"Vegas Golden Knights" - Ha ha ha ha

[Sir_T-Cups]

The funny thing about the team name is that no matter what they are formally called, everyone will refer to them as the “Vegas Knights”.

They seemed to have had the forethought to take out the “las” (which no one would use) but keep the “golden” (which pretty much no one will use).

I can absolutely guarantee you that in the middle of the game, when the score is tied and there’s the dead space in-between a faceoff, the PA announcer is going to do the 3-beat cheer, and it’s going to be “Let’s. Go. Knights! Let’s. Go. Knights!”. The “Golden” is just going to fall by the wayside.

For all intents and purposes the team is the Vegas Knights.

[zamboniracer]

@Chronos

Which raises a point: With an ordinary, local fanbase, even if everyone who goes to the games buys a shirt or a cap or whatever, that’s still just the same number of shirts as filled seats. With a “fan base” composed of “whoever happens to be vacationing in Vegas on this day”, though, you can sell a new shirt and cap to every tourist who comes through. There’s a lot of money in that merchandise, and a tourist city like Vegas is in a better position than most to move it.

True, but nobody is going to go to Vegas (Las or not) for the hockey.

[LSLGuy]

Lots of teams have one-word names and use the 4-beat cheer instead of three:
“Let’s. Go. Yan. Kees.”
“Let’s. Go. Card. Nals.”
“Let’s. Go. Ray. Ders.”
etc.

So “Let’s. Go. Vay. Gis.” is a real possibility too.

“Let’s. Go. Gol. Dens.” might work if they go all soccer mom and use a Labrador as a mascot. Why yes, I am kidding. How did you know?

I think the thing I want to see most about this team is the cheerleaders. The squad’s name and their costumes will be spectacular and as tacky as the league will let them get away with. Which won’t be much, but it’s the intent that counts.

[Chronos]

True, but nobody is going to go to Vegas (Las or not) for the hockey.

But you might still be able to sell merchandise even to tourists who don’t go to the games.

[Count_Blucher]

Many excellent hockey players grew up playing hockey really far north in the US /Canada / Russia where (they say) its gets pretty cold all winter long.

Now, I’ve been to LV in summer.

I always had to keep water in the car to drink and the AC running full blast… and when I parked the car, I literally had to run to the shadow of the closest building and then had to run from shadow to shadow just to get to where I was going without getting a sunburn.
(It’s not quite ‘Crematoria’ from ‘Chronicles of Riddick’. Some days its cloudy.)

I can’t help but think that there may just be some sort of climate conflict there that could affect a top hockey player’s performance edge.

[Snowboarder_Bo]

Or not.

[Czarcasm]

The Vegas Pair O’ Dice?

[LSLGuy]

Back in the '80s before so much of Olde Tyme Vegas was bulldozed to make room for mega-resorts here was a small run-down 1960s casino named the “Pair O Dice.”

I’m glad I got to see a lot of that stuff before it died.

[Rick_Kitchen]

It’s certainly not a great mascot, but it’s still better than the Blue Jackets or the Wild.

Blue Jackets is a historic name for the Columbus area. Much like the Charlotte Hornets.

[asterion]

@DCnDC

Nobody ever refers to LA as “Angeles” or San Diego as “Diego.”

I know of very few people who don’t refer to Las Vegas as just “Vegas.”

Most of the people I know around here do it to easily distinguish Las Vegas, NM from Las Vegas, NV. If you say you’re going to Vegas, people assume you’re going to go blow some money in Nevada. If say you’re going to Las Vegas, people start wondering just what you’re planning to actually do. (Las Vegas, NM, is a nice enough town, but there’s not much there other than a little shopping and NM Highlands University.)

[Jim_s_Son]

@kenobi_65

My understanding had also been that the Lightning and Panthers (and, for that matter, the Coyotes in Phoenix) were hoping to create a fan base from older hockey fans who had moved to Florida and Arizona from the northern U.S. and Canada (or, at least, were snowbirds, living in those warm-weather places during hockey season). But, as it turned out, retirees from Toronto were more likely to remain as Maple Leaf fans, than convert to following the Lightning or Panthers.

The internet and cable tv probably make it easier for snowbirds, retirees and transplants to hold on to their allegiance to their old teams. It probably takes several decades to grow a local population into being fans of a new team.

[Rick_Kitchen]

The US Patent Office has denied the team the registration of Golden Knights, on the grounds that a small college already owns the rights.

[Czarcasm]

@Rick_Kitchen

The US Patent Office has denied the team the registration of Golden Knights, on the grounds that a small college already owns the rights.

See post #46.

[LSLGuy]

@Jim_s_Son

The internet and cable tv probably make it easier for snowbirds, retirees and transplants to hold on to their allegiance to their old teams. It probably takes several decades to grow a local population into being fans of a new team.

Agreed.

Here in Miami attendance for the local MLB & NFL teams depends a lot on who the local team is playing. An away team from an area with lots of transplants draws much better than an away team from some other random place.

