City vs State/Region Team Names

[sky1324]

6 hours ago, tBBP said:

"Golden State" has long been one of my favorites; right behind it, New England.  Off the top of my head I can't think of any other "regional" identifiers aside from Tampa Bay. I do remember that the A11FL, had it taken off, would've fielded a team called the "Bay Area Sea Lions"--it'd have been interesting to see how that would've taken off.

You mentioned one Panthers team but forgot the other! "Carolina" is a region, even if the more accurate name is "The Carolinas".

[MilSox]

9 hours ago, tBBP said:

I still kinda wish the Marlins had kept the "Florida" identifier (at the time of their inception they were the only MLB team in the state, after all), but I understand why they went more local. (I don't think it's been working too well for them, though! )

 

I love everything about the original Marlins identity EXCEPT the Florida part. I like when MLB teams adopt the names of old minor league clubs from the same city and leave them fully intact.  Some politicians tried to force the Brewers to change to the Wisconsin Brewers as a stipulation for public funding of Miller Park.  I would have HATED that.

[leopard88]

20 hours ago, tBBP said:

"Golden State" has long been one of my favorites; right behind it, New England.

 

Then you have both the Indy Eleven and Indy Fuel, which I think may be the only two instances (unless one of y'all knows differently) of a pro sports team making an abbreviated form of its city's name their official identifer.

 

Funny, Golden State may be my least favorite because it sounds like the name of a college.  Bay State Patriots would have been just as bad . . . if not worse.

 

 

I think Vegas Golden Knights may count as another example of an abbreviated form of the city name.

[tBBP]

1 minute ago, leopard88 said:

I think Vegas Golden Knights may count as another example of an abbreviated form of the city name.

 

Oh yeah, that.  On technicality, yes you're correct.  Silly as that official designation sounds to me...I'd have much preferred they went with "Vegas Knights", or go all the way with "Las Vegas Golden Knights".

 

On this topic... this will never happen, but whether it be Fargo or Sioux Falls, I do wonder if, should either were to get a half-major pro team someday, they would name it after their city,  respective state, or combine both and go with "Dakota"...

[leopard88]

10 minutes ago, tBBP said:

 

Oh yeah, that.  On technicality, yes you're correct.  Silly as that official designation sounds to me...I'd have much preferred they went with "Vegas Knights", or go all the way with "Las Vegas Golden Knights".

 

On this topic... this will never happen, but whether it be Fargo or Sioux Falls, I do wonder if, should either were to get a half-major pro team someday, they would name it after their city,  respective state, or combine both and go with "Dakota"...

 

I'm a lawyer.  Technicalities are what I do.  

 

As for the Las Vegas NHL hockey team, I would be fine with either nickname as long as they used "Las Vegas" as the city name.  "Vegas" is like "Philly" or "Frisco" to me . . . and reminds me of this (which I am old enough to remember.

 

As for Fargo or Sioux Falls, I could definitely see either city using "Dakota" as a team name.

[B-Rich]

22 hours ago, tBBP said:

Then you have both the Indy Eleven and Indy Fuel, which I think may be the only two instances (unless one of y'all knows differently) of a pro sports team making an abbreviated form of its city's name their official identifier.

 

One more (in the same location)-- the old Indy Daredevils of the ASL in the late 1970s:

 

 

Another one (in my locality) is the NOLA Gold Major League Rugby team:

[tBBP]

5 minutes ago, B-Rich said:

 

Another one (in my locality) is the NOLA Gold Major League Rugby team:

 

They actually got away with using "NOLA"??

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

3 hours ago, leopard88 said:

I think Vegas Golden Knights may count as another example of an abbreviated form of the city name.

 

Every team called "Los Angeles" is using a shortened version of the name "Nuestra Señora La Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula".

 

I kid.  But the Galaxy claim not to be the "Los Angeles Galaxy" anymore, but only the "LA Galaxy".  Though even that is a stretch.

The mention of the Vegas Golden Knights reminds me that some minor-league New Jersey teams have used "Jersey".  There is currently the Jersey Flight, based in Trenton, in the NAL; and in the iteration of the EHL that ran from the 1950s to the 1970s, there was a team called the Jersey Devils, which also played in South Jersey (where the myth of the Jersey Devil originated).

 

 

Side note to @leopard88: Something seems to have gone wrong with your sig.  None of the images show up.

 

[sky1324]

3 hours ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

I kid.  But the Galaxy claim not to be the "Los Angeles Galaxy" anymore, but only the "LA Galaxy".  Though even that is a stretch.

 

Officially, the Clippers are the LA Clippers as well. Stupid, but true.

[cajunaggie08]

The team names that always bothered me most growing up were the New York/New Jersey Metrostars and later New York/New Jersey Hitmen of the XFL and any other team that tries the NY/NJ dual name situation. I get that in both cases these were teams trying to represent/capture the NYC market while playing games in a stadium owned by the State of New Jersey. It felt like trying to have your cake and eat it too. The mouthfull of a name was always so long that announcers would just leave off the location and refer to the team name. Perhaps it was written in as a condition of the rent that NJ had to be in the team name, but it just looked horrible. Pick one or the other. 

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

1 hour ago, QCS said:

5 hours ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

the Galaxy claim not to be the "Los Angeles Galaxy" anymore, but only the "LA Galaxy".  

Officially, the Clippers are the LA Clippers as well. Stupid, but true.

 

Ah, right.  I remember reading that.  

But look at the text for the team's site as it appears in a Google search:

 

 

 

And then, of course, there are these uniforms:

 

 

So they haven't totally abandoned the idea of "Los Angeles".

