Click to enlarge
Interesting development yesterday in Miami, as the Marlins announced two moves related to their upcoming 25th-anniversary season. First, they unveiled a teal-centric anniversary logo (shown above), which will be worn as a sleeve patch. And they also announced that the team will be wearing teal-based throwbacks for a three-game series against the Padres on June 8-10 (click to enlarge):
Anniversary patches are routinely shown in the MLB Style Guide, but this one isn’t. I’m pretty sure that means it was created on the fly, after Derek Jeter and his crew bought the team last fall. Or to put it another way, the old ownership group had no plans to include a 25th-anniversary patch this year. (They also didn’t include a 20th-anniversary patch five years ago.)
Does this mean Jeter & Co. plan to go back to the team’s original uniform set at some point down the road? Possibly, but I doubt it. I suspect some sort of “updated classic” treatment might be in order by about 2020, however. (It was also reported yesterday that Jeter has eliminated the team’s costumed mascot. Update: Check that — he’s just fired the guy who wears the costume, not eliminated the mascot character itself.)
Meanwhile, a true story: Twenty-five years ago, in March of 1993, I was on line at the DMV to get my driver’s license renewed. I was reading Newsday, and the sports section had a big feature article on the National League’s two new expansion franchises — the Marlins and the Rockies. I remember that the text included a passage that went something like, “The sight of a Marlins pitcher wearing teal isn’t exactly going to strike fear into opposing batters’ hearts.” Even then, more than six years before the advent of Uni Watch, I was excited to see any reference to uniforms.
Naming Wrongs reminder: In case you missed it earlier this week, we have a bunch of new shirts for the L.A. Coliseum (like the one shown at right). You can see all of them here.
The Ticker
By Alex Hider
Baseball News: Barry Bonds still isn’t a Hall of Famer, but at least he can take solace in the fact that the Giants will retire his No. 25 in August (from Mike Chamernik). … Could stingrays be returning to Tampa Bay’s caps? We’ll find out today (from @_acamargo_). … Here’s a look at the Brewers’ racing sausages with their new Johnsonville ad patches, which appear on the chest and the sleeve (from Rabid). … The Louisville Bats will wear Colonels throwbacks on July 27 and 28 (from Patrick Barnett). … Mr. Met apparently makes an appearance in the 1981 cult classic film Ms. 45. “He’s actually prominently featured, his smiling face acting as a counterpoint to … other action,” says Charles Rogers. … Vertical placket lettering alert! Those uniforms were worn by the 1912 Red Deer Eskimos in Alberta, Canada (from Alex Cheremeteff). … Couple of Japanese baseball notes from @bigdaddy45_1969: The Hanshin Tigers of the Central League will wear early-2000s throwbacks in honor of former manager Senichi Hoshino, who recently died. All players will wear his No. 77. Hoshino also managed the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of the Pacific League, and they’ll also honor him by wearing throwbacks and his No. 77 in a separate game. … San Diego State has five caps this season.
Pro Football News: Rep. Michael Capuano of Massachusetts must have lost a bet, because he was wearing an Eagles helmet during a House financial services hearing yesterday (from John Costigan IV). … Mark Brunell appeared on the cover of NFL Fever 2000 in a Jags jersey that included the team’s inaugural season patch from 1995 (from Joe Pitzonka). … PTI used an old Lions logo in a graphic yesterday (from Moe Khan). … New helmets for the Columbus (Georgia) Lions of the National Arena League (from Shawn Skillman).
College Football News: The Smithsonian has a bunch of old NCAA Foot Ball rulebooks available on its website as PDFs, for those who are interested (from James Gilbert). … While Pitt is not officially changing its colors, the school paper reports that the team is planning on wearing retro royal and yellow “frequently” for the next two seasons (from Robert Hayes).
Hockey News: A Hurricanes fan penned an open letter to Hartford Whalers fans, following the brouhaha that erupted when the ’Canes owner suggested Carolina may wear Whalers throwbacks in the future (from James Gilbert). … The Washington Post has an interesting piece about hockey leagues for the blind (from John Muir). … The Avalanche use their secondary logo, rather than their primary, on their scoreboard.