And in many of those high attendance games the crowd is wearing more away team jerseys than home team jerseys. This is more true for the MLB Miami Marlins who generally suck than for the NFL Miami Dolphins who also generally suck but have a longer and better history here.

I don’t follow our local NHL or NBA close enough to know how much they see the same effect.

[Ulf_the_Unwashed]

There’s a bit of pro hockey precedent for the “Vegas Golden Knights.”

There was a team in the old WHA called the New York Gooden Blades. Halfway through the season they skipped town for cherry Hill NJ where they became known as the Jersey (no New) Knights. Golden, KNights, and the omission of a place name part…hmm…

[RealityChuck]

My wife went to the College of St. Rose, and I think it’s hilarious that they might stop the nickname. St. Rose is hardly a sports power; the play Ind Division III, and not with any particular success. They don’t have a hockey team, either.

[ElvisL1ves]

That means the payoff to them won’t be onerous.

[Spoons]

@LSLGuy

Color me deeply skeptical they’ll succeed at marketing it to tourists. At least not to US or Canadian tourists. Those folks come to Las Vegas for the things they can only get there. NHL hockey’s not one of those things; it’s available in 30 other North American cities…

And dozens more North American cities and towns, if you include minor-league pro hockey; and if you cannot make it to a game at any level, it is available on Canadian TV daily between October and June.

True, I go to Las Vegas to do see and things that I cannot see or do at home. But one of those things is to get away from hockey, not to watch more of it.

[JeffB]

@RealityChuck

My wife went to the College of St. Rose, and I think it’s hilarious that they might stop the nickname. St. Rose is hardly a sports power; the play Ind Division III, and not with any particular success. They don’t have a hockey team, either.

Nitpick: Division II

[Snowboarder_Bo]

Ed Graney, a sports writer for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, wrote a nifty column last week about this called [Amateur hour defines trademark saga for Golden Knights

The gift that keeps on giving, meaning the long and painstakingly slow process that took months for the NHL and its Las Vegas team to finally unveil the nickname and logo at a celebration outside T-Mobile Arena last month, added a new chapter to the saga when its trademark request was denied Wednesday by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Here’s why: The College of Saint Rose, a Division II school that sits on 46 acres and is surrounded by Victorian-era structures in the capital city of New York, is also known as the Golden Knights. Its logo, unveiled in 2001, is strikingly similar to the one the hockey team first displayed Nov. 22.

Let’s be honest: It’s sort of a dead ringer.

Why didn’t the NHL or Foley merely approach the college about signing a consent agreement, as it did others with similar nicknames and marks, that would allow the Las Vegas team to use both?

Because the school doesn’t play hockey? They’re reaching with that one.

Foley referred all questions to legal counsel while the NHL released a statement saying there are no plans to change the nickname or logo, that it believes the mark should be registered in co-existence with the college registration as others are in sports and that this is a routine matter.

Maybe, and while it’s true the team can continue to use the nickname and sell merchandise, even without officially registering with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and has six months in which to respond to the denial, all of this appears incredibly unprofessional and sloppy on the side of the NHL and Foley.

Foley’s representatives have said they don’t believe there is reason to strike a deal with Saint Rose, but a school with a Division II athletic department budget can always use a few extra scholarships and new uniforms, no?

I would also think the story might reach the desks of those who write monologues for Fallon, who was awarded an honorary degree from The College of Saint Rose in 2009 and has spoken about the Golden Knights on his late-night show.

This can’t be the sort of publicity Foley sought for the nickname and logo.

](Las Vegas News | Breaking News & Headlines | Las Vegas Review-Journal)
Mr. Graney does conclude that he thinks the VGK will go forward with their name and logo intact, eventually; others have hopes in a different direction, of course.

But the thing I get most from this story and from [the NHL’s response via deputy commissioner Bill Daly:

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said the league will formally respond by a June 7 deadline outlining why it believes the name should be registered “in co-existence” with that of Saint Rose “just as a number of other nicknames currently co-exist in professional and college sports (particularly where there is no overlap as to the sport for which the nickname is being used).”

“We consider this a routine matter, and it is not our intention to reconsider the name or logo of this franchise,” Daly said. “We fully intend to proceed as originally planned, relying on our common law trademark rights as well as our state trademark registrations while we work through the process of addressing the question raised in the federal applications.”

](Vegas Golden Knights' trademark request denied by U.S. patent office - ESPN) is that the NHL acknowledges that there are multiple teams with the same mascot in different sports and in different leagues, countries, etc. So why choose such a shitty team name? Why didn’t Bill Foley just pick the Las Vegas Black Knights and tell West Point to go fuck themselves? Clearly the league believes both teams can use the same name, and Foley already had to [del]buy out[/del]get a consent agreement from Clarkson College for the Golden Knights name, so why all the hand-wringing and difficulty?

Amateur hour, indeed. I remain hopeful that the team will change their stupid mascot and shitty logo.