AHL teams that could keep their identity if promoted to the NHL?

[Korkie]

the admiral, on June 22, 2011 - 16:24, said:

Doesn't Milwaukee/the Milwaukee area have some decent history of French exploration and fur trading and so forth?

Most definitely.

French explorer Louis Joliet and French missionary Father Jacques Marquette explored the Milwaukee area as part of their expedition of 1673 and 1674. Their party included several voyageurs - men involved in the transportation of furs and goods by canoe during the fur trade era. In fact, the majority of white men who first traveled through what is now the Greater Milwaukee area were French trappers and fur traders. A French-Canadian trader named Jacques Vieau established and maintained a fur-trading post on the site of present-day Milwaukee, and Vieau's son-in-law became the first mayor of Milwaukee.

Wayne: "So, do you come to Milwaukee often?"

Alice Cooper: "Well, I'm a regular visitor here, but Milwaukee has certainly had its share of visitors. The French missionaries and explorers began visiting here in the late 16th century."

Pete: "Hey, isn't "Milwaukee" an Indian name?"

Alice Cooper: "Yes, Pete, it is. In fact, it was originally an Algonquin term meaning "the good land.""

Wayne: "I was not aware of that."

Alice Cooper: "I think one of the most interesting things about Milwaukee is that it's the only American city to elect three Socialist mayors."

Wayne to the camera: "Does this guy know how to party or what?"

... Also, I think Grand Rapids and Lake Erie could make the cut. This is an interesting topic. It made me go look at minor league baseball as well to see who could make the bigs.

[mmejia]

There is only one place for an NHL team to play in Houston and that is the Toyota Center. There is only one man who can give the green light on this, and that is Rockets owner Leslie Alexander and he has zero interest in bringing an NHL team to Houston.

If Leslie Alexander truly "has zero interest in bringing an NHL team to Houston" today, that marks a significant change in his attitude.

After all, in 1997, Alexander had a deal with former Edmonton Oilers owner Peter Pocklington to buy the NHL franchise for $85-million (USD) with an eye towards relocating the team to Houston once Alexander could get a new, state-of-the-art arena built in the Texas city. After the Alberta Treasury Branches placed the Oilers in receivership, Alexander offered the ATB $85-million (USD) to buy the team and relocate it to Houston, going so far as submitting a $5-million (USD) deposit. Only an 11th-hour deal put together by the Cal Nichols-led Edmonton Investors Group kept the team in the Alberta city.

Further, as recently as 2005 - following the implementation of a new NHL CBA - Alexander made it known that he was bullish on bringing a major-pro ice hockey team to Houston. In fact, he told the Houston Chronicle:

"I am trying to get a team. I am trying. I went to see the commissioner. I told him about my interest. I can't disclose teams, but I've been talking to people (in the NHL) and to investment bankers. I had conversations a month ago with an investment banking firm. I'm looking to buy a team. So people know my interest. You hear from time to time that teams might be for sale, then it changes or something else happens. But my interest is out there."

"I'm trying to do it. I would like it, obviously. Now there's an opportunity to probably break even and hope in the future that you could make money on it. I sort of know (the economics with a new CBA). There's no revelations that would change them."

I work for a regional sports network that is partners with the Astros and Rockets. We had a meeting last week about the Dallas Stars apparently playing a preseason game in Houston at Reliant Stadium later this year. The obvious question was, "why not the Toyota Center?" and our guys that work closely with the Rockets laughed that idea off by explaining that Les has no interest in hosting an NHL event in the Toyota Center.

[illwauk]

Count me as someone who really wouldnt mind if a Milwaukee NHL club decided not to call itself the Admirals. Milwaukee has never been known for its overflowing naval presence and it would be the perfect opportunity to adopt an idenity that was more relevant to the area.

How would you feel about Voyageurs?

I wasn't exactly enamored with it at first, but I seem to like it the more I think of it. It seems to lend itself more to a team named after Wisconsin rather than Milwaukee (not that this is necessarily a good or bad thing), but in either case, the initials (whether "MV" or "WV") lend themselves to some pretty cool "hidden logo" possibilities (think Hartford Whalers). I'm also seeing a striping pattern inspired by Native American art a-la the original Coyotes. I may have to take a break from my baseball series and kick this one around in the ole noggin for a bit.

Doesn't Milwaukee/the Milwaukee area have some decent history of French exploration and fur trading and so forth?

And yeah, just put the V inside the M, there you go. It'd be a good brown/blue brown/green team.

As pointed out in the posts before mine, we do. It just so happens that "Wisconsin Voyageurs" seems to roll off the tongue easier. Add in that Wisconsin is derived from a French word... having been named by said voyageurs... and it just seems more appropriate to call them as such.

