Sports in Canadian culture

[GernB]

Originally Posted by suburbanite

Wish TFC would've gone blue and white in the first place. Homogeneity across a city's teams is always cool to see. Guess the Raptors already ruined that decades ago though.

Raptors missed the boat IMO when they went with that name instead of resurrecting the Huskies name and colours. Royal blue and white btw.

[EpicPonyTime]

Originally Posted by GernB

Raptors missed the boat IMO when they went with that name instead of resurrecting the Huskies name and colours. Royal blue and white btw.

I disagree. The Huskies brand is generic and too similar to the Timberwolves. The only real thing that name had over the Raptors was that it had history, but the Raptors' accomplishments have completely eclipsed it imo.

[osmo]

Raptors are fine. It is a goofy name but the brand is stable now.

I agree that Blue with the colours would have been nice.

I give the team credit for the new Raptors logo as I thought it was silly at first, but over time I realized it was brilliant as the logo looks GREAT on clothing and hats (which matter$ more than what it look$ like on the court).

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by FrankieFlowerpot

Will you actually go?

Yes. I went to only 1 game their first year at BMO and 2 this year. I may have pulled in 2 new fans for the Argos in the process. 1 is a general sports fan so it wasn't hard to get him to go. The other I thought would never go to see Canadian Football again after an awful experience at Skydome 7 years ago. It was his first time at a CFL game.

Not only did he say yes to the Eastern Conference Final last month but he astonishingly hosted a Grey Cup party the next week. He's exactly the type of fan the Argos need to win over. He's a white collar professional and had zero interest in the CFL. He looked down upon Canadian football but loved both the Conference Final and the Grey Cup. He thought it was great football and changed his mind about the league. He admitted he'd never really given it a chance and thanked me for getting him to go.

I'll be back next year. 2 of us are thinking of buying season's tickets. If not we'll certainly go to more than 2 games in 2018. The 2 guys I 'recruited' will very likely be attending quite a few as well. 2 new fans isn't much by itself but that week I felt the franchise won over alot of new fans. My story is likely just one of many.

I wouldn't be surprised to see average attendance jump to the 18,000-20,000 range for 2018. Still not great but this was never going to be a quick fix.

[VANRIDERFAN]

Originally Posted by isaidso

Yes. I went to only 1 game their first year at BMO and 2 this year. I may have pulled in 2 new fans for the Argos in the process. 1 is a general sports fan so it wasn't hard to get him to go. The other I thought would never go to see Canadian Football again after an awful experience at Skydome 7 years ago. It was his first time at a CFL game.

Not only did he say yes to the Eastern Conference Final last month but he astonishingly hosted a Grey Cup party the next week. He's exactly the type of fan the Argos need to win over. He's a white collar professional and had zero interest in the CFL. He looked down upon Canadian football but loved both the Conference Final and the Grey Cup. He thought it was great football and changed his mind about the league. He admitted he'd never really given it a chance and thanked me for getting him to go.

I'll be back next year. 2 of us are thinking of buying season's tickets. If not we'll certainly go to more than 2 games in 2018. The 2 guys I 'recruited' will very likely be attending quite a few as well. 2 new fans isn't much by itself but that week I felt the franchise won over alot of new fans. My story is likely just one of many.

I wouldn't be surprised to see average attendance jump to the 18,000-20,000 range for 2018. Still not great but this was never going to be a quick fix.

That's great to hear.

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by VANRIDERFAN

That's great to hear.

I moved to Toronto in 2001 and this is the first time I've ever felt optimistic about the Argonauts long term prospects.

[GernB]

Originally Posted by EpicPonyTime

I disagree. The Huskies brand is generic and too similar to the Timberwolves. The only real thing that name had over the Raptors was that it had history, but the Raptors' accomplishments have completely eclipsed it imo.

Generic and similar to others works well for the Cardinals/Ravens/Falcons, Canadiens/Canucks and Blue Jays/Orioles. Huskies has the benefit of being traditional and of not being a cheesy effort to cash in on a movie's popularity.

[megadude]

I'm in the Raptors name boat. Not a fan of the name Huskies because too many teams are already named that in sports. I get the cheese factor of being named from a popular movie at the time, though it didn't bother me at all. Raptor is such a unique name in major sports and it was a ferocious animal so it checks both those boxes for me as far as pro teams go.

