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Seattle NHL Brand Discussion


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16 hours ago, monkeypower said:

How did you jump from Seattle updating a domain registration to the team being named through corporate sponsorship, by Jeep of all companies?

 

I admit that my hypothesis is a tremendous leap of logic.  Here, then, is how I arrived at this opinion:

  • The updating of the registration of the seattlerengades.com domain came more than fourteen months after the NHL awarded the franchise to the Seattle Hockey Partners group.  Maybe others have seen and/or heard differently, but I do not recall having encountered any serious or even casual discussion of Renegades as a likely nickname for the team.  So, with such a seemingly unexpected move in the branding process at such a presumably late date in the building of a franchise scheduled to start play in 2021, I cannot help but wonder if the culprit is something as bold (at best) and as unseemly (at worst) as a corporate sponsor's acquisition of the right to name the team.
  • If I remember correctly, Seattle Hockey Partners teased that the team's name would be revealed around the time of this year's NHL All-Star Weekend.  That weekend has since come and gone, SHP has still not unveiled a confirmed name for the team, and the seattlerenegades.com domain's registration was updated nearly three weeks after this year's NHL All-Star Game was played.  Hmmm ...
  • With presumably little (if any) input accepted from the general public, Bill Foley went ahead and gave his Las Vegas-based NHL club a nickname that is a rather obvious homage to the educational institution where he earned his bachelor's degree.  By that standard, something as outrageous as letting a corporate sponsor name a team for the "right" price might not be such a surprising act in the NHL.
  • As for why I suspect that Jeep in particular would pay a sports team based in Seattle to be nicknamed the Renegades, (a) Jeep has spent much of its history tailoring its vehicles to people who go (or at least want to go) on adventures in the outdoors regularly, (b) Seattle and its surrounding areas seem like a region full of outdoors-minded and/or adventure-craving people, and (c) I am personally not aware of any other current product that is sold under the Renegade brand name and is as prominent in the overall marketplace as the Jeep Renegade SUV.  Besides, the Jeep line of vehicles has an infamously long history of being built by a string of companies who, at best, were unlucky and, at worst, doomed themselves by making multiple idiotic business decisions.
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Unless I am mistaken, @monkeypower, a hypothesis and a conclusion are not always and do not have to be the same thing, and I have intended all of my speculation about why a Seattle NHL team would consider Renegades as a nickname to be a hypothesis above all else.  It is certainly not a theory, which requires observable and demonstrable proof that a hypothesis does not need.

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Naming a team after a corporate sponsor for a major pro team would be the most foolish thing they could ever do.  You run the risk of alienating your fan base and having them reject the name and then what?  Do you change the name once the sponsorship deal is over and start building a new brand?

 

And, honestly, I doubt the sponsor would get the bang for their buck, either.  Sure, the team would be named after one of their products.  Unless it's going to be like Red Bull's deal with EC Salzburg in Austria, fans are either going to be pissed, or they might not even get the connection between the name and sponsor.  

 

Also, I can't see the NHL allowing it to happen, anyways.  The NBA rejected the idea when FedEx wanted to pay the Grilizzies $100 million to change the name to Express. 

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@M4One, I am definitely among those who think that, over at least the last thirty-five years, the NBA has had smarter leadership than the NHL.  Within CCSLC, I do not seem to be alone in this regard, given how "OITGDNHL" has been a common set of initials in NHL-related posts around here.

 

As for how that relates to corporate sponsorship of team nicknames and the prospect of Seattle's new NHL club being saddled with a sponsored nickname, a part of me suspects that had the Canucks, instead of the Grizzlies, been the team that Michael Heisley moved from Vancouver to Memphis almost nineteen years ago, Gary Bettman would have been both dumb enough and greedy enough to be more willing than David Stern was, or even Adam "Sponsor Logos on the Fronts of Jerseys" Silver might be, to allow an agreement for Heisley and any partners of his to receive tens of millions of dollars from FedEx to change the Canucks' nickname to the Express or practically any other moniker that FedEx desired for the team.

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Interesting article from the "Dean of Domains", Clark Rasmussen...

https://www.detroithockey.net/news/2020/02/28/more-seattle-domain-updates-seattle-kraken-hc/#.XlnA5LP7IcI.twitter

 

"Given the existence of this domain and the rumours already present about the Krāken team name, we may be looking at the team’s official name being... 

Seattle Krāken HC.”"

 

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1 hour ago, sparky chewbarky said:

Interesting article from the "Dean of Domains", Clark Rasmussen...

https://www.detroithockey.net/news/2020/02/28/more-seattle-domain-updates-seattle-kraken-hc/#.XlnA5LP7IcI.twitter

 

"Given the existence of this domain and the rumours already present about the Krāken team name, we may be looking at the team’s official name being... 

Seattle Krāken HC.”"

 

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The way I read this was that the Kraken name may just be a decoy for the Sockeyes name.

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1 hour ago, sparky chewbarky said:

Interesting article from the "Dean of Domains", Clark Rasmussen...

https://www.detroithockey.net/news/2020/02/28/more-seattle-domain-updates-seattle-kraken-hc/#.XlnA5LP7IcI.twitter

 

"Given the existence of this domain and the rumours already present about the Krāken team name, we may be looking at the team’s official name being... 

Seattle Krāken HC.”"

 

Did you get "Seattle Krāken" tattooed on you at some point? Is that why you're so attached to that awful name?