[Brian in Boston]

... our guys that work closely with the Rockets laughed that idea off by explaining that Les has no interest in hosting an NHL event in the Toyota Center.

It would appear that Mr. Alexander has soured on the NHL since his previous attempts failed to culminate in landing the NHL franchise he so obviously sought.

[The_Admiral]

Count me as someone who really wouldnt mind if a Milwaukee NHL club decided not to call itself the Admirals. Milwaukee has never been known for its overflowing naval presence and it would be the perfect opportunity to adopt an idenity that was more relevant to the area.

How would you feel about Voyageurs?

I wasn't exactly enamored with it at first, but I seem to like it the more I think of it. It seems to lend itself more to a team named after Wisconsin rather than Milwaukee (not that this is necessarily a good or bad thing), but in either case, the initials (whether "MV" or "WV") lend themselves to some pretty cool "hidden logo" possibilities (think Hartford Whalers). I'm also seeing a striping pattern inspired by Native American art a-la the original Coyotes. I may have to take a break from my baseball series and kick this one around in the ole noggin for a bit.

Doesn't Milwaukee/the Milwaukee area have some decent history of French exploration and fur trading and so forth?

And yeah, just put the V inside the M, there you go. It'd be a good brown/blue brown/green team.

As pointed out in the posts before mine, we do. It just so happens that "Wisconsin Voyageurs" seems to roll off the tongue easier. Add in that Wisconsin is derived from a French word... having been named by said voyageurs... and it just seems more appropriate to call them as such.

I thought it sounded fine with Milwaukee, myself. How are we saying "Voyageurs," though? Full-on French, just "voyagers," or "voyagers" but with a zh sound for the g? The last one was how I imagined it.

[illwauk]

Hmm, I never actually heard it pronounced that last way you described. I've been using the anglicized version since it seems a bit pretentious to use the french pronunciation when they'd be in the same league with at least one team that plays in a French-speaking province. Of course, Wisconsin does have its own Quebecois roots, so who knows?

[illwauk]

The origin of the name comes after a TV brand called the "Admiral" from a store the owner ran. It doesn't have anything to do with a naval presence, just like Winnipeg has nothing to do with airplane traffic or production. Saying the 'Admiral' name isn't relevant to the area is like saying the 'Jets' aren't relative to Winnipeg because they don't produce airplanes. Furthermore, you could have said the same thing about the 'Browns' not being relevant because the origin of the franchise was no longer a 'Brown'. Your statement could also imply the Flames should have changed their name because their identity wasn't relevant to the area... as well as the Lakers... and Jazz... and Braves... and Grizzlies... and I could go on.

I still don't see how that makes Admirals relevant to Milwaukee. Are we a somehow a hotbed of television manufacturing that I don't know about?

Winnipeg was named Jets after the most famous player on its original roster, Bobby "The Golden Jet" Hull... the Jets name is absolutely relevant to the city's hockey history. Let's take a look at some of your other examples...

Browns: Last I checked, they actually wore the color brown.

Flames: Calgary hosted the Winter Olympics in 1988 and had already been awarded the games when they moved in 1983. The name is at least as relevant as the Expos, who got that name because Montreal was set to host the next World's Fair when it was awarded the franchise.

Lakers & Jazz: You're new, so trust me when I say you do not want to open those cans of worms around here.

Braves: The Cherokee of North Georgia disagree, and how the hell is the Braves name not relevant to everywhere in the US?

Grizzlies: And finally we come to some semblance of a point. But I seem to recall a movement to have the team rechristened to "Houndogs" when they moved. Obviously more than a couple Memphans didn't feel that Grizzlies was relevant enough to the area.

Honestly, these are some pretty odd choices for the point you were trying to make.

[The_Admiral]

I think there was a junior team called the Winnipeg Jets before the WHA started up; that Bobby Hull was their first player was just a happy coincidence.

[Gothamite]

For the people insisting the Admirals identity cannot translate into an NHL team: The name can certainly crossover, but the logo probably could not. Remember that the only reason for ditching the classic 'Admiral' look was because there was another team already called the 'Admirals'. Instead of a red-white-blue (or similar) set that involved a captain, they wanted to distance themselves from Norfolk into something different. What they got works really well for an AHL team, especially given the situation they were put in. This isn't necessarily bad... it's just the card they were dealt.

I don't think that's correct.

The Milwaukee Admirals changed their look because the old one stunk. The new look was admittedly driven by merchandising, and it worked very well.

[Lee.]

I think there was a junior team called the Winnipeg Jets before the WHA started up; that Bobby Hull was their first player was just a happy coincidence.

This. The main reason the WHA team was called the Jets was because they got a sweetheart deal on all the old WHL team's equipment.

