickname.

1 hour ago, BBTV said:

New ownership can cure a lot of things.  In many orgs, the owner is synonymous with the team, so ill will against the team just kinda goes away with a change in leadership.  But that process takes time - even if an ownership group emerged at this very second, it's a process to get through all the vetting and financial gymnastics to get it done - at which point they've been in the Coliseum for even longer, and then have to start working on these new projects from practically scratch.

 

So I think you're right, I just think it's too late.

That's a good point. However, the Oakland mayor has stated that she would go back to the table even with the current ownership, if it approached her. So, if a new ownership came in and if it were willing to pick up the process right where the current ownership abandoned it in April with the "binding (ha!) agreement" announcement that caught the Oakland government by surprise, then there would be no need to start from scratch.

(And, by the way, I stupidly wrote "exacerbated fans" when I meant "exasperated fans". I have corrected that error, which was one of the pitfalls of posting at work, while phones are ringing and other things are happening!)

19 hours ago, bosrs1 said:

The ownership has done irrevocable damage to this franchise, even absent them it’ll take a decade plus to right the ship. 

I think that new ownership would be embraced by exasperated fans, especially if new owners returned to the table with the city and got the new ballpark at Howard Terminal done.

4 minutes ago, bosrs1 said:

After the Legislative session last night and the suggestion that if Vegas falls through they’re still done in Oakland, this doesn’t surprise me. The A’s have figuratively nuked the bridge in Oakland and then pissed on the ashes. Even the most ardent fans are done with them, to the point it’s hard to see how they recover even if the come crawling back to the Bay Area. Far more likely they’ll go shopping elsewhere, and Sac does have site they’d earmarked for a soccer stadium downtown that would work just as well for baseball. 

This ownership is done in Oakland.

This ownership has figuratively nuked the bridge in Oakland.

Even the most ardent A's fans are done with this ownership.

As of this moment the team is not for sale.  But, if the Vegas thing falls through, that could change very quickly.

If Fisher sold right now, he'd come away with almost a billion in profit.  And Lacob has already stated his willingness to buy the team at its current valuation.  If Fisher didn't sell after a failed attempt at Las Vegas, the value of the team would plummet.  I'm no capitalist, but the incentives seem clear here.

They are correcting the major flaw with the PLL.

I wonder if, in light of the merger with the MLL, they will consider bringing back some of the longstanding MLL nicknames, particularly Lizards and Bayhawks.

38 minutes ago, MJWalker45 said:

I think it's more likely that the league would have to move up their schedule to get by in from NFL teams.

If the USFL does indeed move up its season for that reason, then of course it would run concurrently with the XFL.  In that case, the leagues really cannot have teams in the same city (even if the USFL's teams are still just nominally representing most of their cities).

To counteract the effect of the dilution of fan attention, the leagues ought to work together to pump up some kind of league-versus-league rivalry that would benefit both.  If they can figure this out, then that would probably make inevitable the establishment of an inter-league championship game.

10 minutes ago, DCarp1231 said:

Buck is the embodiment of “too old to give a :censored:”

It would appear that he gives quite a lot of [censored]s. 

17 minutes ago, Bill0813 said:

 

Buck has made his preferences clear with the caps of several teams, at least in spring training.  During at least one spring with the Yankees, he used the white-crowned cap for the coaching staff, in the manner of the 1970s A's.  With Texas he wore a red cap while the players wore a blue cap. And with the Mets this past spring he wore the regular cap instead of the spring training cap.

11 hours ago, the admiral said:

"AFC" as in "American Football Club"?

"AFC" as in "association football club", as "association" gives us the abbreviation "assoc.", which is the origin of the word "soccer".

11 hours ago, the admiral said:

What am I really supposed to call Nashville FC, Charlotte FC, Cincinnati FC, St. Louis City FC, etc.?

You're supposed to call them "Nashville", "Charlotte", "Cincinnati", "St. Louis", etc, just as you refer to Liverpool, Barcelona, Napoli, etc.

11 hours ago, the admiral said:

they should still have well-known nicknames.

As @Sykotyk has pointed out, the nicknames are developing.

By the way, this is the same way that nicknames developed in the early years of pro baseball.  When the team that we now call the Braves was founded in Boston at the start of the National League in 1876, the nicknames that fans used for them were "Red Stockings" and later "Beaneaters". The name "Braves" came about because one of the team's owners was part of the corrupt New York political faction called Tammany Hall, which also used that term.

