City vs State/Region Team Names

[VampyrRabbit]

On 2021-08-05 at 9:29 PM, 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. 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. 

The Metrostars/NY Red Bulls were originally supposed to be called Empire Soccer Club, either after the nickname for NY State, after the Empire State Building, or perhaps both.  I think that name

I do wish that Empire was their actual name, instead of just being one of the supporters groups.

[throwuascenario]

On 8/9/2021 at 1:42 PM, 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.

 

Maybe because the Canes have a huge amount of fan support in Raleigh and there's literally no reason to think they would have any in Charlotte? The Hurricanes are the only pro sport in town, the area rallies behind them. Why would they give that up to play third fiddle behind the Panthers and Hornets?

 

Maybe you could almost make the case they should've gone to Charlotte when they originally moved to NC but to switch now - after building up far more support than most would've predicted - would be insane.

 

Also - having been to playoff games at all three, you can't even compare the atmosphere at Hornets / Panthers games to Canes games. Just a different monster.

 

Also, also - Spectrum Center wouldn't work for hockey. That's why the Checkers moved out of it. The same problems the Islanders had with Barclays Center. It was built for basketball. Why would any arena be built like that? I have no idea. But it was. They would need an entirely new arena, which would have 0% chance of being built. But all that is besides the point that it would otherwise make no sense.

[Bobster]

On 8/2/2021 at 9:28 PM, NicDB said:

I generally prefer city names with a few exceptions. 

 

In the case of Minnesota and Indiana, the city's name is such a mouthful that it's just easier to identify by the state. But in Minnesota's case, I really wish Twin Cities would have taken off. Although then there's the fact that none of their teams played in either of the cities when they started. 

 

I can also understand using the state's name when the team actually plays in a remote suburb rather than the city or an inner suburb... provided no other teams play in that state. The Michigan Panthers were a good example of this. Unlike the Lions, they never played in Detroit and didn't have any plans in the foreseeable future to do so. 

 

I kinda feel like Tampa Bay is the gold standard for regional names. In fact, I weirdly wish more teams were named for bodies of water that still directed you to a specific area. For that reason, I wonder why the Warriors stuck with Golden State when San Francisco Bay Warriors would serve the same purpose and is much less ambiguous. Although I wouldn't necessarily want the 49ers to follow suit. That would come across as a slap to the city they spent their first 70+ years in. 

 

Carolina I can tolerate for the Panthers. They actually started in one Carolina before settling in the other. I suppose I understand the Carolina Hurricanes for similar reasons and because it actually does sound a lot more major league than Raleigh or Raleigh-Durham. 

 

New England Patriots is an interesting case. They spent a good decade being the bastard child of Boston sports before moving to a town that's just as close to Hartford, so it kinda makes sense. But New England Whalers was just desperate. Glad they eventually smartened up and became the Hartford Whalers. Hartford as a brand name just seemed to work for a hockey team.

 

I don't like any pro team named for Florida or Texas. It's not like it would be such a mystery what Miami Panthers or Dallas Rangers was referring to. I know the Rangers have never actually played in Dallas, but the team they're named for did. The Cowboys play in the same town and I doubt people in Fort Worth or wherever have ever been discouraged from rooting for the Cowboys because they're named for Dallas.

 

Granted, I'd probably have a problem if a team playing in Waukesha County named itself for Milwaukee, which is kind of why I understand why people don't like the Angels being named for LA as it's a very similar dynamic at play. But I can promise I'd hate the very idea of California Angels if that wasn't what I grew up with.

 

I guess this is my long winded way of saying the city name is preferable, although there are exceptions to every rule, the real life exceptions are often just plain dumb.

 

The San Francisco Warriors went with "Golden State Warriors" because they were also (briefly) playing part of their home games in San Diego after the Rockets moved to Houston.

 

[The_Admiral]

On 2/16/2022 at 11:29 AM, throwuascenario said:

Also - having been to playoff games at all three, you can't even compare the atmosphere at Hornets / Panthers games to Canes games. Just a different monster.

 

The Hornets don't even have memes.