NBA News: The NBA has released the uniforms that will be worn during the Rising Stars Game next week. Looks like they’re getting the color out of the way early in the weekend (from Mike Chamernik and Robert Hayes). … Both the Magic and the Cavs wore “City” jerseys last night (from Robert Hayes). … The Celtics wore green tights with white jerseys on the road last night. I believe that’s the first time they’ve worn that combo this season. It’s also the first time they’ve worn white on the road (from David Sperino and Jesse Scardina). … The Hawks have a lot of outdated team logos on their team website (from Joey Robertson). … Adidas terminated Celtics G Terry Rozier’s shoe contract because he wore Nikes during the Eastern Conference Finals last year (from Mike Chamernik). … Raptors 905, Toronto’s D-League affiliate, wore Black History Month uniforms in a recent game (from Moe Khan). … The Wisconsin Herd, the Bucks’ D-League affiliate, will wear “Fear The Deer” BFBS jerseys on Friday (from Ray Barrington).
College Hoops News: Clemson unveiled white ’90s throwbacks yesterday (from Chip Powell). … Nebraska and Minnesota went black-on-gold yesterday (from Hayden). … North Carolina has received the Final Four floor from its national championship win last year (from James Gilbert). … Though Nike’s “Pro Hijab” is not yet available for purchase, the company sent a pair of headdresses to a California high school player after her coach reached out to the company (from Kary Klismet).
Soccer News: New kits for Chicago Fire in 2018. More photos here. (from Terry Mark). … The Utah Royals of the NWSL unveiled their white second kit yesterday (from our own Jamie Rathjen). … Udinese of Serie A have inked a manufacturing contract with Macron (from Ed Zelaski). … This piece delves into the world of fan-designed soccer kits, and how they’re beginning to influence uniforms worn on the pitch. … The Men In Blazers podcast is designing its own jersey for the World Cup, and they let their fans design the jock tag (from Kary Klismet). … Celtic FC’s women’s team have a new jersey advertiser (from Ed Żelaski ). … Luton Town of England’s League Two wore Umbro uniforms from 1989 to 1992. They wore four distinct jerseys during that time, but with shorts/socks mashups and sponsor variations taken into account, they ended up wearing 26 different kit combinations over that period of time (from Denis Hurley). … The Houston Dynamo’s new away jersey has leaked, and it has tequila sunrise striping (from @bryant_rf). … New road kit for Atlanta United FC.
Olympics News: Fans of the site are probably already aware of the Norwegian curling team’s loud slacks — but it never hurts to take another look (from Phil). … Speaking of curling, more than half of the teams competing in the Olympics will be using a new “SmartBroom” (NYT link), which measures the rate and force of the player’s sweeping. … Here’s a pretty good infographic of Winter Olympics facts and figures.
Grab Bag: The University of Central Arkansas is switching from Adidas to Nike (from Chris Mycoskie). … UW-Milwaukee’s club sports teams have a new logo after the school received a letter from the University of Michigan that claimed the club sport department’s old logo was too similar to Michigan’s “Block M” (from Paul Wajgel). … Golfer Luke Donald will now wear Jordan shoes on the course (from Josh Claywell). … An item in yesterday’s Ticker said, “A Pepsi Super Bowl ad Sunday night featured former NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon racing a DeLorean. But David Firestone points out that Gordon’s car is a sixth-generation car (circa 2013), with a 2007 paint scheme.” That set off a fair amount of debate in yesterday’s comments. Now David has proof that he was right.
The Avs’ secondary logo is derived from the Colorado state flag, but looks so much like the Cubs’ cap logo that I’d prefer it not be used by local teams. This is, of course, secondary to the impropriety of naming a team after an entire state rather than after the city where it plays.
I have more issue with naming the team after a singular noun.
This isn’t relevant to the Avalanche (who do play in Denver proper), but what about teams who play in a suburb of a much larger city? Should a certain NFL team change its name to the Arlington Cowboys?
