OT: City vs. State Names for Pro Teams
I'm relatively new to Denver after living in Michigan for most of my life, and have been thinking about why Denver has two sports teams with Colorado in their name (Rockies, and Avs) and two with Denver in their name (Nuggets and Broncos). I thought this was odd, because I grew up being a fan of only teams with Detroit in their name.
So, I did a little research, and came up with a list of the sports teams from the big 4 sports that DON'T have their city/metropolitan area in their name, plus what the closest major city is:
State Names:
- Arizona—Diamondbacks, Cardinals, Coyotes (Phoenix)
- Colorado—Rockies, Avalanche (Denver)
- Florida—Panthers (Miami)
- Indiana—Pacers (Indianapolis)
- Minnesota—Twins, Vikings, Wild, Timberwolves (Minneapolis)
- New Jersey—Devils (Newark or NYC)
- Tennessee—Titans (Nashville)
- Texas—Rangers (Dallas)
- Utah—Jazz (SLC)
Region Names:
- New England—Patriots (Boston)
- Carolina—Panthers (Charlotte), Hurricanes (Raleigh)
- Golden State—Warriors (Oakland)
I'd prefer if cities were consistent--it doesn't make any sense to me when cities have multiple teams and some go by the city and some by the state/region. In my opinion, the only city that has multiple cities and successfully uses their state name is Minneapolis.
Do you think the trend toward city names will continue—who might be next? Would you prefer all/more city names?
But having teams out in the suburbs taking the name of the city is stupid too. You want the name San Francisco 49ers, then play in the fucking city, not out in Santa Clara. Should be the Auburn Hills Pistons while we're at it.
Anyone ever tried to drive from San Francisco to Santa Clara on your average weekday??? Oh boy, save PLENTY of time.
It is seriously easier to get from Santa Clara to Oakland (which, of course, already has an NFL team named after it) than from Santa Clara to San Francisco. I know this will never happen, but given such, they really should be the San Jose 49ers or the Santa Clara 49ers or the Bay Area 49ers.
Is a body of water.
April 27th, 2015 at 10:23 PM ^
As a Devils fan, the city is absolutely Newark. New York City is the home of the Rangers (and I will let any Islanders fans discuss which city or region they call home).
I really don't care about this either way, although I will say that I like it when teams have a non-plural nickname.
April 27th, 2015 at 10:34 PM ^
April 27th, 2015 at 11:05 PM ^
April 27th, 2015 at 11:16 PM ^
April 27th, 2015 at 11:30 PM ^
Harvard Crimson, Chicago Maroon.
April 27th, 2015 at 11:34 PM ^
War Eagle!
/s
Ok I'm done
Those are all plurals.
April 28th, 2015 at 10:32 AM ^
Dartmouth Big Green, Cornell Big Red
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April 27th, 2015 at 10:40 PM ^
Just keep all original names and relocate back to original locations. Baltimore Colts, Houston Oilers. Tradition is better.
April 27th, 2015 at 10:46 PM ^
My snarky response is, who cares?
April 27th, 2015 at 10:49 PM ^
I'm a huge Pats fan and I wish they weren't New England. I wasn't yet born when they were the Boston Patriots, but I do wish they'd go back to identifying with the city (although it is a little cool being the only pro sports team named after a multi-state region).
Carolina Panthers. And Hurricanes.
April 27th, 2015 at 11:00 PM ^
I always liked the old California Angels name.
originally known as the Los Angeles Angels as an expansion franchise in the early 1960's?
April 28th, 2015 at 10:35 AM ^
They were the LA Angels (b/c Los Angeles = the angels), California Angels, Anaheim Angels, and now the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
I think they're the only team with TWO cities in their name.
April 27th, 2015 at 11:12 PM ^
April 27th, 2015 at 11:13 PM ^
April 28th, 2015 at 12:32 AM ^
April 28th, 2015 at 10:33 AM ^
It's the Nippon Ham Fighters for me.
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"Yeah, uh huh, you know what it is.."
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It's Pittsburgh
When the Québec Nordiques relocated to Denver in 1995, the owner originally wanted to rename the team "Rocky Mountain Extreme."
"Golden State" is really strange if you think about it. I've always known the Warriors by that name, but I can't imagine how weird it must have gone down at first.