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It's been a long time since I've done an alternate history, my previous two, the original Ottawa Senators http://boards.sportslogos.net/topic/73848-what-if-the-original-senators-never-folded/ and the Montreal Maroons http://boards.sportslogos.net/topic/73802-what-if-the-maroons-never-folded/ Got some great opinions. but someone mentioned an idea (and I wish I remembered who) that intrigued me enough to go after, because it's nowhere near as straightforward as one would think. What if the NHL had taken more teams from the World Hockey Association? Of course we know that the NHL absorbed the Hartford Whalers, Quebec Nordiques, Winnipeg Jets, and Edmonton Oilers before the 1979-80 season, what if they took four more? Joining the NHL in this hypothetical are: Birmingham Bulls Houston Aeros Indianapolis Racers Cincinnati Stingers along with the usual 4. Now, this will cause some difficulties, for instance, the Minnesota North Stars wouldn't move to Dallas if there's already a team in Houston. Columbus won't be an NHL city if there's already a team in Cincinnati, and so on. However, I like following Doctor Who time travel logic in that some things are meant to be, so there'll be some familiar looks and logos throughout. So without further ado, the first team to be unveiled will be: Cincinnati Stingers Upon entry to the NHL, the Boston Bruins threw a fit over Cincinnati's jerseys, and rightfully so. They had just lost the battle over keeping the Pittsburgh Penguins away from black and gold, they wouldn't be beaten twice. The color they would add? Cincinnati Red. However, there wasn't time to redesign the uniforms that first season, and until proper jerseys could be ordered, red fabric was sewn overtop the original stripes. It would work for the first season. 1979-80 1980-88 The gold is lightened to yellow and a new look and logo introduced for the season. The Stingers were here to stay. 1988-94 At the end of the 1980s, teams were being discouraged from using gold at home in lieu of a white jersey. Cincinnati changes their home gold to white. To be continued...

A long long time ago, I made a concept series asking if the original Ottawa Senators never folded, and in that series I made a concept logo that I kinda threw together with a few random ideas, and didn't think much of it. And recently, there has been a number of times people have brought this logo up as something they wish the Senators would do. I'm blown away every time it happens, because the logo was not meant to be the focal point of the series. As I said in the original, the O is from the Senators' original logo, the leaves are from the Canadian coat of arms, and the shield at the bottom is, depending on which you prefer, a recolor of the shield of Ontario or the bottom of the old Canadian Red Ensign. Derived works, but ones I feel are in the public domain and therefore fair game, but I give credit where credit is due. So I finally got around to re-doing the logo, cleaning it up, making a Special Edition, if you will. Now I'm throwing it out here for C&C, really specific stuff like stray pixels and really global stuff like the leaves not working. What are your thoughts?

In no order, here are my Top 10: 1999 Jaguars - Lost to no one but the Titans in either the regular season or the postseason. 1998 Vikings - Points. Lots of points. 1987 Saints - Dome Patrol at their peak, but a wild-card entry because of... 1987 49ers - 13-2 but lost to Minnesota somehow. 1996 Broncos - Sadly, their playoff loss to Jacksonville was their last game before the uniform change. 1985 Dolphins - They still had a very formidable offense the year after Marino set all those records. 2011 Packers - 15-1, but when the Giants are hot you don't get in their way... 1979 Chargers - At 12-4, the best record of Fouts' career. Unlike many other Charger teams from that era, this one actually had a defense too. 1975 Cardinals - Another Coryell team that didn't produce in the playoffs. Amazingly, their 11-3 record was the worst of the NFC's division winners that season, behind the Vikings and the... 1975 Rams - 9.6 points allowed per game. Beat the Cardinals in the playoffs but got trounced by the Cowboys in the NFC title game. Bonus: 2004 Steelers - Sorry, but these guys weren't as good as their 15-1 record would seem to indicate. Honorable Mention: 1975 Vikings- Upset by Dallas in the divisional round, but they went to several other Super Bowls in the same time period. Their big thing was not being able to win the Super Bowl, rather than not being able to get there...not only are the Vikings 0-4 all-time in the Super Bowl, but they haven't even held a lead or scored a first-half Super Bowl point...ever.

I'm working on another What-If series (it's been a loooooooooong time since I've done one) like my Ottawa Senators and Montreal Maroons series, and I'm at a loss for ideas. I'm all about thorough research and realism, so I want to do this right. So I'm coming for help so I can complete the series before I post. The idea is this: What if more WHA teams joined the NHL in the 1979 merger? Birmingham, Houston, Indianapolis, Cincinnati join the NHL. Birmingham Bulls join the NHL, so the Atlanta Flames last a few years longer with the regional rivalry. Instead of Atlanta moving to Calgary in 1980, the Birmingham Bulls move to Calgary in 1982. Atlanta still doesn't survive, and they move to become the Florida Flames in 1984. That alternate path is done. Houston Aeros join the NHL, see the success that Dallas did but years earlier. However, the Minnesota North Stars wouldn't move to Texas if the Aeros are already there, so in 1993 they move to San Jose to revive the Seals (the Seals WERE merged with the North Stars and technically the Sharks are the descendants of the Seals, so why not make it official?). I'm working on this. Colorado Rockies still move to New Jersey. Winnipeg Jets still move to Phoenix. Quebec Nordiques still move to Colorado. Hartford Whalers still move to Carolina. Anaheim Ducks, Ottawa Senators, and Minnesota Wild still become expansion teams. Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers, Columbus Blue Jackets, San Jose Sharks, Atlanta Thrashers/Winnipeg Jets 2 never exist. Now, here are the real questions: The Indianapolis Racers survive a very short time before moving to Nashville. I'm all ears for naming suggestions, but a racing theme is something I want to keep. Anybody have info on other possible team names that the Predators rejected? The biggest problem I'm having is this: The Cincinnati Stingers had numerous WHA attendance records and did well. I think they would have survived and taken the Blue Jackets' place. However, they looked exactly like the Bruins did, and with the Bruins losing the argument with Pittsburgh over the Black and Gold color scheme, they won't let it happen again. One of the conditions of Cincinnati joining the league is for a change of color scheme and jerseys. What colors make sense for the Stingers other than black and gold? Any thoughts on if that logo would change much over time? And I have two spots for expansion teams. Would the NHL simply expand to Winnipeg, or should they follow the Thrashers/Jets model? Columbus didn't happen because Cincinnati has a team. Where should that franchise go? I realize there are no concept here, yet. But I am hoping with some ideas, direction, and inspiration, I can make some great ones.

