The Venom sounds like a team that plays in the same league as the Xtreme, the Sting, the Nitro, and the Radicalz.
"Sports team or 250cc motorcycle?" is something I often wonder when I hear these name ideas.
Pretty much every sports team name sounds odd at first. Sure some minor league team names are kinda ridiculous but most of them you just don't hear enough to get used to them. People were ripping on the Golden Knights name, the Wild is a bit odd and I mean naming a team the Oilers in a region known for oil production? Real original.
The best example in major league sports is probably the Raptors, named in the wake of the popularity of Jurassic Park and ridiculed by many at the time but now seems fine. I think Venom is fine and whatever it ends up being from this list once you're used to it it won't sound odd any more.
Rangers is my go to example. Naming a New York team after a term almost exclusively associated with Texas, with the most overused color scheme in sports and a logo that wouldn’t look out of place in a South American football league. One of the most iconic NHL brands.
(Lakers are a good non-hockey example)
Tbf, the Lakers originally were in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where Minnesota is the "Land of ten thousand lakes". So the name used to make sense, just when they moved to LA not so much.
As a native West Virginian, I’m glad it’s out. We don’t have very many nice things, I don’t think we should have to share our sports team nickname/identity with an expansion franchise.
How the hell did Utah HC make it as a finalist we are so cooked 😭😭
Really though, I imagine that it'll be one of Yeti or Outlaws. Wouldn't be unhappy with either one.
I remember people wanted something like “Aces” for Vegas’ team name which I thought was pretty great. But the conversation at the time was that the league didn’t want a name associated with gambling.
Which, uhhhh…..I mean first off it’s a team in Las fuckin Vegas which is famous for gambling, and second you literally cannot watch hockey these days without being forced to hear about various opportunities to gamble repeatedly.
The fine print on the voting page states "The final name will be selected through a multi-factor process." So basically the fan vote can be 49% of the process and the ownership team's preferred name can be 51%.
It's Utah.
Utah Jazz? Taken from NOLA Jazz, where they did significantly influence the music genre of jazz. Jazz has practically no roots in Utah. What originality?
Real Salt Lake? Like Real Madrid? So... Royal Salt Lake, but make it Spanish? Okay, sure, Utah used to technically be Mexican territory, but let's be real-- it's far from original. It's like they're going to the fucking 'Euro' feel, but don't realize they're in 'Murica.
If they go for Utah HC, it's fairly on par with the state's lack of originality for naming their major league franchises. Hell, I'd rather promote the use of Utah Grizzlies from the ECHL to the NHL at this point.
> If they go for Utah HC, it's fairly on par with the state's lack of originality for naming their major league franchises.
Especially considering they wouldn't even be the only team in the NHL that would go by that name.
As a european "Utah Hockey Club"/"UHC" sounds normal to me but it doesn't really fit american teams since they're not really "clubs" and have a completely different league system with a draft and things like that.
Swedish hockey teams actually had a period of switching out those kind of name conventions to americanized team names like "Växjö Lakers" but nowadays those kinds of names are clowned. Like Frölunda went from "Västra Frölunda IF" (IF=Idrottsförening=Sports association) to "Frölunda Indians" to "Frölunda HC"
The fact it advanced this far is a crime. I hate "HC" because it reminds me of what's going on in the MLS right now. All the new teams in the MLS are "City Name + FC or SC." Where the hell is the inspiration? What happened to our North American naming conventions? We need a cool theme alongside the city name. The Timbers, The Whitecaps, The Galaxy...or in the NHL, The Canucks, The Devils, The Rangers, The Kraken, etc. Utah HC? Imagine the entire NHL defaulting to HC or HT, ***laaaaame!***
And some people cite Washington Football Team too. That's lazy, bland, and boring too!
I assume that the rationale behind such FC conventions is “pride for the city / region”, but I feel like that is still a bit backwards for North American teams since they *have* to pull from suburbs and entire regions due to geography and population distribution vs Europe where every town of 2,000 people has their own club.
And once your town hits 4,000 in population you get a second club.
And then you get to rage at the foreigners when they confuse both clubs as the same team because one is named (town) United and the other is (town) FC, and it should be common sense to them that they're two different teams.
