What's in a name?
The New Jersey Nets might be changing their name. Ok, so the naming this was a joke by their new owner, but it got us at Brett thinking about image. With the new Greenville hockey team looking for a new name (they feel Chiefs should stay in Johnstown, and let us hope that Grrrowl does not come back), and still some lingering resentment over the Drive, we wondered why do people fall in love with a sports name.
They offer a shared togetherness even if that togetherness can be duplicated elsewhere.
Say Tigers in the Upstate (or in our office) and you are talking about Clemson. Of course, if you are in Alabama, you are talking Auburn. Somewhere in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, you are talking about Detroit baseball. In the days before mass media, it was easy to name a sports team and use the same name over and over again. For a short period in the 1930s, Pittsburgh had NFL, NHL and MLB teams dubbed the Pirates. In other years and eras, there were dual New York Yankees, Brooklyn Dodgers and St. Louis Cardinal playing separate sports in the same town.
Can you imagine that today?
At some point, branding became a key thing and sports teams started seeking unique names. I remember in the late 1980s, a trivia question about naming the only sports teams out there that didn't end in the letter S. (A: Red Sox, White Sox and Jazz). Now, well, there are scores of names out there that are no longer interchangeable -- Thunders, Magic, Bobcats, Lightning -- come to mind. Millions of dollars are spent marketing those names. It is rather amazing.
An interesting side topic of this is when to change. Long ago the aforementioned Jazz played in New Orleans. The name made sense. It doesn't in Utah, but the name stuck. When the Seattle SuperSonics left the great Northwest, they became the Thunder.
Which is better? Who's to say?
They offer a shared togetherness even if that togetherness can be duplicated elsewhere.
Say Tigers in the Upstate (or in our office) and you are talking about Clemson. Of course, if you are in Alabama, you are talking Auburn. Somewhere in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, you are talking about Detroit baseball. In the days before mass media, it was easy to name a sports team and use the same name over and over again. For a short period in the 1930s, Pittsburgh had NFL, NHL and MLB teams dubbed the Pirates. In other years and eras, there were dual New York Yankees, Brooklyn Dodgers and St. Louis Cardinal playing separate sports in the same town.
Can you imagine that today?
At some point, branding became a key thing and sports teams started seeking unique names. I remember in the late 1980s, a trivia question about naming the only sports teams out there that didn't end in the letter S. (A: Red Sox, White Sox and Jazz). Now, well, there are scores of names out there that are no longer interchangeable -- Thunders, Magic, Bobcats, Lightning -- come to mind. Millions of dollars are spent marketing those names. It is rather amazing.
An interesting side topic of this is when to change. Long ago the aforementioned Jazz played in New Orleans. The name made sense. It doesn't in Utah, but the name stuck. When the Seattle SuperSonics left the great Northwest, they became the Thunder.
Which is better? Who's to say?
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment