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AAFL Teams go nameless


Wellsandt

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According to a report of the Detroit Free Press the All American Football League won't choose any nicknames for the teams. They will just go by Team Florida, Team Michigan, etc.

Katz said teams will not use nicknames. The team playing in Ford Field will be known as Team Michigan. He said there haven't been any discussions about the coaching staff or team colors. He said helmets will be adorned with state abbreviations -- MI for Team Michigan.

Source: Detroit Free Press

Dunno if this is a good decision regarding merchandising.

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Awful. Just awful. I'm willing to bet that this decision is being driven - at least in part - by a desire to avoid incurring the cost of securing top-quality branding/graphic design services for each franchise.

Bottom line? If your teams look bush-league, they're going to be regarded as bush-league. What little chance this circuit had of resonating in the public consciousness just took a step backward.

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Awful. Just awful. I'm willing to bet that this decision is being driven - at least in part - by a desire to avoid incurring the cost of securing top-quality branding/graphic design services for each franchise.

Exactly my thought when I first read the topic - "Gee, someone doesn't feel like shelling out for branding, do they?" Perhaps this league will also feature helmets with no logos or striping, and all-grey facemasks. They'll call it an "old-school" or "traditional" look, when all it truly is is "cheap."

Assuming, of course, that this league ever plays a down. I'm even more skeptical about that with this latest development.

On 1/25/2013 at 1:53 PM, 'Atom said:

For all the bird de lis haters I think the bird de lis isnt supposed to be a pelican and a fleur de lis I think its just a fleur de lis with a pelicans head. Thats what it looks like to me. Also the flair around the tip of the beak is just flair that fleur de lis have sometimes source I am from NOLA.

PotD: 10/19/07, 08/25/08, 07/22/10, 08/13/10, 04/15/11, 05/19/11, 01/02/12, and 01/05/12.

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Awful. Just awful. I'm willing to bet that this decision is being driven - at least in part - by a desire to avoid incurring the cost of securing top-quality branding/graphic design services for each franchise.

Exactly my thought when I first read the topic - "Gee, someone doesn't feel like shelling out for branding, do they?" Perhaps this league will also feature helmets with no logos or striping, and all-grey facemasks. They'll call it an "old-school" or "traditional" look, when all it truly is is "cheap."

Assuming, of course, that this league ever plays a down. I'm even more skeptical about that with this latest development.

I agree. Yet another red flag for a league that already has too many.

I predict another postponement before complete folding, though.

On 8/1/2010 at 4:01 PM, winters in buffalo said:
You manage to balance agitation with just enough salient points to keep things interesting. Kind of a low-rent DG_Now.
On 1/2/2011 at 9:07 PM, Sodboy13 said:
Today, we are all otaku.

"The city of Peoria was once the site of the largest distillery in the world and later became the site for mass production of penicillin. So it is safe to assume that present-day Peorians are descended from syphilitic boozehounds."-Stephen Colbert

POTD: February 15, 2010, June 20, 2010

The Glorious Bloom State Penguins (NCFAF) 2014: 2-9, 2015: 7-5 (L Pineapple Bowl), 2016: 1-0 (NCFAB) 2014-15: 10-8, 2015-16: 14-5 (SMC Champs, L 1st Round February Frenzy)

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Technically, this is no different from the Little League World Series.

Great Lakes vs. West, for example. No nicknames, just regions.

Somehow, it works for Little League. Not for pro football.

Back-to-Back Fatal Forty Champion 2015 & 2016

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Given that they're supposed to be affiliated with the local university, I'm willing to bet that they went this route to avoid having to pay royalties. People might not warm up to a team called the Michigan Titans with blue and maize, but they might to Team Michigan with the same color.

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Given that they're supposed to be affiliated with the local university, I'm willing to bet that they went this route to avoid having to pay royalties. People might not warm up to a team called the Michigan Titans with blue and maize, but they might to Team Michigan with the same color.

So you agree that they have been forced to cut costs.

On 8/1/2010 at 4:01 PM, winters in buffalo said:
You manage to balance agitation with just enough salient points to keep things interesting. Kind of a low-rent DG_Now.
On 1/2/2011 at 9:07 PM, Sodboy13 said:
Today, we are all otaku.

"The city of Peoria was once the site of the largest distillery in the world and later became the site for mass production of penicillin. So it is safe to assume that present-day Peorians are descended from syphilitic boozehounds."-Stephen Colbert

POTD: February 15, 2010, June 20, 2010

The Glorious Bloom State Penguins (NCFAF) 2014: 2-9, 2015: 7-5 (L Pineapple Bowl), 2016: 1-0 (NCFAB) 2014-15: 10-8, 2015-16: 14-5 (SMC Champs, L 1st Round February Frenzy)

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Maybe they plan on letting the fans come up with their own nicknames for the teams over time, the way they originally came about before it was all about marketing.

That said, does anyone really expect it to last that long?

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Given that they're supposed to be affiliated with the local university, I'm willing to bet that they went this route to avoid having to pay royalties. People might not warm up to a team called the Michigan Titans with blue and maize, but they might to Team Michigan with the same color.

Who would they pay royalties to? And what Michigan State fan is going to cheer a maize and blue Team Michigan.

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Since players are supposedly carrying over from the Florida Gators to "Team Florida," then I suppose this league might be expecting its fans in the stands to carry over their Gators gear for the "Team Florida" games.

I don't know how this idea of using the team colors, etc., would fly without the support of the universities. Even if they take the field looking like a logo-less Gators team, they can't really be thinking about merchandise if the name and colors are the same as the local universities.

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I think they are losing reality here. A Michigan team should pull from Michigan, MSU, Western, Eastern, Central, Toledo, etc. and not just UM. They should possibly try to blend a couple of schools' colors (Blue and Green?). In Alabama they should try to draw Auburn and Bama alumni, not just Bama. The same should be true in almost every case. They are unrealistic if they think they will eventually have both a Michigan and a Michigan State team, or both a Bama and Auburn franchise.

They need nicknames, logos, unique color combinations and not try so hard to be pale imitations of one large NCAA program.

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Universities own their color schemes within their context, the same as they do their names and logos. That's been established in court. Just try and sell a blue-and-maize sweatshirt with "MICHIGAN" across the front of it.

These teams already have some agreement with the universities to have come as far as they have.

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Why not just call the teams by their color? A lot of great team names started that way, and while they couldn't use the university's color scheme exactly, there would be nothing wrong with the teams using a generic color to represent them. Michigan Blue, Florida Orange.

OK, the more I write, the less I like this idea, except for one aspect - think of the great cross branding opportunities they would have with Home Depo!!! Oh wait, again, the college and pro teams do this already....

Yeah, I agree. This sucks.

Hey, how about this for an idea? Why don't the teams just use the State's official colors and the state's official "x" as their mascot (where x = state bird, state flower, state whatever). Just an idea.

Rob

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