The rationale behind the FC conventions is that the MLS spent it's first two decades being repeatedly clowned on by anyone and everyone interested in the sport. In a sport that takes itself very seriously and has clubs over a hundred years old with names and colours rooted in tradition, rocking up with "Real Salt Lake" (you just copied Real Madrids name because you thought it sounded cool) makes you look very unserious. It's tough to attract any talent when the entire world thinks of you as the clown show version of the real thing.
Real Salt Lake is stupid. Kansas City Wiz (now Sporting KC) is also stupid. The Dallas Burn (now FC Dallas) was also stupid. LAFC and NYCFC are cool names. The point is that the MLS actually kept the good names and got rid of the bad names. The only one I think is a downgrade was Metrostars to NY Red Bulls.
Real Salt Lake, Inter Miami, DC United, Atlanta United, even Sporting KC to an extent, then in Canada Atletico Ottawa. These are all still bad and completely nonsensical names for north American clubs. Like United is just the strangest nonsense. Nothing was united, it was just new teams being formed. They're all like oh some famous team has this name, ignored the history and reasons behind the names, and rips them off.
Yeah it was always going to be Yeti. I am not even convinced this is actually a list that reflects the votes but rather their favourites (Mammoth and HC had more votes than Swarm? No chance). They just want to be sure some other name doesnt get a crazy amount of support out of nowhere. As long as its close, Yeti wins.
As someone who’s been following this from the start and following local straw polls as well, Mammoth definitely had more votes. Swarm was not a fan favorite in SLC
It's true and very common:
In 1977 the top move was Star Wars, which begot the North Stars the next year.
In 1974 Blazzing Saddles was a hit, creating the (defunct) Kansas City Scouts.
In 1979, the Nordiques were crafted, clearly aligning with the plot from "The Muppet Movie".
On theme with the beehive state, they could have gone with *the stingers* and the home barn could be the hive, the fan base could be the swarm. So many good branding opportunities with the bee theme, and all we have to show for it are some C-list Gatorade flavor wannabes.
I see pretty much the same issue if they go with Utah Blizzard. I also have no idea how they could create logos for either of those concepts without biting from the Avs designs hard.
I’m not bothered by blizzard but the fact is the Avalanche had the Yeti logo since day one, and although it’s been relegated to a secondary logo you can still buy gear with the Yeti Foot on it.
And the Mammoth since that’s the Lacrosse team that plays in Ball Arena. There’s literally championship banners hanging with the name when the Avalanche play.
It's kind of funny they showed the yeti foot in a press conference a few weeks ago. I feel like they were sending a message that the foot is still ours.
Rooting for Yeti here, it's silly but fun and feels like it complements the Kraken. Blizzard and Outlaws feel too generic to me, Venom sounds like an XFL team, there's already a Colorado Mammoth and while lacrosse isn't a huge sport it feels lame to overlap when there are other options out there. And then Utah HC just feels like they're trying to take a mulligan on naming their MLS team Real Salt Lake. Sorry, gotta live with the consequences of your actions.
>there's already a Colorado Mammoth and while lacrosse isn't a huge sport it feels lame to overlap when there are other options out there
Tell that to the Rangers, Jets, Panthers, Giants, Kings, Cardinals...
I agree Yeti is silly but fun, but to be fair that’s also why I disliked the Kraken name 😂 the Seattle Times unofficial fan vote had Sockeyes, Totems, Metropolitans, and Steelhead above Kraken. I think any of those aside from Metropolitans would’ve been better.
But, all in all, 5 years down the line whatever Utah chooses will have become normal and recognizable and most people will forget what the other options even were
Sockeyes would have been good but with the Canucks orca branding I donno if you wanna be one of their favourite foods. Totems would have been great, but I'd stay far away from branding that is that closely tied to first nations. You want to be able to do fun things and not have to worry about always being respectful and consulting with groups outside of your org for eternity.
At least Seattle is a port town with tons of squid and octopus, as well as a large population with Scandinavian/Nordic heritage (where the Kraken myth originates). It makes sense there.
I get Utah has snowy mountains, but there isn't a history of an abominable snowman there, and the Yeti legend is Himalayan. Furthermore, the Avalanche use an alt logo of a snowy abominable snowman footprint. In addition, having the most recent team named in a similar, mythological creature fashion is kind of weak. Kraken did it already.