The Dodgers went through plenty of fan-created nicknames, such as "Bridegrooms", "Superbas", and "Robins" (the last one being in reference to their manager Wilbert Robinson, the old catcher for the John McGraw / Wee Willie Keeler NL Baltimore Orioles).  Indeed, even "Dodgers" itself arose organically, as Brooklyn residents were then often called "trolley dodgers", due to the many trolley lines that were found there.

The Yankees' original nickname, "Highlanders", came about because the team's park was located at the top of of a hill (and was called Hilltop Park).  The team came to be called the Yankees only because newspapers started using the shorter term "Yanks" in their headlines, and fans picked up on it.

To see this process play out for soccer clubs in North America is wonderful. Everyone knows what team you are referring to when you say the Red Devils or the Magpies (even if colour names such as the Blues and the Reds have many possible referrents); likewise, we are getting to the point where we can speak with the same ease of the Pigeons playing the Lions.

Jim Brown was also a star in lacrosse. He eventually bought the MLL team originally known as the Long Island Lizards, and changed the name to the New York Lizards.

The possibility of Brown's comeback to football at age 47 or 48 was huge news. He didn't want Franco Harris to break his career yardage record, and he actually said several unkind things about Harris at the time. Brown was in talks with the Los Angeles Raiders, and was even pictured on the cover of Sports Illustrated in a Raiders uniform.

Here Brown discusses his potential comeback with David Letterman in 1984.

Brown also mentions the idea of playing for the L.A. Express of the USFL; and I am sorry to say that Dave is dismissive of this.

Anyway, Brown said that his comeback was contingent upon beating Harris in the 40-yard dash. The two raced, and Harris won. Brown called off his comeback. But it was an exciting year or so with the possibility swirling.

4 minutes ago, FiddySicks said:

That’s kind of got me thinking. Has MLS surpassed the NHL in terms of being part of the “big four”? If it hasn’t, when will it? It’s to the point where we’re seeing expansion teams slapped with a half a billion dollar entry fee and happily paying it. It’s not a matter of if that’ll happen, but when. 

Also, MLS turns away more suitors than it accepts.  So it's happened.

5 minutes ago, FiddySicks said:

And I get that MLS is sort of a pyramid scheme

MLS is not the least bit a pyramid scheme.  An example of a pyramid scheme was the original NASL, which relied on expansion money to exist, and so let in every two-bit lemonade-stand operator, without regard to that ownership group's ability to sustain a team over the long term.  By contrast, MLS evaluates every expansion bid, and (as mentioned) rejects more than it accepts.

37 minutes ago, MJWalker45 said:

1 hour ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

Such a player would presumably be a free agent.

 

Let's hope that the XFL has a process in place whereby a team's GM can express interest in signing a free agent, and the league will sign that player and assign him to that team.  But we can't know for sure how a league that signs players centrally will handle this matter. It's an inherent problem with the single-entity structure (a scheme which should rightfully be illegal).

With some teams still having player rights of those that go into the NFL, I'd expect that if they get cut they would go back to the XFL team unless they decided to play in another league. 

Ah, quite so.  I was thinking of guys cut from NFL teams who had never before played in the XFL.

17 minutes ago, BBTV said:

If a guy gets cut during the NFL season, how would he become eligible for the XFL?  They said there's a fall draft after NFL roster cuts, but tons of guys get released after that.

Such a player would presumably be a free agent.

Let's hope that the XFL has a process in place whereby a team's GM can express interest in signing a free agent, and the league will sign that player and assign him to that team.  But we can't know for sure how a league that signs players centrally will handle this matter. It's an inherent problem with the single-entity structure (a scheme which should rightfully be illegal).

7 minutes ago, Sec19Row53 said:

Calling it an R logo is either being blindly selective or blindly ignorant. It's a DR for Dallas Renegades that should have been re-designed when Arlington demanded that their name be used rather than Dallas.

I agree with a good deal of what you are saying, but the problem is that the logo ISN'T an AR or an R, it's a DR. That's a showstopper.

The problem with the theory that the logo is a DR (which, admittedly, it does look a bit like) is that this logo didn't exist last season when the team was actually called Dallas Renegades.  It's really just an R.

Still, that said, the name Dallas Renegades is much better than the name Arlington Renegades, for the same reason that Los Angeles Angels is a better name than Anaheim Angels.  Plenty of teams play outside the city limits; but that's no reason to name a team for a minor municipality that pales in significance as compared to the nearby major city.  Alas, this is the name that the team has gone with. Anyway, the R is appropriate, no matter what locality name is used.