Arlington Cowboys, East Rutherford Giants/Jets, Orchard Park Bills… kinda rolls off the tongue…
Minnesota for the teams in the Twin Cities region and Tampa Bay for the Tampa / St Pete’s region make sense to me. All others, just go with primary city of the metro area. Whether it is the case of franchises that played in the city proper but moved to the burbs, or ones located in the burbs simply because it made more logistical sense than being in the city, I say go with the city.
I’ll give the Rockies a pass based on their nickname, but I could do without all of the other state named teams.
I Still Call Them The California Angels.
“Texas Rangers” is pretty solid. YMMV.
Are there any among us who would welcome a return of the “California Angels”?
Look above you
State names are perfectly fine. As long as you’re using the state where you’re actually playing. That being said, I don’t have a preference between Texas or Arlington for the Rangers. Just don’t call them Dallas.
When it comes to states with multiple franchises in state, or multiple large metro areas, it always seems off to me. Obviously they can’t really claim to represent the whole state.
RE: Rangers. While Dallas has all the big city name appeal, I think it would actually be pretty cool if they were called Arlington. Being that they have never played in Dallas, and Dallas isn’t the only big city in that metro area, calling Arlington would have a nice old fashioned appeal. Sort of like how Green Bay is small city with major league team.
I miss the California Angels, and would welcome their return. Then again, I liked the Anaheim Angels for their not-quite-the-big-city localness. Los Angeles Angels is my least favorite of their monikers, mainly on account of its redundancy. It’s the equivalent of the Twin Cities Twins or the Metropolitan Area Mets. Or, honestly, the St. Paul Saints, which should kind of bug me but doesn’t.
As for the Texas Rangers, debates about specific geography miss the point: The name is a pun. The team is named after the Texas Rangers. Calling them Arlington or Dallas or DFW or whatever would be like naming a team after the Harlem Renaissance but calling it the Bed-Sty Renaissance because of exactly where in the city the team plays.
Derek Jeter isn’t mucking around with all the moves he’s made in the off-season. But getting rid of the costumed mascot would have topped them all.
From the link: “While the team’s mascot, in its smiling, long-nosed glory, has survived the slashing, the man inside the suit has been cast aside. Billy had been played by the same actor for 14 years, Sirius XM reported, and the Marlins offered no explanation about the gutting. The Miami Herald reported the man is no longer part of the organization.”
I’ve heard that the costumed mascot DOES smell like fish, but I’ve never been close enough to find out for myself.
Possibly a cost cutting move? If he has been there 14 years he is probably making a pretty good mascot salary. They could surely find a someone willing to do it for much less.
If I’m reading the story correctly, the mascot is staying, but the guy who wears the costume is fired. It makes it seem like there will be a Billy next season, but with a different person — or people or interns — on the inside.
From the Miami Herald: “While the man inside the costume is no longer part of the organization, the Marlins have no plans to get rid of Billy, who has been the team’s mascot since its inaugural season in 1993.”
Proofreading:
I was on line at the DMV to get my driver’s license renewed.
– in line
Rep. Michael Capuano of Massachusetts must have lost a bet
– there is an extra space between “lost” and “a”
unveiled theirwhite second kit yesterday
– take that extra space from above and put it between “their” and “white” :)
Fixed.
“on line” is standard New Yorker. no need to “fix” it.
I concur Grover.
In New York, you stand “on line” rather than “in line”?
Interesting.
Lee
Grover is correct. Imagine a line on the ground, and everybody is standing on it.
It’s also a rare example, in English, of syllable stress determining the meaning of a word. To wait ON-line buy a ticket is to be sitting at your internet-connected computer waiting to press the “buy” button; to wait on-LINE is to stand with some other people forming a queue.
Proofreading:
“after her coached reached out to the company”
“with shorts/socks mashups” extra space
The first three words of the Grab Bag are too big.
Fixed.
Still says “on line”
That’s an acceptable phrase. (At least in many places.)
Yes, I chose not to change that.
Do you really go and re-check everything after I say, “Fixed”?
