Winnipeg’s NHL team: What should it be named?
Written on June 26, 2011 by Brooke Wardlaw
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After a 15-yr absence the NHL is finally returning to an appreciative market in Winnipeg. I loved it when Bettman said “…returning to a market we wish we had never left.” If its even possible, one might have detected a little emotion in his voice. Now then, what to call the new team?
From the passionate, yet futile campaign in 1996 to ‘save our Jets’, thruout the following 15 yrs to ‘bring back the Jets’, the focus has always been about the Winnipeg Jets. The history, the passion and nostalgia all rest with THAT name. To bring an NHL team to Winnipeg and call them anything but “The Jets” would leave a feeling of partial accomplishment. Something like “Well, we couldn’t get The Jets, so we settled for…(Polar Bears?, Blizzards?). Lets look at a common argument made FOR a new name.
Some folks have said that a new name is necessary in order to sell shirts, hats and other merchandise. Here is a solution: change the colors, update the logo, but keep the name! Besides, its been 15 years! How many of us still fit clothes from 15 yrs ago? Young fans that were barely in their teens in 1996 are now well into their 20′s and 30′s, and need new stuff anyway. So change the colors and logos, and they’ll buy. Hey, any city which has been screaming “Bring back the Jets” for this long, and sells 13,000 season tickets in a few hours, will support the team.
Lets be clear! Call them the Plum Coulee Pirates, the Boissevain Beavers or the Morden Mosquitoes, and fans will still fill the arena every night. From a marketing standpoint, however, why start from ground zero, when you have the passion and brand name recognition already built into the Winnipeg Jets? It would be like Coca-Cola re-branding itself as a “Sweet sugary brown drink”, or McDonald’s suddenly selling “Large Dons” instead of Big Macs.
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