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On 2/26/2020 at 1:11 AM, Walk-Off said:

Gary Bettman would have been both dumb enough and greedy enough to be more willing than David Stern was, or even Adam "Sponsor Logos on the Fronts of Jerseys" Silver might be, to allow an agreement for Heisley and any partners of his to receive tens of millions of dollars from FedEx to change the Canucks' nickname to the Express or practically any other moniker that FedEx desired for the team.

Well yeah. Despite the oddity of this scenario, and whatever your feelings on the Grizzlies name, that actually makes sense. Whatever degree of history the name ‘Canucks’ may have, a team in the south with that name makes as much sense as the Los Angeles Maple Leafs or Boston Redcoats.

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I know this is just the internet and it’s a minor thing really, but the fact he’s going out of his way now to put the accent on the the “a” of Kraken irritates me.

 

It’s like the internet jokes about the people who studied abroad for a semester. “It’s actually pronounced “Barthelona” not Barcelona.”

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56 minutes ago, monkeypower said:

I know this is just the internet and it’s a minor thing really, but the fact he’s going out of his way now to put the accent on the the “ā” of Krāken irritates me.

 

I apologize for upsetting you so much, monkē...

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An "NHL Seattle Countdown" twitter account ran an interesting poll.

They offered voters 4 options (Love It! Like It. Dislike It. Hate It!) on all the contending names.

Looked like this...

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"Thunderbirds" scored very well with a 33.2% Love It! and a 28.6% Like It...

Which prompted a respondant to wonder if the naming date, was delayed 'til the end of the WHL season? Hmmmm.

Is T-Birds a viable option? It certainly would tick a lot of boxes. Mythical Creature (Top choice in recent NHL Seattle Fan Poll), Indigenous Theme (the Louis Gong connection), and, maybe best of all, it snacks on Orcas.

https://twitter.com/NHLSeaCountdown/status/1222948378683686912

 

 

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Thunderbirds isn’t a viable option unless you can get the current Seattle Thunderbirds to give up their name and even then I don’t know if that’s a good branding move.

 

It’s not like Thunderbirds is some long dead Seattle hockey team name that the NHL would resurrect, it’s a very much currently alive team who has used that name since 1985.

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On 3/1/2020 at 12:51 PM, monkeypower said:

I know this is just the internet and it’s a minor thing really, but the fact he’s going out of his way now to put the accent on the the “a” of Kraken irritates me.

 

It’s like the internet jokes about the people who studied abroad for a semester. “It’s actually pronounced “Barthelona” not Barcelona.”

 

With the Barcelona thing, I still find it funny that in Catalan, it isn't "Barthelona"

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3 hours ago, monkeypower said:

Thunderbirds isn’t a viable option unless you can get the current Seattle Thunderbirds to give up their name and even then I don’t know if that’s a good branding move.

 

It’s not like Thunderbirds is some long dead Seattle hockey team name that the NHL would resurrect, it’s a very much currently alive team who has used that name since 1985.

 

Kind of like the Seattle Sounders (whose CEO was also Tod Leiweke)? That USL team was "very much currently alive" in 2008 when they announced the MLS team would take their name.

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11 minutes ago, TaylorMade said:

 

Kind of like the Seattle Sounders (whose CEO was also Tod Leiweke)? That USL team was "very much currently alive" in 2008 when they announced the MLS team would take their name.

 

But that appears to be a different scenario.

 

In my Googling, the USL team essentially morphed into the MLS team and just moved up a professional division with the same majority owner. In theory, it's like the same franchise.

 

The Thunderbirds and the Seattle NHLers will be completely separate franchises at completely separate levels of hockey. If the Thunderbirds owners were going to be the owners of the Seattle NHLers, were planning on folding the WHL team and moving the branding up to the NHL, then it would be similar to the Sounders. But that's not the case here.

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I love Thunderbirds, and am also 100% sure if the Seattle hockey group did too they could strike a deal. It’s free money for a minor league team, and it’s not like WHL teams are cash cows. They could even change to “Kent Thunderbirds” to reference the actual city they play in.

 

Having said that, I don’t see it happening, even though it’s my favorite as a Seattle area resident. Too much noise surrounding the other names. Plus they may believe they’d sell more merch with a new brand... the T-Birds already have pretty awesome branding.

washingtonst.gif

My teams

NCAA: Washington State

MLB: Seattle Mariners

NFL: Seattle Seahawks

NBA: Portland Trailblazers

EPL: Liverpool FC

MLS: Seattle Sounders FC

NHL: Pittsburgh Penguins

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Just now, TenaciousG said:

I love Thunderbirds, and am also 100% sure if the Seattle hockey group did too they could strike a deal. It’s free money for a minor league team, and it’s not like WHL teams are cash cows. They could even change to “Kent Thunderbirds” to reference the actual city they play in.

 

This doesn't make sense either. So there would be two unrelated hockey teams in the "same" city with the same name?

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2 minutes ago, TenaciousG said:

I love Thunderbirds, and am also 100% sure if the Seattle hockey group did too they could strike a deal. It’s free money for a minor league team, and it’s not like WHL teams are cash cows. They could even change to “Kent Thunderbirds” to reference the actual city they play in.

 

Having said that, I don’t see it happening, even though it’s my favorite as a Seattle area resident. Too much noise surrounding the other names. Plus they may believe they’d sell more merch with a new brand... the T-Birds already have pretty awesome branding.

 

Have them rebrand as the Kent Kraken

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