No, I often go through and look at the quick reads first, then go back and read the longer articles. Just happened to see it wasn’t changed. I’m not familiar with someone saying they are “on line”.
I find “on line” interesting because it seems to be commonplace in the US, but it is never used in Canada.
Yet another reason to say “on line”
Not sure I’d call it commonplace. I’ve never heard “on line” used for waiting in a physical line until now.
So the barometer of “commonplace” is whether you personally have heard it?
Just to put that in context: There are lots of really popular bands, video games, apps, websites, etc. that I have never heard of. Can’t be sure, but the same is probably true of you. Just sayin’.
Interesting variety of personal experiences. I can’t think of an American I’ve heard or read use “on line” other than Paul and a college friend who affected British mannerisms after a study-abroad semester. Whereas I encounter it all the time in British books and media, and I’m pretty sure I’ve heard it on the CBC Radio interview program “As It Happens,” to which I’ve listened daily since the early 1990s.
So I think of “in line” as an Americanism, and “on line” as common in Anglo-Canadian English. But maybe “on line” is also a regionalism within American English?
link
Interesting, I have never heard the phrase on line for anything other than internet or similar telecom stuff. For example, on line being short for “I’m on the line with the cable company trying to get my bill fixed.” The article in The Atlantic references a map showing where that 5% who say on line are, but sadly the map didn’t appear. I’ve lived my whole life in the NJ/Philly area and have never encountered this phrase. Now I’m eagerly anticipating hearing someone say it.
OK, after a quick google… The New York Times Style Guide says “Few besides New Yorkers stand or wait on line. In most of the English-speaking world, people stand in line. Use that wording.”
link
I am not against “on line”, or trying to correct anyone, the above provided as FYI only.
Lee
Add me to the list of people who can’t remember ever hearing “on line” used in that context before. I’m from the Chicago suburbs, if that matters.
So you’re equating the English language to someone’s individual exposure to music or video games? I would argue it would be much more likely for me to have heard a “commonplace” phrase in my 45 years of speaking English than to have known every popular band. Apples to oranges.
So you’re equating the English language to someone’s individual exposure to music or video games?
No. I’m debating how we measure the term “commonplace,” and whether it’s appropriate to use a one-person sample — with oneself as that one person — as the yardstick.
Well, if you notice I prefaced my remark by saying “not sure” so I’m puzzled at the critical response to my comment.
Not criticizing you personally. Just questioning whether the standard you’re a applying is sensible one. Always striving to maintain sensible/logical parameters of debate here. That’s all.
I don’t mind the current Marlins uniform sets (they look fine), however I do like their original sets better, especially the home vest with teal sleeves.
It will be interesting to see if Jeter will try to “Yankee” the Marlins look in the future. Possibly bring back the pinstripe jerseys and go NNOB.
The Celtics wearing green tights triggers an old man reaction in me — Tights? What’s with the stinking tights?….
….get out of my yard, etc.
Next step will be dispensing with the shorts all together.
Can I yell out clouds with you? Stinking tights. I remember the good old days when basketball players just wore shorts :).
* yell at clouds
Here is hoping they transition back to the old style word mark and colors in some fashion. Right now they look like a pathetic copy of the Giants or Orioles. Of course worse than their colors and uniform is their logo, it looks more like a mass-transit system than a baseball team.
Something like this?
link
It was only a few years ago when I found out that the Marlins listed their teal color as “Marlins blue” and I still don’t understand that term to this day. That color doesn’t look very blue to me. Also, one common thread between the club’s 2 color schemes is that the typography on its white and gray jerseys was always black, so I’ve always seen the Marlins as a mostly black-dominant club anyway.
And here I’ve always been a bit iffy about calling the team’s original color “teal,” since “teal” to me implies some visible greenishness, and the Marlins original hue is all blue. It’s more of a pale turquoise than a teal to my eye.
It has to be either that or a deep aqua. It’s certainly closer to what the Dolphins use now than it is to what the Jaguars have used for their entire existence.
I’m sorry, I will always chuckle at New Yorkers who refer to standing IN a line as “on line”.
You folks talk funny.