Just a concept I whipped up a short while ago. What if the Athletics never packed their bags from the City of Brotherly Love? After all, they had a much more storied history in the city while the Phillies were always relegated to second-division status (Of course, financial problems and the Phillies new-found success did the A's in for their stay in Philly). So here's a concept for the 2014 Philly A's. Their home jerseys stay basically the same as they did for most of their existence, though they keep the gold from the 1950 Golden Anniversary uniforms. For the road jerseys I used a Philadelphia script I found on the internet, though I would love to one day be able to replicate the actual Athletics script into the word Philadelphia. The alternate uses the script that the team used in the late 80s, before the second serif was added. Let me know what you think, I might do one of those "alternate universe" threads where the A's stay and the Phillies move to another city, much like the A's did.

I have been working on a project during my free time on what some NHL teams/markets might have looked like if it weren't for some relocations/foldings that took place between the 70's and 90's. So here is Part I: The Colorado Rockies. The Colorado Rockies were an NHL between 1976 and 1981. They were originally the Kansas City Scouts before moving to Denver in 1976, and then after many seasons of poor attendance, and bad play the team finally packed up and moved to New Jersey. The would become the Devils, and you all know what happened after that. In this project though, the Rockies never make the move to New Jersey, and they are still in Denver to this day. But what would the Rockies look like now? Would they have kept the uniforms unchanged? Who they change colors? Would they get new logos? 1976-1977 When the Rockies moved to Denver from Kansas City, the kept their colors of blue, red and yellow but changed their name and adopted a new logo that was based of the Colorado state flag. Their original uniforms were classic in style and very fitting to the era in which they were created. The white jersey was adorned with yellow/red/yellow sleeve stripes and blue pants. While the blue jersey was adorned with the same yellow/red/yellow stripes and red pants. 1977-1985 After their first season in Colorado, the Rockies decided to make a few changes to their look. The first and most obvious one, being the addition of player's names to the blue jersey. Now both home and away sets had the player's name on the back. The other not so obvious changes were the addition of a yellow/blue/yellow stripe to the bottom of the red pants legs, so that the striping would better match that of the blue pants. And they began to wear white helmets with the white jersey. This look would last them until the 1984-1985 season. 1985-1990 After the 1984-1985 season, the Rockies would make one small tweak to their look, in order to simplify things and also to save an extra penny. They would drop the red pants that were worn with the blue jersey, and start using their blue pants exclusively. 1990-1996 After the 1989-1990 season, the Rockies would make their first drastic uniform change. They would drop their jersey design that they have had since their first season in favor of a more streamlined and modern striping style. The new jerseys feature a white/yellow/red/blue stripe pattern that would hold consistent on both jerseys. The stripes would be adorned on the sleeves, hems and socks of the uniform. They also dropped the striping on the pants and now have solid blue pants with both jerseys. 1996-2007 In 1996, the Rockies would follow the direction of the Sabres, Islanders, and Capitals in completely rebranding themselves with a new logo. This logo was supposed to be a modernization of their old logo. Still based on the Colorado flag, the new logo features a red C outlined in navy blue, with a mountain inside of a yellow circle in the middle of the C. The new logo would also bring about a change in colors. All three colors (red, blue, and yellow) are darkened pretty drastically. Along with the new logo/colors, the team would adopt a new uniform with striping made to reflect mountain peaks. The blue jersey had sleeves adorned with a single red peak stripe outlined by two small yellow and white stripes. The hem would feature this same style but with multiple peaks instead of just one. The white jersey would follow the same style but with blue peak stripes outlined by two small red and yellow stripes. These jerseys would be worn for a total of 11 seasons. 2007-2009 With the introduction of the new Rebook Edge jersey system in the NHL, some looks were unable to be reproduced on the new jersey cuts. One of these designs being the Rockies mountain peak design. Because of this the Rockies are forced to adopt a new uniform. The logos and colors would remain the same. The new uniforms feature stripes that go all along the tops of the sleeves and side panel stripes. The color pattern would follow the same style as the previous set; red/yellow/white on the blue jersey, and blue/yellow/red on the white jersey. 2009-2011 In 2009, the Rockies would adopt the first third uniform in the history of the franchise. Because of all the retro craze going on during this time, the Rockies would adopt a faxback design, complete with lace-up collars, as their third jersey. This jersey was navy blue with a red/white/yellow/white/red sleeve, sock, and hem striping design. 2011-2012 With the large amount of success the third jersey had with fans, in 2011 the Rockies would decide to adopt that jersey as their full time look. They created a new matching white jersey, and retired their previous home/away jerseys. 2012-present In 2012, the Colorado Rockies would pay homage to the original 1976 team with a throwback third jersey. This jersey would feature the same design as the original blue sweater that the team wore in 1976.