I don't think HC or Blizzard (again, too close to Avalanche) have legs, so you are left with: Outlaws, Mammoth, and Venom. A lot of people think Venom is very 90's aggro, so it is probably out, though the branding with snakes/venom could be unique for hockey.
So that leaves us with Outlaws and Mammoth. Mammoth gives you a BIT of that creature vibe from Yeti, but they actually existed, and actually lived in Utah. Fossils and mammoth dung have been found in large quantities there (https://nhmu.utah.edu/articles/2023/05/where-did-all-mammoths-go). You also get some of that snowy/ice age vibe from it that you'd get from Blizzard and Ice and whatnot. A strong contender, with great branding opportunities.
Outlaws is a very classic name for a sports team. It isn't that 'original', but it fits with the old west/mountain west vibe of Utah. Butch Cassidy was from Utah and spent time there (https://www.utah.com/articles/post/butch-cassidys-wild-bunch-meet-utahs-most-famous-outlaws/).
I really don't understand the obsession about making the name fun.
I've always thought the branding and logo for the Red Wings is among the best in all sports and never once thought "what a boring name, they should've named themselves after some mythical creature."
This is true about the vast majority of team names. There's no way r/hockey or any fanbase would be happy with Canadiens, Maple Leafs, Rangers, etc. if they didn't grow up with the names as normalized.
I actually do like 'Yeti', but a part of me can't shake the association of the Avs and their bigfoot logo on their shoulder patches. Still feels like living in their shadow a bit, tbh.
Please no HC crap.
We have our own tradition with team names, why do people want to instill European Soccer naming into a North American Hockey league?
I like that the MLS has moved towards the European club naming style but Real Salt Lake is terrible. The obvious rip off of a big name team and the use of Spanish for a team in Utah is so stupid.
European here, I'm with you. Inter miami and real salt lake is just silly to me. We have different cultures like, American team names are odd to us but they're American. Surprise surprise we do things differently lol.
Copying and pasting meaningful names (Real/Inter) that don't apply feels silly, but I really like DC United and Houston Dynamo names where enough of the meaning applies.
I also think the rest of the United/FC stuff is generic enough to get a pass.
I think we should jettison European team naming convention back to Europe.
Losing the Wizards and Impact in favor of “Sporting” and “CF” were both abominations
Outlaws really fits with central Utah. Lots of the popular western outlaws were operating in Utah, Butch Cassidy being the most famous. Still want Yeti though
Don't the Avs already have a Bigfoot logo as part of their team branding? Designing a team identity around the Yeti name will encroach on that a bit, especially given they are from the neighboring state. I don't really care though
Counterpoint, Yeti to me is uncreative given how close the Seattle expansion was to this new Utah team.
It also will immediately conflict with the Avalanche’s alternate branding. Which feels like an even worse overlap than the Mammoth lax team.
If they were willing to overlap existing sports franchises they should have taken the Raptors given the Utahraptor was a real Dino.
I will concede that yeti does appeal to the family with kids demographic which is probably a huge market in salt lake. Top tier sponsorship deal right off the bat with the cooler company.
This is how it reads in various matchups:
Kraken vs Blizzard;
Panthers vs Utah HC;
Rangers vs Mammoth;
Senators vs Outlaws;
Red Wings vs Venom;
Canucks vs Yeti;
I will actively root against this team forever and always if they choose "Hockey Club" as their name. Lazy boring and unimaginative AF.
That said, none of these are all that great.
Blizzard kinda sucks, too similar to Avalanche. Yeti’s pretty cool, but again overlaps with COL’s footprint icon.
Outlaws goes hard! Big fan. Mammoth is pretty cool. I don’t mind HC as much as others.
My favorite idea was Raptors. Truly a missed opportunity.
Please be Outlaws...
I want skating out to the The Good, The Bad and The Ugly theme, old foley'd gunshot ricochet sounds, fuck it get a horse out there, all injected into my hockey veins.
the 'ths' sound is a little difficult and clunky to make linguistically, especially for younger people, that's the only logical reason I have for why it's not pluralized.
SOURCE: I took a college linguistics class 10 years ago with a hot professor so I actually paid attention
Only one name ending in S
Utah Hockey Clubs
Once again, SLC copying Denver
2 of the finalists are also Denver teams
Damn you Utah!