I would love to see the Rays wear their original uniforms for a game or 2 this season. Based on what little I could see in the Rays’ tweet, that stingray logo’s color arrangement looks different from what they wore on their caps in 1998. I can’t wait to see what the Rays have planned later today.
I believe the Marlins original stirrups were black. I don’t think they were ever teal. It always looked odd because the black socks didn’t match much else in the original home uniform.
You know what? You’re right!
So my memory is faulty. But I am absolutely positive that I was reading about the Marlins and teal at the DMV. Maybe I inflated the memory to include the mention of stirrups.
I’ll adjust the text accordingly. Thanks for the fact-check!
Sadly link.
“Sadly”? With the teal cap, teal pinstripes, and teal lettering, the black stirrups look terrific as an accent. That’s a sharp uniform right there, and the black stirrups are preferable to teal. (Unless we’re talking teal with black stripes.)
Unfortunately, it seems to be impossible for any modern sports team to use black as an accent without black taking over the uniform and becoming that team’s primary color. Ergo, the zeroeth rule of uni design ought to be, “No black is ever acceptable on a uniform unless that team’s only official color is already black.”
Black should’ve been relegated to the bill of the cap, the numbers and the outline of the lettering. Nothing else. Teal stirrups or teal socks would be fantastic.
I can’t believe I agree with Jimmer, but in this instance I do.
Teal stirrups would have been amazing.
I agree as well. Teal stirrups would’ve paired great with the teal hats.
Though black stirrups are fine with the black hats.
Disappointed that it mentions just a special throwback jersey. We need the throwback teal hats and batting helmets to make an appearance.
I guar-ahn-tee they’ll have throwback caps. You think they’re not gonna market the everliving shit out of this?
I’d *bet* money on helmets too, but I can almost guarantee the caps.
Seeing the Cavaliers lose while wearing those awful gray uniforms is incredibly satisfying. Here you have a team whose secondary colors are navy and yellow, but instead has chosen to make their alternate uniforms black and grey.
The bit about Terry Rozier’s Adidas contract being terminated is interesting because it seems to indicate that Rick Pitino told the truth one time.
Black is in their color scheme now and even that would make more sense than their wearing gray. I never understood why the Cavs didn’t use navy as its City Edition’s base color considering that they’ve used that color since LeBron James played his first game with the club.
A VERY pleasant surprise from the Fish! Considering there is absolutely zero reference to the post-2011 “Miami” era look in that anniversary logo and that it seems to have been created since the sale, it leads me to believe that the new ownership is not a fan of the “Rainbow Orioles” look as I call it. Not surprised Loria didn’t have any plans for the 25th (and did nothing for the 20th) since he hated the old colors and wanted nothing to do with the club’s history pre-2012 (except of course the two WS titles which he had nothing (’97) and very little (’03) to do with).
While the Fish were unveiling the crapfest they wear now in the fall of 2011, the O’s and Blue Jays unveiled their awesome updated-retro logos/uniforms they currently sport. Hopefully that’s the route Jeter & Co. go. I’d kill for a name reversion back to “Florida” but since the name change was part of the ballpark agreement and that’s basically all the city/county of Miami got for their $500+ million, I doubt that’ll change. But a return to proper Marlins Teal & Black would be glorious. No better way to help everyone forget the dumpster fire that was Loria’s ownership reign in baseball than to erase his brainchild from existence.
Miami Marlins of Florida?
I didn’t realize that’s Charlie Hough in the picture with Jeter. I thought at first they grabbed a panhandler off of I 95 and threw a sport coat on him. Jeez. I am getting more and more nervous about this ownership group. Miami fan base can’t take much more of this.
Yeah, they used Charlie Hough because he started the first game in Marlins history.
A win over the Dodgers. I remember watching that game on one of my local independent TV stations right after I returned home from school one afternoon.
I remember watching it too; my family was in Florida, in fact; visiting our grandparents, and Scott Pose led off the game with a hit and the Marlins won the game.
To think I sort of liked the Marlins for a little while!
I actually presumed he was a part of the ownership group.