 

 

53 minutes ago, cajunaggie08 said:

The team names that always bothered me most growing up were the New York/New Jersey Metrostars and later New York/New Jersey Hitmen of the XFL and any other team that tries the NY/NJ dual name situation. . . . Perhaps it was written in as a condition of the rent that NJ had to be in the team name, but it just looked horrible.

 

I hated that, too.  It was not only a dual name, but it was a monstrous combination of one city name and one state name.  The moniker was so awkward and ugly, for several reasons.

 

And, yes, the rules of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, which manages the Meadowlands, stated that any team playing in the Meadowlands had to have "New Jersey" in the team's name.  The USFL intended to call its New York team the New York Generals, until the original owners (before Trump) decided to change it to New Jersey Generals early on so as to avoid a dispute with the NJSEA.  And the WLAF's New York team was originally named the New York Knights; but the NJSEA, which gave the Giants and Jets a pass on the name rule, weren't going to extend that same courtesy to the NFL's spring project.  So the Knights became the NY/NJ Knights (though coach Mouse Davis would sometimes appear on the sidelines wearing a sweater that read "New York Knights").

The ones who bucked this rule were the Red Bulls.  When Red Bull bought the MetroStars, they changed the team's name to New York Red Bulls, even though the team was still playing in Giants Stadium.  As a fan of NYCFC, and also as someone who disapproves of such an obviously corporate team name as Red Bulls (as opposed to the name MetroStars, which was a slightly less overt allusion to the team's previous owners Metromedia), I hate to say anything nice about that team.  But they definitely deserve congratulations for their act of defiance against the NJSEA.

 

[leopard88]

15 hours ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

 

Ah, right.  I remember reading that.  

But look at the text for the team's site as it appears in a Google search:

 

 

 

And then, of course, there are these uniforms:

 

 

So they haven't totally abandoned the idea of "Los Angeles".

 

 

Yeah, this one seems to go in both directions at once.

[OnWis97]

I wonder if we dodged a bullet with Rocky Mountain Extreme.

 

They won the Cup in their first season so they became immediately relevant and cool.  Could this have led to the Upper Midwest Wild, the State of Hockey Wild, the SoCal Chargers, the Desert Raiders, the Bayou Pelicans, or the Dust Bowl Thunder?

[BBTV]

On 8/5/2021 at 9:19 AM, leopard88 said:

As for the Las Vegas NHL hockey team, I would be fine with either nickname as long as they used "Las Vegas" as the city name.  "Vegas" is like "Philly" or "Frisco" to me . . . and reminds me of this (which I am old enough to remember.

 

 

What if they did like the sign and were the Vega$ Golden Knight$?

 

Also... does anyone really say "Frisco"?

[leopard88]

On 8/6/2021 at 9:24 PM, BBTV said:

 

What if they did like the sign and were the Vega$ Golden Knight$?

 

Also... does anyone really say "Frisco"?

 

That would be almost cool .  .  . and I have no idea.

[cajunaggie08]

On 8/6/2021 at 8:24 PM, BBTV said:

 

What if they did like the sign and were the Vega$ Golden Knight$?

 

Also... does anyone really say "Frisco"?

 

These guys do. But thats because they play in Frisco, TX which today I learned was named after the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway. Frisco just sounded so stereotypical "Texas" that i never realized it was a nickname for San Francisco

 

[leopard88]

1 hour ago, cajunaggie08 said:

 

These guys do. But thats because they play in Frisco, TX which today I learned was named after the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway. Frisco just sounded so stereotypical "Texas" that i never realized it was a nickname for San Francisco

 

 

. . . which, I learned today, never ran west of Texas.

 

 

 

[JerseyJimmy]

On 8/1/2021 at 5:56 PM, OnWis97 said:

Carolina. I guess I can live with this. Maybe makes more sense for the Panthers since they play right on the border in a more regional game. Not too many people from SC are driving up to Raleigh on a Tuesday to see the Flames, though. 

 

living in SC, I can vouch for this. genuinely have no clue why the Canes and Checkers haven't swapped cities by now.

[sky1324]

4 hours ago, JerseyJimmy said:

 

living in SC, I can vouch for this. genuinely have no clue why the Canes and Checkers haven't swapped cities by now.

Keeping my fingers crossed! They can keep the garbage Hurricanes brand in Raleigh though, the only name for Charlotte hockey is Checkers.

[Silver_Star]

On 8/2/2021 at 10:05 PM, the admiral said:

 

 

"Dallas Rangers" sounds fine to me. Calling a sports team "the Texas Rangers" is so on-the-nose and corny. A more oblique reference to the lawmen would have suited them just fine and not purported to be the team of an entire state that already had a team when they got there.

 

FAR superior:
San Francisco Warriors

Boston Patriots

Charlotte Panthers

Miami Marlins

Los Angeles Angels

Halifax Schooners

Phoenix Cardinals

Phoenix Coyotes (to the extent that the Coyotes are far superior to anything)

Indianapolis Colts

Hartford Whalers

 

Considerably superior:
Dallas Rangers

Denver Rockies (or Denver Zephyrs)

Phoenix Diamondbacks (or Phoenix Snakes?)

 

City would be better but would necessitate a name change:

Tennessee Titans

 

Toss-up:

Indiana/Indianapolis Pacers
Utah/Salt Lake City Jazz

St. Petersburg Rays?

 

City wouldn't be better:

New Jersey Devils

the Minnesotas

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Tampa Bay Lightning

 

 

Funny thing is the ones in bold you mentioned were called that before or called that now (Miami Marlins).

 

For some crazy reason, I do call them the Indianapolis Pacers just out of nowhere.