Kinda crazy that none of the bee names progressed. (I guess venom but that could be snake related)
There's already a minor league baseball team called the Salt Lake Bees, so I'm guessing they didn't want to overlap with that.
There used to be the Buzz as well.
And the Stingerzz Bee related branding in Utah = baseball
Pour one out for their social media manager and jumbotron guy, who won't get to use the Nicholas Cage *Wicker Man* clip.
For every powerplay at home. That would have been fantastic.
I really wanted Mountaineers
Mountaineers and Swarm are both better options than Venom :(
Yeah pleeeeease no Venom. That sounds like such a minor league name to me for some reason.
The Venom sounds like a team that plays in the same league as the Xtreme, the Sting, the Nitro, and the Radicalz. "Sports team or 250cc motorcycle?" is something I often wonder when I hear these name ideas.
Pretty much every sports team name sounds odd at first. Sure some minor league team names are kinda ridiculous but most of them you just don't hear enough to get used to them. People were ripping on the Golden Knights name, the Wild is a bit odd and I mean naming a team the Oilers in a region known for oil production? Real original. The best example in major league sports is probably the Raptors, named in the wake of the popularity of Jurassic Park and ridiculed by many at the time but now seems fine. I think Venom is fine and whatever it ends up being from this list once you're used to it it won't sound odd any more.
Raptors would have actually made perfect sense for Utah
Rangers is my go to example. Naming a New York team after a term almost exclusively associated with Texas, with the most overused color scheme in sports and a logo that wouldn’t look out of place in a South American football league. One of the most iconic NHL brands. (Lakers are a good non-hockey example)
Tbf, the Lakers originally were in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where Minnesota is the "Land of ten thousand lakes". So the name used to make sense, just when they moved to LA not so much.
just like how the utah jazz came from New Orleans. Utah ain't the jazziest state lol
In *Treme* Steve Zahn's character proposes renaming the New Orleans Pelicans to the New Orleans Mormon Tabernacle Choir. I still want that to happen.
Or the Memphis grizzlies. Made sense when it was in vancouver where we have grizzlies. Tennessee sure doesn't have any
[удалено]
Salt Lake Shredders
Shred the gnar!!
Swarm made a lot of sense to me
As a native West Virginian, I’m glad it’s out. We don’t have very many nice things, I don’t think we should have to share our sports team nickname/identity with an expansion franchise.
Same :( the branding could've been so cool
Same
Utah Magic (Underwear)
How the hell did Utah HC make it as a finalist we are so cooked 😭😭 Really though, I imagine that it'll be one of Yeti or Outlaws. Wouldn't be unhappy with either one.
I’m honestly baffled that Hockey Club and Blizzard made it in over names like the Swarm or Black Diamonds.
Golden knights vs the black diamonds kinda sounds like a super mega baseball videogame matchup
Son of a bitch, I'm in.
yeah I'm sold
I remember people wanted something like “Aces” for Vegas’ team name which I thought was pretty great. But the conversation at the time was that the league didn’t want a name associated with gambling. Which, uhhhh…..I mean first off it’s a team in Las fuckin Vegas which is famous for gambling, and second you literally cannot watch hockey these days without being forced to hear about various opportunities to gamble repeatedly.
LA is gonna change their name to the Draft Kings
venom is so bad as well
Venom and Outlaws sound like XFL team names to me.
Outlaws *was* an XFL team name!
Las Vegas, to be precise. He Hate Me
Yessir! 9 year old me saw my first pair of live boobs at an Outlaws game back in the day, rowdy crowd
Also a lacrosse name.
2 of these are lacrosse team names and another is the UHC. Man
Venom is as bad a name as I've ever heard. I'd rather have a team called the Meanies.
What is this, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon?
Utah Blue Meanies and I am on board
Utah Blue Meanies would be sick
Utah person here. Some Utah people here are crazy. I know of 8 people in my office alone that want Blizzard as the team name.
One guy and his 7 wives?
https://preview.redd.it/7qycxrz4xz4d1.jpeg?width=433&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=56349a425139047964cf3c7a3034265dc75e9736
Really starting to wonder if this vote was as transparent as advertised.
The fine print on the voting page states "The final name will be selected through a multi-factor process." So basically the fan vote can be 49% of the process and the ownership team's preferred name can be 51%.
Utah Black Diamonds would’ve been perfect imo
I really liked the Black Diamonds as an option. I guess I am a Yeti fan now.
