Teams Using the State Name Instead of the City Name

[mjrbaseball]

1 hour ago, Gothamite said:

 

 

okay, then why do you think they do it?

I mean that they do it, but it isn't necessary. It is a waste.

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

6 hours ago, mjrbaseball said:

The idea that "state" teams are trying to appeal to a wider market is ludicrous.

 

3 hours ago, Gothamite said:

okay, then why do you think they do it?

 

2 hours ago, mjrbaseball said:

I mean that they do it, but it isn't necessary. It is a waste.

 

There is something to this.  The Angels did not become any less of an L.A.-area team by adopting the name "California Angels" upon their move to Anaheim.  And the use of "New Jersey" does nothing to convince people in South Jersey (part of the Philadelphia metropolitan area) that a Meadowlands-based team is anything but a New York-area team.  

 

 

6 hours ago, mjrbaseball said:

Are there any markets where it would be virtually impossible to go by a state name? I can't imagine the Seahawks ever using "Washington"

 

When the NLL's San Jose Stealth moved to Everett, Washington, about 25 miles north of Seattle, they became the Washington Stealth.

 

 

That's the only case I know of in which a pro team used the name of Washington state.

[Quillz]

If Cheyenne ever got a pro team, I could see them adopting "Wyoming X."

[Red Wolf]

2 minutes ago, Quillz said:

If Cheyenne ever got a pro team, I could see them adopting "Wyoming X."

 

If we ever find unicorns in Arkansas we'll name our sports teams after them.

 

2 hours ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

 

 

 

There is something to this.  The Angels did not become any less of an L.A.-area team by adopting the name "California Angels" upon their move to Anaheim.  And the use of "New Jersey" does nothing to convince people in South Jersey (part of the Philadelphia metropolitan area) that a Meadowlands-based team is anything but a New York-area team. 

 

This would be my contention. I just can't imagine somebody in Northern California deciding to be an Angels fan over the A's or Giants just because the Angels used California. Same goes for people outside the Bay Area and the Golden State Warriors. Hell, if it were that easy I would have been a Chiefs fan because of their old logo that arrogantly claimed Arkansas (and so much more) as their territory.

[Quillz]

11 minutes ago, Red Wolf said:

Same goes for people outside the Bay Area and the Golden State Warriors.

Success does weird things, though. Lots of bandwagon fans here in SoCal have been Warrior fans, and then previously Clipper fans. But now that the Lakers are "good" (for real this time, we promise!) I imagine they'll go back to being Laker fans.

[Red Wolf]

1 minute ago, Quillz said:

Success does weird things, though. Lots of bandwagon fans here in SoCal have been Warrior fans, and then previously Clipper fans. But now that the Lakers are "good" (for real this time, we promise!) I imagine they'll go back to being Laker fans.

 

But it has nothing to do with the Golden State name. The NBA is also the most bandwagon-ass league ever. I remember years ago there was one of those maps of fanbases based on Facebook likes. It was basically the local team and then right outside of their counties immediately became Lakers, Celtics, and Heat (LeBron was there at the time I saw this) fans.

 

Point is, Golden State could have used Oakland, or Bay Area, or whatever and they would have been just as popular.

[Quillz]

17 minutes ago, Red Wolf said:

Golden State could have used Oakland

They should have. Should have just been the "Oakland Warriors," and then gone back to "San Francisco Warriors." Never liked the Golden State moniker. But it's here to stay now.

[Maroon]

1 hour ago, Red Wolf said:

 

But it has nothing to do with the Golden State name. The NBA is also the most bandwagon-ass league ever. I remember years ago there was one of those maps of fanbases based on Facebook likes. It was basically the local team and then right outside of their counties immediately became Lakers, Celtics, and Heat (LeBron was there at the time I saw this) fans.

 

Point is, Golden State could have used Oakland, or Bay Area, or whatever and they would have been just as popular.

 

I used to agree that the NBA was a bandwagon league as well until I realized that it has less to do with people flocking to the best teams because they're hopping on the newest superteam's bandwagon, and more to do with people following their favorite superstar. Most leagues aren't like that. While some people's fandom may follow the player, in most leagues people primarily root for laundry. I, for one, root for the laundry in every sport including the NBA. But a lot of NBA and basketball fans aren't like that, and that's okay. Someone is allowed to be a LeBron fan or KD fan or what have you. That doesn't mean they're following the bandwagon from one team to another, it means they are following a player from one team to another.

[buzzcut]

2 hours ago, Quillz said:

If Cheyenne ever got a pro team, I could see them adopting "Wyoming X."

