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Seattle NHL Brand Discussion


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1 hour ago, TaylorMade said:

 

I'm not 100%, but I think since the team wouldn't be named the "Idaho Steelheads," then they wouldn't need to buy the name. I mean, there are two teams called the Thunder in the AHL.

 

Nothing in law is ever 100%, but my 10+ years working in intellectual property lead me to believe that if Seattle tried to use Steelheads in connection to its hockey team and any related merchandising, the Idaho Steelheads would have a pretty strong case to assert their Federally-registered trademark.

 

Because trademark infringement rests on the likelihood of confusion among the public that the marks are from the same or related source, I’m pretty sure that hypothetical suit would make it past any summary judgement motion, which mean Seattle would probably have to pay up or come up with a different name.

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9 hours ago, daveindc said:

 

 

To me, Sea Lions works in the same way the Penguins and Ducks do.

 

 

Its more for the two-word name that sounds minor league to me, but I also think that if Penguins came out today, rather than something that’s been around my whole life, i’d be saying something similar. 

 

Ducks was absolutelu childish and bush league when it came out. It was a damn marketing gimmick with a cartoon cute logo designed specifically for kids. 

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Seattle University uses red and black, but the Seattle Hockeypucks will be a weird stepchild if they go outside of the blue with a shade of green motif that every other pro team uses. I love the way the whole city's sports teams all kind of match and it matches the city's landscape. Red/black is a fine color scheme, there's just too much of it in the NHL already. They'll be the sixth team using red and black. 

 

Reason number 19,345 the league needs a Director of Common Sense (me). 

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30 minutes ago, BringBackTheVet said:

Ducks was absolutelu childish and bush league when it came out. It was a damn marketing gimmick with a cartoon cute logo designed specifically for kids. 

 

That didn’t change it being a good look with a fantastic color scheme. Had they just been the “Anaheim Ducks” from day one, fewer people would have a problem with it. That’s not “bush league” at all.

 

Sea Lions are hardly cartoony or cheesy. Is there a famed cartoon sea lion in media like there are for ducks? Chose a dignified logo, and they’ll be fine.

 

It’s a lot better than Kraken, Renegades, or my least favorite, Totems. No new Native American-themed names or motifs without tribal approval. 

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While a green and/or blue based color scheme and identity seems like the obvious for Seattle, Chris at Icethetics talked about a black, red, turquoise palette to go with a Native American theme, and it's making a lot of sense to me.  I gave it a whirl, using the Thunderbirds logo for the sake of the aesthetics of it with the Native art theme.  If it's a unique shade of red, it could really work and help them stand out.

 

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Let's throw out some other terrible names:

 

Seattle Gray Skies

Seattle Amazons

Seattle Coffee Beans

Seattle Space Needles

Seattle Fishmongers

 

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8 hours ago, Webfooter said:

With the team name being water-related, I think that puts names like "Sockeyes"  and "Sea Lions" in a better position than "Totems" or "Thunderbirds."

 

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 (Sonics'  Sasquatch, Suns' Gorilla, Expos' Youppi, Avalanche's Howler the Yeti and now Bernie, etc.)

 

While I agree that "Totems" and "Thunderbirds" wouldn't seem to fit with any water-related costumed mascot, I could easily see "Metros/Metropolitans" having someone in a seal or fish costume. (Canucks already have "Fin the Whale"):

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If it's going to be a fish, it should be Steelheads. It's the WA state fish.


 

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They'd have to buy that one from the Stars' ECHL farm club Idaho Steelheads.


 

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Because trademark infringement rests on the likelihood of confusion among the public that the marks are from the same or related source, I’m pretty sure that hypothetical suit would make it past any summary judgement motion, which mean Seattle would probably have to pay up or come up with a different name.


Why settle for buying the name when they could by the farm club? Or, at least affiliate with them? 

As NHL Seattle works towards its first season in 2021-2022, one of the tasks it has to complete is lining-up an American Hockey League affiliate. I'd recently read that NHL Seattle senior adviser Dave Tippet had already engaged in talks with the ECHL's Idaho Steelheads about the possibility of said team making the jump to the American Hockey League as Seattle's top minor league affiliate. 

Now, nothing is set in stone, as markets such as Spokane, Reno, Sacramento, and Fresno have also been bandied about as possible homes for an NHL Seattle farm team.