Add to that its beautiful styling, and its sharp one-colour presentation, and you have a winner of a logo here in the R.  As I mentioned before, football has way too few letter logos.  This is why I strongly approve of D.C.'s new helmet logo (even though the old logo is good as a secondary).  I also liked the logos of the LA Wildcats last season, and those of the New York Hitmen, the Chicago Enforcers, and the Las Vegas Outlaws in the first season.

2 hours ago, BengalErnst said:

Those white renegade uniforms are clean. I love those. If only they slapped the cowboy head onto those. 

On the sleeve, maybe.

But the R logo is beautiful on the helmet.  And it looks outstanding on a cap.

...as do the letter-based logos of the Bears, Packers, 49ers, and Giants, and also that of the Chiefs, whether with or without the arrow head.

The R logo is a strong, solid mark.  That dignified letter logo is far superior to the clipart cowboy logo (which is derivative of the AFL's Dallas Desperados, anyway).

The only thing wrong with the Renegades' helmet is that goofy stripe that gets wider towards the front.  The Renegades' original helmet got the stripe right.

That stripe would go great with the team's cool number font.

36 minutes ago, Sykotyk said:

It really bums me out that they scrapped that perfect helmet/primary logo they had in 2020 for this. And it doesn't even look right for a team named Arlington Renegades.  Dallas Renegades, sure....

A letter logo is almost always better than a graphic logo, and football suffers from a dearth of letter helmet logos. So the change to the Renegades' helmet from last season was an upgrade. (And the same goes for the Defenders, who also brought in a letter-based helmet logo for this season.)

The Renegades' former helmet logo is better suited to be a sleeve logo.  

The end zones look good.

54 minutes ago, SCMODS said:

This Fisher just won't sell the team. 

I heard Casey Pratt say that Fisher bought the A's for $180 million, and that the team is now valued at $1.8 billion. I have also heard speculation that the valuation could double upon a move to Las Vegas. 

However, if everything falls through in Las Vegas, then the value of the team would probably be on the verge of plummeting.  In that case, selling would be the logical thing to do.

7 minutes ago, Cujo said:

Is there a reason why the XFL needs two weeks between conference titles games and their championship?

I assume it's to allow players to recover from any injuries. But even absent serious injuries, this is a good move, as all players are beaten up, and a week's rest can only help. We want the teams to be at their best.

Also, from the drama standpoint, the two-week wait for the championship game helps heighten the suspense. I'm looking forward to the game, and the extra week makes it feel a bit more important.

I wish Memphis would swap the nice M sleeve logo and that mess of a speedboat helmet logo.

23 minutes ago, kimball said:

It'd be interesting to see what happens IF the A's deal in Vegas falls through. There's no return to Oakland.

There's no return to Oakland under this ownership.

13 minutes ago, tBBP said:

4 hours ago, Red Comet said:

So they’ll probably wind up trying to move the team to Nashville instead of Las Vegas.

 

Yup...expect the Nashville Stars group bid to pick up a whole lotta steam if that deal falls through.

Dave Stewart, who is heading the Nashville group, has said that he is not interested in that.

Brody Brazil and Casey Pratt are reporting that the A's have only a month left to get the funding legislation passed in the Nevada legislature. They quote assembly speaker Steve Yeager (not the ex-Dodger catcher) as saying that there is still no bill, nor are there any concrete plans being discussed.

The legislative session ends in early June, and there isn't another one for another two years. (Which is ridiculous. But that's a whole other topic.) The governor has the power to call a special session; whether the governor would want to do that for this issue is anyone's guess.

Both Brazil and Pratt report that the A's agreement to buy the land for the ballpark near the Las Vegas strip is contingent upon the Nevada legislature passing the funding bill.  If there's no new legislation, then the A's could back out of the purchase. 

Pratt speculates that this would lead to a sale of the team, as the current ownership no longer has any leverage in Oakland, having burned its bridges there.

So there is still some hope.

18 hours ago, Cujo said:

Alts should be forbidden from series clinching games and the entire Finals.

 

EXHIBIT A:

 

That's a good principle.  But there should be room for an exception in the case of throwbacks.  To wit:

Indeed, the first NBA Finals contested by two former ABA teams should have seen both teams wearing ABA uniforms in honour of their shared history.

Unfortunately, the Spurs did not play along.