In Canada alone there's Saskatchewan Huskies and St. Mary's Huskies. In the US there's UConn Huskies, N. Illinois Huskies and Washington Huskies off the top of my head.

Two days ago I saw a Toronto Huskies tshirt at Winners and really wanted to buy it because who doesn't want a tshirt of their hometown team to lounge around in. But it was 20 bucks and my cutoff is 15 for TO tshirts. Plus it didn't look as comfortable as their others. I have a bad habit of buying TO team shirts, Team Canada, bunch of US college, F1, etc. Then there's the 75 hats or so that I have. $10 is my limit for those but most I get for $6 on clearance.

Being a massive college fan, I love unique names. Colleges here and US have tonnes of great names. To name a few from teams I have watched: Cornhuskers, Boilermakers, Volunteers, Hokies, Mountaineers, Buckeyes. And closer to home, Varsity Blues, Marauders, Lancers, Gee Gees, etc. So many, many great names to choose from on both sides of the border. Plus a myriad of interesting names in junior hockey.

I don't particularly like the names that are too frequent like Huskies, Bulldogs, Wildcats, Lions, Tigers, etc. One of the schools I went to, York, changed from Yeomen to Lions. Went from a beautiful name to the most generic one.

When I was younger I thought the same thing regarding uniformity of colours across a city's teams like Pittsburgh. But that's three. I'm not sure if there are any cities that have four plus teams with same scheme. I'm not sure there are any other than Pittsburgh with three. But I do recall back in '94 wanting the NBA team to be blue and white to match.

Nowadays it has more to do with marketing and consumer behaviour than tradition and I've accepted that as long as they don't go too far overboard, which you could argue the Raps did, but that was a different time than now and they certainly toned it down and sharpened it up.

[GernB]

Originally Posted by megadude

I'm in the Raptors name boat. Not a fan of the name Huskies because too many teams are already named that in sports. I get the cheese factor of being named from a popular movie at the time, though it didn't bother me at all. Raptor is such a unique name in major sports and it was a ferocious animal so it checks both those boxes for me as far as pro teams go.

In Canada alone there's Saskatchewan Huskies and St. Mary's Huskies. In the US there's UConn Huskies and Washington Huskies off the top of my head.

Two days ago I saw a Toronto Huskies tshirt at Winners and really wanted to buy it because who doesn't want a tshirt of their hometown team to lounge around in. But it was 20 bucks and my cutoff is 15 for TO tshirts. Plus it didn't look as comfortable as their others. I have a bad habit of buying TO team shirts, Team Canada, bunch of US college, F1, etc. Then there's the 75 hats or so that I have. $10 is my limit for those but most I get for $6 on clearance.

Being a massive college fan, I love unique names. Colleges here and US have tonnes of great names. To name a few from teams I have watched: Cornhuskers, Boilermakers, Volunteers, Mountaineers, Buckeyes. And closer to home, Varsity Blues, Marauders, Lancers, Gee Gees, etc. So many, many great names to choose from on both sides of the border. Plus a myriad of names in junior hockey.

I don't particularly like the names that are too frequent like Huskies, Bulldogs, Wildcats, Lions, Tigers, etc. One of the schools I went to, York, changed from Yeomen to Lions. Went from a beautiful name to the most generic one.

When I was younger I thought the same thing regarding uniformity of colours across a city's teams like Pittsburgh. But that's three. I'm not sure if there are any cities that have four plus teams with same scheme. I'm not sure there are any other than Pittsburgh with three. But I do recall back in '94 wanting the NBA team to be blue and white to match.

Nowadays it has more to do with marketing and consumer behaviour than tradition and I've accepted that as long as they don't go too far overboard, which you could argue the Raps did, but that was a different time than now and they certainly toned it down and sharpened it up.

Very much agree with your last paragraph; the Raptors red/black/white design is far superior to the purple/red nightmare they first had.

As far as same colours for all of a city's teams, the Stamps/Flames are close, and Montreal had the Expos/Canadiens/Alouettes, but I remember reading an article in the early 70s to the effect that the Alouettes were changing to the red/white/blue combination to match the other two teams and thinking that it was ridiculous, since they had just changed from red/white to green/red/white just a few years before. Then the Penguins did the same thing for the same reason just a few years later.