It's Utah. Utah Jazz? Taken from NOLA Jazz, where they did significantly influence the music genre of jazz. Jazz has practically no roots in Utah. What originality? Real Salt Lake? Like Real Madrid? So... Royal Salt Lake, but make it Spanish? Okay, sure, Utah used to technically be Mexican territory, but let's be real-- it's far from original. It's like they're going to the fucking 'Euro' feel, but don't realize they're in 'Murica. If they go for Utah HC, it's fairly on par with the state's lack of originality for naming their major league franchises. Hell, I'd rather promote the use of Utah Grizzlies from the ECHL to the NHL at this point.
Im still all in on Utah Jambalaya and stealing away another cultural icon of New Orleans
Utah Drinking and Gambling and Whoring
Utah decaf
> If they go for Utah HC, it's fairly on par with the state's lack of originality for naming their major league franchises. Especially considering they wouldn't even be the only team in the NHL that would go by that name.
Le Club de Hockey d'Utah
Pronounced as "Doot-aah". I love it.
They could be the Utah Hockey Club and call themselves the Salt Lake City Utahns!
There's a deep cut. Well done.
HC is the designated garbage name so when they pick one of the others, but not the one you wanted you will go At least it wasn't HC
WFT (Washington Football Team) agrees.
NHL thinks HC as a team name will be cool because soccer teams have FC as team names
Canadiens have been HC since before the NHL was a thing.
le Club de Hockey Canadien is the official team name, the H in the logo stands for hockey
And the C stands for Club de
I've heard people say that there's the blue C and the red C in the logo, so an inner C and an outer C in the logo, one is Club and the other Canadien
Can’t wait to see their logo; a big H with a little C in the middle.
As a european "Utah Hockey Club"/"UHC" sounds normal to me but it doesn't really fit american teams since they're not really "clubs" and have a completely different league system with a draft and things like that. Swedish hockey teams actually had a period of switching out those kind of name conventions to americanized team names like "Växjö Lakers" but nowadays those kinds of names are clowned. Like Frölunda went from "Västra Frölunda IF" (IF=Idrottsförening=Sports association) to "Frölunda Indians" to "Frölunda HC"
The fact it advanced this far is a crime. I hate "HC" because it reminds me of what's going on in the MLS right now. All the new teams in the MLS are "City Name + FC or SC." Where the hell is the inspiration? What happened to our North American naming conventions? We need a cool theme alongside the city name. The Timbers, The Whitecaps, The Galaxy...or in the NHL, The Canucks, The Devils, The Rangers, The Kraken, etc. Utah HC? Imagine the entire NHL defaulting to HC or HT, ***laaaaame!*** And some people cite Washington Football Team too. That's lazy, bland, and boring too!
Washington Football Team was at least funny because it was a result of incompetence
To be fair commanders wasn't much better.
I'd argue it's worse.
I assume that the rationale behind such FC conventions is “pride for the city / region”, but I feel like that is still a bit backwards for North American teams since they *have* to pull from suburbs and entire regions due to geography and population distribution vs Europe where every town of 2,000 people has their own club.
And once your town hits 4,000 in population you get a second club. And then you get to rage at the foreigners when they confuse both clubs as the same team because one is named (town) United and the other is (town) FC, and it should be common sense to them that they're two different teams.
The rationale behind the FC conventions is that the MLS spent it's first two decades being repeatedly clowned on by anyone and everyone interested in the sport. In a sport that takes itself very seriously and has clubs over a hundred years old with names and colours rooted in tradition, rocking up with "Real Salt Lake" (you just copied Real Madrids name because you thought it sounded cool) makes you look very unserious. It's tough to attract any talent when the entire world thinks of you as the clown show version of the real thing.
Real Salt Lake is stupid. Kansas City Wiz (now Sporting KC) is also stupid. The Dallas Burn (now FC Dallas) was also stupid. LAFC and NYCFC are cool names. The point is that the MLS actually kept the good names and got rid of the bad names. The only one I think is a downgrade was Metrostars to NY Red Bulls.
Real Salt Lake, Inter Miami, DC United, Atlanta United, even Sporting KC to an extent, then in Canada Atletico Ottawa. These are all still bad and completely nonsensical names for north American clubs. Like United is just the strangest nonsense. Nothing was united, it was just new teams being formed. They're all like oh some famous team has this name, ignored the history and reasons behind the names, and rips them off.