I imagine someone absolutely “threw a sport coat on him” since Charlie, like so many elderly men, also appears to have given up on footwear that requires laces.
At least Jeter & Co. seem to have some sense of what makes a good logo. Hopefully the original uniforms return. I always hated Jeter, but if he would scrap the every color of the rainbow uniforms the Marlin (not a typo, as that is the correct grammatical spelling) have now, I would be willing to pardon him.
I think there is no question that Jeter will redo the Marlins uniforms at some point. The 25 year logo makes me think he is going to return to the original colors.
I’d be happy if Jeter “Yankeefied” the Marlins uniforms a little bit…better to have less uniforms than be like the Diamondbacks and have 10 combinations.
I believe the racing sausages also have the Johnsonville logo on the back. It’s much larger than the front or sleeve logo. I saw it in a video on the Brewers snap chat but it’s not longer up.
I can almost guarantee by 2020 the pinstripes will be back. Jeter going to want to inject some “Yankee” into this franchise. For a guy who wore the most iconic uniform in professional sports for his entire career, the Marlins unis must be a bad dream.
The Grizzlies and Hawks both wore City jerseys last night as well, creating a Black (home) vs White (road) game, not to mention the Hawks’ throwback court (Red).Very disconcerting.
link
I hope the Fish return to the teal and black, if for no other reason than we would (hopefully) stop having to see this during the playoffs:
link
Ha I love Orange (Being a Mets fan), but seeing that guy detracts from the game itself
But that guy is wearing one of the only bits of Marlins field-wear that actually looks good. The problem isn’t their logo or lettering or even their colors; it’s the dreary prominence of black. The Fish could keep everything else the same about their uniforms, but swap black for orange or blue on their cap and jersey fabric, and they’d be an OK-looking team.
My only worry about a return to or update of their pre-Loria uniforms is that they could return to their 2003-2011 black pinstripes and the black cap they wore pretty much full time after 1994. That seems the most Jeterish option for them to take, and if anything the black pinstripe era is the worst the Marlins have ever looked.
Correction: those are manta rays not stingrays.
Mantas (among other similar species) get the nickname of “Devil Rays” because of projections that help them funnel plankton into their mouths.
Mantas and devil rays are not the same thing. Mantas are in the genus Manta, whereas devil rays (which also have those funny projections) are in the genus Mobula. It’s also worth mentioning that there is one species of devil ray that has a functioning stinger, so calling them “stingrays” is partially correct.
(I’m a biology professor, and I’ll confess to being every bit as nerdy about zoology as the rest of you are about uniforms.)
Still love those original Jags uniforms.
As a baseball anniversary/ordinal patch collector, 2018 is going to be a great year!
Don’t know why the Marlins call this color “teal”. Teal is much darker, and their color is more aqua or turquoise. Here’s a discription I found describing these colors…”If you want a dark blue-green then it would be teal; a bright, medium to light tone with more blue than green is turquoise; and a soft color that is often called Tiffany blue is Aqua.” Check out this site with examples of these:
link
Looks like a somewhat deep aqua based on that.
Technically, the Marlins called it “Marlins blue”.
Or, rather, the singular “Marlin blue”. Curse me for typing too fast!
Looks the same as the Dolphins aqua.
New Rays Hat added to MLB shop
link
There’s more! The Rays are gonna wear their original white uniforms for four Saturday home games this season and they dropped the baseball diamond from their primary logo.
link
That’s a terrific look. And despite what my own biases tend to be, I really like that they’ve rendered the anniversary cap in navy rather than black.
This is also the 20th anniversary of my first season coaching Little League, when I was given a team of mainly 5-6 year olds in a mixed t-ball and coach-pitch league. We had a coaches draft to start the season, which was pointless since even the best 6-year-old is pretty terrible at baseball so it really doesn’t matter who’s on a team. I got first choice in the draft, which meant I got last choice of team name, and nobody was willing to trade me. The other guys were way more invested in getting their favorite team names than getting higher pick of players. The guy who drew last pick literally did a little dance, since he was a Yankees fan and last pick guaranteed that he could make his team the Yankees. Anyway, last pick of team name stuck me with the then-brand-new Devil Rays.