Still, the Steelheads are set to serve as the ECHL affiliate of the Dallas Stars through the end of the 2019-2020 season. A 1-year extension of their agreement with Dallas could nicely dovetail with Seattle'a arrival on the NHL scene in time for the 2021-2022 NHL campaign. Or, NHL Seattle might make it worth the Steelheads while to operate as a quasi-independent for a year before launching as an AHL franchise. Either way, whether as a wholly-owned subsidiary (like the Belleville Senators, Iowa Wild, Texas Stars, and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Penguins) or an affiliated farm team (akin to the Providence Bruins), it wouldn't be unprecedented for the Idaho Steelheads to share a team name with their parent Seattle Steelheads.

Of course, Steelheads isn't even on the list of the 38 domains - representing 13 possible team names - that Oak View Group's Christina Song registered back in January of this year. So, unless NHL Seattle has surreptitiously registered other domains/trademarks, we're simply speculating.

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To echo a little of what @B-Rich was saying about the MASCOT being water related -- I'd love a nickname a name like the Seattle Sockeyes, Totems, Rainiers or whatnot and then have a Kraken mascot. They could have some fun with that throughout the games, etc. RELEASE THE KRAKEN!

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No new Native American-themed names or motifs without tribal approval.

 

SFGiants58 is spot-on with this assessment of the situation. While I feel that either of the traditional Seattle hockey identities of Totems or Thunderbirds could make for terrific team brands, without local tribal approval they're non-starters. If NHL Seattle were interested in adopting an identity that drew upon Native American themes, they should engage with local tribal communities in a process akin to the dialogue that occurred between the Northwest League's Spokane Indians and the Spokane Tribe of Indians.
 

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While a green and/or blue based color scheme and identity seems like the obvious for Seattle, Chris at Icethetics talked about a black, red, turquoise palette to go with a Native American theme, and it's making a lot of sense to me.


I've previously posted in sparky chewbarky's "Battle of Seattle" thread that an NHL Seattle identity that is influenced by the tribally-approved use of Coast Salish themes and utilizes a palette of Deep Teal, Red Ochre, Black and White could be visually stunning.   

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To echo a little of what @B-Rich was saying about the MASCOT being water related -- I'd love a nickname a name like the Seattle Sockeyes, Totems, Rainiers or whatnot and then have a Kraken mascot. They could have some fun with that throughout the games, etc. RELEASE THE KRAKEN!


That would leave me cold.

I realize that I'm not the target-audience for a costumed mascot. I also understand that some team names don't necessarily lend themselves to an immediately apparent mascot character. Still, to my mind, if NHL Seattle opted to adopt a name such as Seattle Sockeyes, Seattle Totems, or Seattle Rainiers as the team's official name, it would strike me as completely incongruous to utilize a kraken as the team's mascot. 

If your team is named after an existent, locally-plentiful, ocean-dwelling creature (such as the sockeye salmon), why opt to have your costumed mascot depict a completely different ocean-dwelling creature that is not only mythical, but is drawn from a mythological tradition that isn't particularly relevant to the locale in which your team is based?

If your team is named for items or artifacts that are important to a specific local culture's traditions (such as Coast Salish art), and - further - said items/artifacts typically contain imagery depicting locally-relevant creatures (both real and legendary), events, and people, why opt to have your costumed mascot depict a creature from a mythical tradition that isn't relevant to the culture from which your team name and logo are drawn?

If your team is named for a local mountain, why opt to have your costumed mascot depict a sea-creature?

Look, I get that there are some people who are in love with the Kraken identity. That's fine. That said, to my mind, shoe-horning a kraken mascot into a team identity that has nothing whatsoever to do with Nordic myth would be the very definition of lazy, piss-poor, unfocused branding.

And for the record, I think the likes of "Chance the Gila Monster", "Go the Gorilla", "K.C. Wolf", and the "Mariner Moose" are garbage, too! Now, get off my lawn!!! 😋   

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1 hour ago, Brian in Boston said:

Why settle for buying the name when they could by the farm club? Or, at least affiliate with them? 

* * *

 

Either way, whether as a wholly-owned subsidiary (like the Belleville Senators, Iowa Wild, Texas Stars, and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Penguins) or an affiliated farm team (akin to the Providence Bruins), it wouldn't be unprecedented for the Idaho Steelheads to share a team name with their parent Seattle Steelheads.

 

Agreed. Licensing the name as a part of a farm-affiliation would probably be the most economical way of obtaining the name (assuming they wanted it), because it would lower the royalties and provide the benefit of having a farm-club nearby.

 

The farm club implications of Seattle in the NHL are something I hadn't even thought of yet. 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. Spokane, Sacramento, Fresno, Reno would probably be better suited as ECHL cities.

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