Wyoming Marinerzz, anyone?

[Maroon]

1 hour ago, buzzcut said:

Wyoming Marinerzz, anyone?

 

No, he already told you they'd be called the Wyoming X.

[MadmanLA]

On 7/12/2019 at 8:48 PM, Red Wolf said:

 

Not offending Kansas would have been my initial guess, especially considering the ambitious amount of geography covered by their first logo.

 

 

Hell, if the Chiefs really wanted to be arrogant about their "Kingdom", they should claimed Illinois and even Indiana too, as before the Colts moved to Indianapolis in 1984, there were no AFL/AFC teams between Kansas City and Cincinnati--all of the other teams in between are pre-merger NFL/NFC teams (the entire current NFC North + St. Louis 2x).  Of course, it was already mentioned, the Royals (pre-Rockies) had a larger territorial claim, covering nearly all of the Rocky Mountains, as well as those same states seen in the above picture, although Oklahoma and Arkansas is also pretty much shared with the Rangers and Astros too.

[Red Comet]

On 7/12/2019 at 10:48 PM, Red Wolf said:

 

Not offending Kansas would have been my initial guess, especially considering the ambitious amount of geography covered by their first logo.

 

 

Even though I know there is no way in hell such a logo could exist now (starting off with objections from the Cowboys, Broncos and Vikings and that's where I'll stop), a modernized version with just the state of Missouri would be a neat alternative logo. Also, interesting tidbit about said logo: The football is over where Kansas City would appear on a map.

 

And, as someone from KC, we don't want to be a major city as @BringBackTheVet has alluded to. We're quite happy being a regional city. Although with all the refugees from Silicon Valley looking for a $1000/mo. rental that doesn't also have 4 wheels attached below it coming here, I doubt that it is going to stay that way. I mean, you can either be a city that is a world class metropole with culture/amenities that are second to none or you can be a city that the average person can afford to live in on their own. You can't be both.

[GDAWG]

1 hour ago, Red Comet said:

 

Even though I know there is no way in hell such a logo could exist now (starting off with objections from the Cowboys, Broncos and Vikings and that's where I'll stop), a modernized version with just the state of Missouri would be a neat alternative logo. Also, interesting tidbit about said logo: The football is over where Kansas City would appear on a map.

 

And, as someone from KC, we don't want to be a major city as @BringBackTheVet has alluded to. We're quite happy being a regional city. Although with all the refugees from Silicon Valley looking for a $1000/mo. rental that doesn't also have 4 wheels attached below it coming here, I doubt that it is going to stay that way. I mean, you can either be a city that is a world class metropole with culture/amenities that are second to none or you can be a city that the average person can afford to live in on their own. You can't be both.

 

Kansas City is also the home of this national treasure, the ageless one, Paul Rudd:

 

 

I saw him in Avengers End Game and then in 40 Year Old Virgin.  Other than his hairstyle, he looks exactly the same. 

 

[tBBP]

On 7/15/2019 at 12:22 PM, Red Wolf said:

 

If we ever find unicorns in Arkansas we'll name our sports teams after them.

 

Heh, Arkansas already has diamonds, so... 

 

On 7/15/2019 at 2:57 PM, buzzcut said:

Wyoming Marinerzz, anyone?

 

On 7/15/2019 at 4:46 PM, Maroon said:

 

No, he already told you they'd be called the Wyoming X.

 

I don't think you've been here long enough to get that joke, @Maroon. (Then again, the guy who created the joke isn't around here anymore  either, so...)

 

3 hours ago, GDAWG said:

 

Kansas City is also the home of this national treasure, the ageless one, Paul Rudd:

 

 

I saw him in Avengers End Game and then in 40 Year Old Virgin.  Other than his hairstyle, he looks exactly the same. 

 

 

Not for nothing, but KC is also home to comedian Eddie Griffin, actor Don Cheadle, indie rap artist Tech N9ne, and about the most crackheaded Flying J this side of the 49th parallel, so there's that, too. 

[Needschat]

On 7/12/2019 at 12:37 PM, Maroon said:

So a post in the "Charlotte Very Much in Play for 30th MLS Team" thread stated that their pitch to MLS is going to focus on it being a Carolina team rather than a Charlotte team. I started writing a post in that thread but it spiraled into a much longer, off topic post about teams that use the name of their state in their team name rather than their city's name. I'm rather new here, so forgive me if this has been a topic of conversation before, but this is a subject that has always interested me. While I often understand the reason for why clubs across the major sports leagues would use the state name instead of the city name (and I'm a fan of one of them), it just strikes me as somewhat odd each time.

