Arizona Coyotes new official name for Phoenix, starting in 2014-15
Ever since the franchise settled with the Glendale City Council and gained new ownership, it’s been well known that the Phoenix Coyotes would eventually become the Arizona Coyotes. So the team made it official on Wednesday that the change will be made next season.
The initial inspiration for the change came as a request from the city, which wanted the Coyotes to be in line with the MLB’s Arizona Diamondbacks and the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals.
From the Yotes and President and CEO Anthony LeBlanc:
“We are very excited to announce that our franchise name will change to Arizona Coyotes for the start of the 2014-15 NHL season,” said LeBlanc.
“Becoming the Arizona Coyotes makes sense for us since we play our games in Glendale and the city is such a great partner of ours. We also want to be recognized as not just the hockey team for Glendale or Phoenix, but the team for the entire state of Arizona and the Southwest. We hope that the name ‘Arizona’ will encourage more fans from all over the state, not just the valley, to embrace and support our team.”
It’s a nice gesture, but is there a single hockey fan in Flagstaff that just throws their hands up and says, “welp, I’d be a fan if only they weren’t the PHOENIX Coyotes?”
I mean, I guess as a Devils fan having their name be the "New Jersey Devils" does give the fan base a more all-encompassing feel, even if the Rangers own North Jersey and the Flyers own South Jersey. But I have a feeling that the Golden State Warriors never really captured majority support in California even though they were named after the state.
Also from the Coyotes:
As part of the name change, the Coyotes will be introducing a new shoulder patch for their home and road jerseys in 2014-15. The patch will be unveiled for the Coyotes first preseason game next season. The rest of the Coyotes uniform will not change.
Wait … wah?
An NHL team changes its name and doesn’t use the opportunity to tweak its uniform in order to sell a bunch of new sweaters? Oh, so because we have all of these outdoor games filling our coffers we don’t have to adhere to the basic fundamentals of price gouging? Is that the thing?
I know the Coyotes’ jerseys have their fans, and as these things go they’re not bad. But you could keep the color scheme and unleash something like this concept from an Icethetics reader:
Granted, that might be a little too close to the Atlanta Flames, who eventually moved to Canada so… yeah, stick with the dog head.