[refuse]

Bridgeport sound tigers previous logo is one of my favorite logos ever.

[Korkie]

Flames: Calgary hosted the Winter Olympics in 1988 and had already been awarded the games when they moved in 1983. The name is at least as relevant as the Expos, who got that name because Montreal was set to host the next World's Fair when it was awarded the franchise.

The Flames were named such in Atlanta due to Sherman's March to the Sea during the Civil War. The name just moved with the franchise and was kept due to the city's oil industry. They moved in 1980 not 1983.

The point stands though that the Flames is relevant to Calgary.

[Buster]

I think you have to consider the Hershey Bears here, if only because they are the oldest operating pro hockey team in the states outside the original 6.

I'm surprised someone else beat me to Hershey.

I LOVE their color scheme and if you remove the Capital BlueCross patches, you have a solid pro uniform.

http://www.google.com/search?q=hershey+bears&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1152&bih=723

[habsfan1]

- Toronto Marlies

- Albany Devils

That is all.

[Lee.]

I think you have to consider the Hershey Bears here, if only because they are the oldest operating pro hockey team in the states outside the original 6.

I'm surprised someone else beat me to Hershey.

I LOVE their color scheme and if you remove the Capital BlueCross patches, you have a solid pro uniform.

http://www.google.com/search?q=hershey+bears&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1152&bih=723

I agree to a point. That bear logo needs to go. If there were ever another NHL team that could pull off full-time diagonal lettering, it's Hershey.

[OMMF]

... our guys that work closely with the Rockets laughed that idea off by explaining that Les has no interest in hosting an NHL event in the Toyota Center.

It would appear that Mr. Alexander has soured on the NHL since his previous attempts failed to culminate in landing the NHL franchise he so obviously sought.

Saying he has no interest in hosting an NHL event at the Toyota Center is not the same as saying he doesn't want an NHL team. If I were Houston, I'd want nothing to do with those teams, either.

[AndrewPF]

If you want to get technical, Worcester and Providence have logos that would look ok in the NHL.

[Anthony89]

If anybody in the AHL gets moved it is the Houston Aeros, 4th largest city if Dallas has a team and Florida has two teams than why not Houston.

[a3uge]

The origin of the name comes after a TV brand called the "Admiral" from a store the owner ran. It doesn't have anything to do with a naval presence, just like Winnipeg has nothing to do with airplane traffic or production. Saying the 'Admiral' name isn't relevant to the area is like saying the 'Jets' aren't relative to Winnipeg because they don't produce airplanes. Furthermore, you could have said the same thing about the 'Browns' not being relevant because the origin of the franchise was no longer a 'Brown'. Your statement could also imply the Flames should have changed their name because their identity wasn't relevant to the area... as well as the Lakers... and Jazz... and Braves... and Grizzlies... and I could go on.

I still don't see how that makes Admirals relevant to Milwaukee. Are we a somehow a hotbed of television manufacturing that I don't know about?

Winnipeg was named Jets after the most famous player on its original roster, Bobby "The Golden Jet" Hull... the Jets name is absolutely relevant to the city's hockey history. Let's take a look at some of your other examples...

'Winnipeg Jets' is relevant because they had a team called the 'Jets' playing in the city of Winnipeg. It's the same concept with the team name 'Admirals'. It would be relevant because the team has existed since the 70's. All of the team names are relevant because of prior history connected with the team. Arguing that 'Admirals' is not relevant to the area, again, is like arguing the name 'Winnipeg Falcons' would not be relevant to the area due to the bird not holding any significance. The Browns were named after a coach with the same last name and is in no way connected to the current franchise. Obviously the name is still relevant because a team called the 'Cleveland Browns' resided there ten years prior. The point is, sports names become relevant to the area not because the mascot has a dominance specific to the area, but when the area itself embraces the team name. Milwaukee has a history of using a team called the 'Admirals' and regardless of the derivation of the word, it still is important and relevant. You could say the same thing about any of the other franchises. I'm sure the population 'Wolves' is rather small in the city of Chicago, but if they decided to add another team, the team name 'Chicago Wolves' would obviously be relevant.

Also, I couldn't find the press release about the Admirals switching logos, but I remember one of the reasons for the drastic change in colors and design was due to Norfolk's brand being somewhat similar, at least in color, and the Admirals wanted something to set themselves apart from the rest of the league. It was also in the boom of 'Pirates of the Caribbean'.

[FrankCostanza]

I think there was a junior team called the Winnipeg Jets before the WHA started up; that Bobby Hull was their first player was just a happy coincidence.

This. The main reason the WHA team was called the Jets was because they got a sweetheart deal on all the old WHL team's equipment.

Weren't they owned by the same guy?