MLB: Minnesota Twins, Texas Rangers, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Colorado Rockies

NFL: Tennessee Titans, Minnesota Vikings, Arizona Cardinals, Carolina Panthers, and New England Patriots (a region, not a state)

NBA: Indiana Pacers, Minnesota Timberwolves, Utah Jazz, Golden State Warriors

NHL: Florida Panthers, Carolina Hurricanes, New Jersey Devils, Colorado Avalanche, Minnesota Wild, Arizona Coyotes
MLS: Colorado Rapids, Minnesota United, and New England Revolution

(I'll add that I realize that any team with "New York" in the name could ambiguously be referring to either the city or the state)

So I'm not really complaining, because teams can do whatever they want, and they're going to do whatever they thinks makes sense for them to maximize their marketability. But from this list we can see that most teams prefer to go by their city name and that these other teams going by their state (or region) name is the aberration. To extrapolate further, it's pretty clear that we have some consistency here with some states.

Minnesota: Makes sense because they don't want to offend one of the two twin cities
Carolina: Appeals to the other respective major N Carolina city and S Carolina

New England: Clearly a marketing opportunity the stretch beyond just Boston
Arizona: Wants to include Tempe? The Cardinals play in Glendale and not Phoenix?
Colorado: I do not for the life of me know why all non-Nuggets franchises use Colorado rather than Denver

Utah makes sense because until Real Salt Lake they were the only major pro franchise in the state. Also, Utah's ABA team also was called the "Utah Stars" so the state name being used was precedent there. In fact, using the state name was much more common in the ABA, considering they had the Utah Stars, Indiana Pacers, Carolina Cougars, Minnesota Muskies and Pipers, Kentucky Colonels Virginia Squires, and the New Orleans Buccaneers were briefly the Louisiana Buccaneers. So that also helps explain the Pacers since they were founded in a league that used a state name more frequently.

I presume Tennessee is to keep Memphis in the fold of fandom. Golden State was to increase the Warriors appeal across the state. New Jersey Devils makes sense because it's the only New Jersey team that doesn't put "New York" in the name since the Nets left. I have no clue why the Florida Panthers would feel audacious enough to claim the whole state when the state of Florida had the Lightning a year before they started playing. Looking it up, it's apparently because the "Florida Panther" is the actual name of the animal, but that rings hollow to me as an excuse to claim an entire state. I have the same feeling towards the Texas Rangers when Houston already had a club.

But to circle back around the original reason I started writing this, I think the reason "Carolina" strikes me as the oddest name to use is because it doesn't just try to make Raleigh fans of Charlotte teams and Charlotte fans of Raleigh teams, it also tries to bring in South Carolina as well. Apart from the New England Patriots, all the other team names are still confined to a singular state, but the teams that claim "Carolina" as their team name are crossing state borders.

Anyhow, I've rambled on quite long enough. Any thoughts? Do you like it when a team uses a state or regional name rather than their city's name? Do you detest it? Thanks for reading.

 

New York Islanders are named after the state and the island.  

[Maroon]

13 hours ago, Buc said:

 

I don't think you've been here long enough to get that joke, @Maroon. (Then again, the guy who created the joke isn't around here anymore  either, so...)

 

 

I very clearly have not been around long enough to get the joke, but then again, wildly stumbling into inside jokes that I don't get seems to be a talent of mine in real life as well so oh well.

[The_Admiral]

19 hours ago, Red Comet said:

Even though I know there is no way in hell such a logo could exist now (starting off with objections from the Cowboys, Broncos and Vikings and that's where I'll stop), a modernized version with just the state of Missouri would be a neat alternative logo. Also, interesting tidbit about said logo: The football is over where Kansas City would appear on a map.

 

One of the mothership comments is something like "this is just a guy teabagging Oklahoma."

[Red Comet]

1 hour ago, the admiral said:

 

One of the mothership comments is something like "this is just a guy teabagging Oklahoma."

 

Someone also thought it was a football player going Super Saiyan 3. No, that happens after about 10 Boulevards and another :censored:ing blown lead in January.

[tBBP]

On 7/17/2019 at 10:02 AM, Maroon said:

 

I very clearly have not been around long enough to get the joke, but then again, wildly stumbling into inside jokes that I don't get seems to be a talent of mine in real life as well so oh well.

 

It's all good, cat...it's done happened to the best of us up in here at some point or another. 

[rainmaker17]

There really is a group known as the Texas Rangers...I don't get the issue.  Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Plano or Grand Prairie Rangers sounds ridiculous.