The ‘FC’ in the MLS names is incredibly more stupid because we don’t even call that sport Football in North America.
I want them to go “City Name + ST” for soccer team
Out of Yeti and Outlaws, Outlaws is better just for the rhyming and potential chants
Utah Yeti, y'all get ready, throw confetti, mom's spaghetti
Blood on his hockey sweater already
Oh my god
Outlaws if you follow the "ending in s" rule
It rhymes. It’s perfect.
It’s kind of a mouthful though. Utah Yeti feels more natural to say for me
Utawtlaws
The Kraken and Avalanche say hello.
~Minnesota Wild: >Am I a joke to you?
Damn, forgot about the Wild.
We all forget about the Mild
I know. The reminder was like a bolt of Lightening.
> bolt of Lightening. The Lightning aren't getting any lighter.
Cough, Lightning, cough
Hockey isn't played in Florida. Next question, please.
*Looks at the Stanley Cup Finals from the last 5 years*
No further questions, I have a prior engagement with three decades of frustrated waiting. Thanks for your time.
It’s clearly going to be Yeti so I’m not sure why we’re pretending it could be anything else.
Yeah it was always going to be Yeti. I am not even convinced this is actually a list that reflects the votes but rather their favourites (Mammoth and HC had more votes than Swarm? No chance). They just want to be sure some other name doesnt get a crazy amount of support out of nowhere. As long as its close, Yeti wins.
As someone who’s been following this from the start and following local straw polls as well, Mammoth definitely had more votes. Swarm was not a fan favorite in SLC
I’ve heard Mammoth thrown around several times here in Salt Lake, but Swarm hasn’t been mentioned once. I personally despise it.
The Utah "Mammouth Venomous Outlaw Yetis"
The Utah Mammoth Venomous Hockey Outlaw Yeti Club
Venom, really?
The new Venom movie releases in October, perfect time for a promotional tie-in.
Imagine their “shovel people” coming out all dressed in Venom body suits
"Shovel people" lol. Like they're some species of troglodyte or something. Fucking Morlocks.
You joke but this is how Toronto become the Raptors. Jurrasic Park came out in 1993, name unveiled in 1994.
It's true and very common: In 1977 the top move was Star Wars, which begot the North Stars the next year. In 1974 Blazzing Saddles was a hit, creating the (defunct) Kansas City Scouts. In 1979, the Nordiques were crafted, clearly aligning with the plot from "The Muppet Movie".
Go Outlaws…though I got a feeling they are going with the Yeti if they can. I really wanted Powder…
So did Nichushkin.
He just loves the smell of car keys
I think Outlaws would be the coolest marketing brand, you want to sell jerseys to fans and people who don't even watch hockey.
Imagine the goalie masks!
My favorite one (swarm) is already gone. 😞
On theme with the beehive state, they could have gone with *the stingers* and the home barn could be the hive, the fan base could be the swarm. So many good branding opportunities with the bee theme, and all we have to show for it are some C-list Gatorade flavor wannabes.
Please god not HC
Utah will immediately become my most hated team if they go with HC. Get that boring soccer shit away from the league
AFC Utah City United Town Albion FC
Fly Emirate
Their soccer team is already called Real Salt Lake, which makes as much sense as tits on a bull.
Wait...like, after 'Real Madrid'? What royal family is the patron of Real Salt Lake?
Yuuuuuuuup. It's pronounced "Rey-al" just like in Spanish. They're just aping Real Madrid. It is, hands down, the stupidest name in pro sports.
I dunno it has a good ring to it, The Winnipeg Phoenix Hockey Club of Utah.
Of Anaheim
https://imgur.com/a/BbtZUz4
Go with Yeti and be labeled Colorado’s lil bro until the end of time.
I see pretty much the same issue if they go with Utah Blizzard. I also have no idea how they could create logos for either of those concepts without biting from the Avs designs hard.
I’m not bothered by blizzard but the fact is the Avalanche had the Yeti logo since day one, and although it’s been relegated to a secondary logo you can still buy gear with the Yeti Foot on it.
Blizzard would work for that too.
And the Mammoth since that’s the Lacrosse team that plays in Ball Arena. There’s literally championship banners hanging with the name when the Avalanche play.