So, Tampa Bay’s anniversary uniforms bring back fun memories of the time I was the inaugural manager and coach of the expansion Devil Rays. I wore one of these: link instead of the all-black TB cap the league issued to us.
That navy cap with the ray on it looks great! I hope this isn’t gonna be used for only this season. I would love to see it become part of the Rays’ long-term visual program.
Regarding the whole Whalers/Canes thing… I get that people are disappointed when they lose their hometown team, and maybe Karmanos was a jerk. But at the end of the day, it’s just a logical business decision. Hartford simply isn’t a big enough market to support an NHL team long-term.
And I have to also say, being upset when someone wants to honor your old team must require a level of bitterness that I find hard to comprehend.
Additionally it is a stressed market. You have the Bruins to the north in Boston, and the Rangers, Islanders, and Devils to the south in the NYC metro. Maybe if you had one less team around NYC they might stand a better chance? If the Islanders decide to leave NY Hartford might not be an awful landing spot for them.
And regarding honoring the history, we’ve seen Titans and Chiefs throwback to their days in Texas, but I get the sense it is more painful if the old city never gets a team to replace the one they lost. I think it is a bit of gray area in how you handle that stuff.
There’s a few things as a CT native( and a rangers fan)
1. Part of the bitterness extends from the fact that Karmanos put a challenge to the fans to meet an attendance and season ticket goal which the fans met and he moved them anyway.
2. The team drew well when it was competitive. It wasn’t top 10 but average attendance was at it’s worst was never below 70% capacity inspite of the team being mismanaged for most of the 90s. The bigger issue was the arena was only a 15000 seat arena which was state of the art when it opened but by the 90s was and is woefully out of date.
3. Hartford can draw well. Look at UConn at their best years, they sold out the XL center no problem. CT fans are happy to adopt anything in state as their own. Jokingly it’s the only thing that draws Yankee and red Sox fans together. Look no further to when the Huskies play at msg to see that fervor.
4. The whalers had an added disadvantage in that they were broadcast on what is now nbc sports New England. This meant that anyone in southern CT couldn’t get games on tv which is incidently is the richest part of the state. Where I lived in fairfeld county I could get devil’s games but no whalers games. Cutting the richest potential fans out of the loops was setting the team up for failure. This is a major part of the reason I’m a rangers fan rather than a whalers fan.
5. This is why there is bitterness. There is no reason this shouldn’t have worked. Better tv coverage and somewhat bigger arena and the whalers would have done fine. The problem was that Kraft had courted Hartford for the Patriots which had the cities attention and they didn’t realize he was using CT until the Karmanos was already too far down the path.
6. As far Carolina goes, it’s different, you guys had the Panthers and the canes not to mention 3 top class college hoops teams, when the hornets left. The whale was all CT had for pro sports. It left a gaping hole that UConn has only filled. While I appreciate the attempt, the letter comes off as condescending.
Fairfield County is part of the NYC DMA/TV market and not the Hartford DMA, so that’s why said county didn’t and couldn’t get Whalers games.
Absolutely but it hasn’t stopped UConn from getting clearance. If sny had existed, it would make a ton of sense to add them on.
UConn is a different case since it has lots of alumni and fans in the NYC area and UConn doesn’t have to deal with a league’s territorial restrictions like the Whalers did. In the unlikely event that Hartford gets another NHL club, I still don’t think it could air games in Fairfield County since it’s part of the primary DMA of 3 clubs (Rangers, Islanders and Devils). I know SNY has a dedicated feed for Connecticut, but I’m not sure how it would work for a pro club in the NHL, NBA or MLB (could be more lax than the other 2) due to how their territorial restrictions work.
Does the University of Michigan get to claim trademark violations for any use of an upper-case M with serifs, even if dark blue is not present?
Interesting article at TSN.ca regarding the jersey/sweater worn by Darryl Sittler the night he scored 10 points against my Bruins 42 years ago today, February 7th. I’d link but I’m old and/or lazy.
Get off my lawn…