As far as college team names go, it seems we're not as inventive in Canada as they are in the US, but my old school U of L has one of the best, I think... the Pronghorns...though they had to go through two other incarnations (Bobcats and Chinooks) before they came up with it.

[Berklon]

At the time of the new franchise, I wasn't a fan of the Raptors name. But it didn't take long for it to grow on me and I like it now. As already stated, it's original - I don't think anyone else is using it... if there is, it was probably after Toronto named it first.

The big problem I had was the logo. It looked way too kid-friendly. It was smart of them to abandon it and go with the claw. Now it looks more imposing.

[Acajack]

Did Raptors ever live in the GTA?

[EpicPonyTime]

Originally Posted by GernB

As far as college team names go, it seems we're not as inventive in Canada as they are in the US, but my old school U of L has one of the best, I think... the Pronghorns...though they had to go through two other incarnations (Bobcats and Chinooks) before they came up with it.

In terms of original names, nothing will ever beat minor league baseball down in the states. Some of the team names down there are ridiculous.

[megadude]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Did Raptors ever live in the GTA?

I found some Velociraptor bones in my backyard once. So yes. Although they could have been chicken bones I threw in the garden after eating wings the previous summer

No name reaches further back in its local history than Univ of Calgary Dinos.

[megadude]

Originally Posted by GernB

Very much agree with your last paragraph; the Raptors red/black/white design is far superior to the purple/red nightmare they first had.

As far as same colours for all of a city's teams, the Stamps/Flames are close, and Montreal had the Expos/Canadiens/Alouettes, but I remember reading an article in the early 70s to the effect that the Alouettes were changing to the red/white/blue combination to match the other two teams and thinking that it was ridiculous, since they had just changed from red/white to green/red/white just a few years before. Then the Penguins did the same thing for the same reason just a few years later.

As far as college team names go, it seems we're not as inventive in Canada as they are in the US, but my old school U of L has one of the best, I think... the Pronghorns...though they had to go through two other incarnations (Bobcats and Chinooks) before they came up with it.

I forgot about Montreal. Must have slipped my mind as time passed by after the Expos left. And I had no idea about Als' previous colours.

Pronghorns and Chinooks - great names.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Berklon

The big problem I had was the logo. It looked way too kid-friendly. It was smart of them to abandon it and go with the claw. Now it looks more imposing.

That was a very 90s trend... so many teams went with cartoony logo designs although most have moved away from that now. The original Raptors logo is like a collection of mid 90s cliches.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by esquire

That was a very 90s trend... so many teams went with cartoony logo designs although most have moved away from that now. The original Raptors logo is like a collection of mid 90s cliches.

It's a shame that the Grizzlies had to vacate Vancouver because I always enjoyed their branding far more than the purple Raptors days. Although what happened to their branding in Memphis was certainly regrettable I think a teal Grizzlies team in Vancouver today could look pretty sharp.

[osmo]

Originally Posted by JHikka

It's a shame that the Grizzlies had to vacate Vancouver because I always enjoyed their branding far more than the purple Raptors days. Although what happened to their branding in Memphis was certainly regrettable I think a teal Grizzlies team in Vancouver today could look pretty sharp.

NBA was shortsighted in not being patient with Vancouver, a well sized, a wealthy market, natural local rivals in Cascadia, with a large Asian population that is tapped into a Basketball ball hungry Asian in many parts.

NBA will be back in Vancouver in my lifetime.

[esquire]

^ The Grizzlies definitely had better branding.

I'm not sure if it's still a "thing" but I remember exploring the Santee Alley in LA about 5 years ago and seeing tons of Vancouver Grizzlies hats, shirts, etc. on sale. I guess it was pretty chic in the hip hop world... that speaks to good design. Much like the Raptors look I'm sure it would have been modernized by now had the Griz stayed in BC, but it was a better design choice from the get go.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by osmo

NBA was shortsighted in not being patient with Vancouver, a well sized, a wealthy market, natural local rivals in Cascadia, with a large Asian population that is tapped into a Basketball ball hungry Asian in many parts.

Indeed. The NBA was willing to relocate almost immediately whereas the NHL has been much more steadfast in its franchises. This says nothing of the Charlotte-New Orleans saga.

[HomeInMyShoes]

^Might just have been five years too soon for Vancouver. Although they probably shouldn't have drafted Big Country.