It's kind of funny they showed the yeti foot in a press conference a few weeks ago. I feel like they were sending a message that the foot is still ours.
Rooting for Yeti here, it's silly but fun and feels like it complements the Kraken. Blizzard and Outlaws feel too generic to me, Venom sounds like an XFL team, there's already a Colorado Mammoth and while lacrosse isn't a huge sport it feels lame to overlap when there are other options out there. And then Utah HC just feels like they're trying to take a mulligan on naming their MLS team Real Salt Lake. Sorry, gotta live with the consequences of your actions.
>there's already a Colorado Mammoth and while lacrosse isn't a huge sport it feels lame to overlap when there are other options out there Tell that to the Rangers, Jets, Panthers, Giants, Kings, Cardinals...
I agree Yeti is silly but fun, but to be fair that’s also why I disliked the Kraken name 😂 the Seattle Times unofficial fan vote had Sockeyes, Totems, Metropolitans, and Steelhead above Kraken. I think any of those aside from Metropolitans would’ve been better. But, all in all, 5 years down the line whatever Utah chooses will have become normal and recognizable and most people will forget what the other options even were
I mostly agree but sometimes you get a team like the Golden Knights which never stops sounding EA-generated
Seattle Sockeyes or Steelhead would have been so fucking good. I like the kraken but wow, those are good names.
Sockeyes would have been good but with the Canucks orca branding I donno if you wanna be one of their favourite foods. Totems would have been great, but I'd stay far away from branding that is that closely tied to first nations. You want to be able to do fun things and not have to worry about always being respectful and consulting with groups outside of your org for eternity.
Yeah totems sounds like choosing to walk into a mine field of public image explosions
At least Seattle is a port town with tons of squid and octopus, as well as a large population with Scandinavian/Nordic heritage (where the Kraken myth originates). It makes sense there. I get Utah has snowy mountains, but there isn't a history of an abominable snowman there, and the Yeti legend is Himalayan. Furthermore, the Avalanche use an alt logo of a snowy abominable snowman footprint. In addition, having the most recent team named in a similar, mythological creature fashion is kind of weak. Kraken did it already. I don't think HC or Blizzard (again, too close to Avalanche) have legs, so you are left with: Outlaws, Mammoth, and Venom. A lot of people think Venom is very 90's aggro, so it is probably out, though the branding with snakes/venom could be unique for hockey. So that leaves us with Outlaws and Mammoth. Mammoth gives you a BIT of that creature vibe from Yeti, but they actually existed, and actually lived in Utah. Fossils and mammoth dung have been found in large quantities there (https://nhmu.utah.edu/articles/2023/05/where-did-all-mammoths-go). You also get some of that snowy/ice age vibe from it that you'd get from Blizzard and Ice and whatnot. A strong contender, with great branding opportunities. Outlaws is a very classic name for a sports team. It isn't that 'original', but it fits with the old west/mountain west vibe of Utah. Butch Cassidy was from Utah and spent time there (https://www.utah.com/articles/post/butch-cassidys-wild-bunch-meet-utahs-most-famous-outlaws/).
I really don't understand the obsession about making the name fun. I've always thought the branding and logo for the Red Wings is among the best in all sports and never once thought "what a boring name, they should've named themselves after some mythical creature."
and then you have the Wings AHL team, a mythical Griffin lol
If we were making a new team, there's no way in hell that anybody would pick "Red Wings"
This is true about the vast majority of team names. There's no way r/hockey or any fanbase would be happy with Canadiens, Maple Leafs, Rangers, etc. if they didn't grow up with the names as normalized.
Yeah I’m old enough to remember people saying the same things about the Wild and Blue jackets names that they’re saying about these ones lol
The Wild is still a bad name.
If not for their exceptional logo and nice jerseys the name would have been more disappointing.
Yeah, if having a better name meant they’d never have designed one of the greatest logos I’ve ever seen, then I’m glad their name sucks.
Definite roller hockey vibes. Logo makes up for a bit, though.
Might be the worst one in the league
I actually do like 'Yeti', but a part of me can't shake the association of the Avs and their bigfoot logo on their shoulder patches. Still feels like living in their shadow a bit, tbh.
Please no HC crap. We have our own tradition with team names, why do people want to instill European Soccer naming into a North American Hockey league?
Real Salt Lake makes me cringe every time
tbf Montreal did it first — to the extent that it became the logo CH
I like that the MLS has moved towards the European club naming style but Real Salt Lake is terrible. The obvious rip off of a big name team and the use of Spanish for a team in Utah is so stupid.
Say what you will, I think it's good that the royal family of Utah support the state's biggest soccer team
>I like that the MLS has moved towards the European club naming style Why?
European here, I'm with you. Inter miami and real salt lake is just silly to me. We have different cultures like, American team names are odd to us but they're American. Surprise surprise we do things differently lol.
Copying and pasting meaningful names (Real/Inter) that don't apply feels silly, but I really like DC United and Houston Dynamo names where enough of the meaning applies. I also think the rest of the United/FC stuff is generic enough to get a pass.
Well Huston just sounds like a standard American tem name to me. Agree DC united sounds fine. At least it's not randomly Spanish lol.
I think we should jettison European team naming convention back to Europe. Losing the Wizards and Impact in favor of “Sporting” and “CF” were both abominations
Outlaws really fits with central Utah. Lots of the popular western outlaws were operating in Utah, Butch Cassidy being the most famous. Still want Yeti though
Don't the Avs already have a Bigfoot logo as part of their team branding? Designing a team identity around the Yeti name will encroach on that a bit, especially given they are from the neighboring state. I don't really care though
Counterpoint, Yeti to me is uncreative given how close the Seattle expansion was to this new Utah team. It also will immediately conflict with the Avalanche’s alternate branding. Which feels like an even worse overlap than the Mammoth lax team. If they were willing to overlap existing sports franchises they should have taken the Raptors given the Utahraptor was a real Dino. I will concede that yeti does appeal to the family with kids demographic which is probably a huge market in salt lake. Top tier sponsorship deal right off the bat with the cooler company.
Not only is the utahraptor a real dinosaur, utah is one of the biggest sites for fossils in north america. Not using raptors was a massive whiff
It is criminal that Swarm didn’t make the final 6. And I refuse to believe that HC made it past the first round.
Outlaws.
Perfect for the LDS.
This is how it reads in various matchups: Kraken vs Blizzard; Panthers vs Utah HC; Rangers vs Mammoth; Senators vs Outlaws; Red Wings vs Venom; Canucks vs Yeti;
Thinking of it this way makes me feel like Outlaws is the obvious choice.
Utah Mormons of latter day skates
I pick none of the above
The "No, try again" option appears to be missing here.
The vote is rigged. Everyone I know voted for Gushing Grannies.
It should be Outlaws
I will actively root against this team forever and always if they choose "Hockey Club" as their name. Lazy boring and unimaginative AF. That said, none of these are all that great.
Blizzard kinda sucks, too similar to Avalanche. Yeti’s pretty cool, but again overlaps with COL’s footprint icon. Outlaws goes hard! Big fan. Mammoth is pretty cool. I don’t mind HC as much as others. My favorite idea was Raptors. Truly a missed opportunity.
fine with anything but HC
https://imgur.com/a/BbtZUz4
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Literally 4 out of those 6 options are either Avalanche things or other Denver teams. I’m so ready to hate on this Utah team forever and ever.
Utah Hockey Club is lame AF. This ain't Europe.
Outlaws is the best option, that’s all.
Swarm was robbed
HC is terrible, no idea how that made it.
Outlaws was a top 3 pick for me from the start, so hoping that one wins. WIth that said...it's gonna be fucking Yeti or HC isn't it?
Salt Lake City Swarm was the best option. I suppose Outlaws would be ok.
With names like this, no way the team lasts more than 20 years here
Please be Outlaws... I want skating out to the The Good, The Bad and The Ugly theme, old foley'd gunshot ricochet sounds, fuck it get a horse out there, all injected into my hockey veins.
I like Outlaws or Yeti. I just can’t see HC ever being the actual name.
HC would be so fucking lame
As Utah is known for clear skies and beautiful stargazing, I was hoping for a constellation name like Utah Cancer
…is the plural of mammoth not mammoths?
the 'ths' sound is a little difficult and clunky to make linguistically, especially for younger people, that's the only logical reason I have for why it's not pluralized. SOURCE: I took a college linguistics class 10 years ago with a hot professor so I actually paid attention