Thunder v. Mavs
Oilers v. Texans
Pilots v. Astros
OK Drive v. Real Salt Lake
Barons v. Canucks
Next Professional Sports Expansion Franchise by Sporting Geography. Where should the next Pro teams be? Your town? Why? The Big 5 Leagues and even the minors. Relocations on the table. With your heart and mind. Let's toss around some ideas. Envision possibility at your place. Talk also about rebranding and travel-team-like co-location feasibility combinations. Spitball !
Thunder v. Mavs
Oilers v. Texans
Pilots v. Astros
OK Drive v. Real Salt Lake
Barons v. Canucks
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| Check out some past and current logos |
A.i. did Wikipedia’s map wrong. Everything is shifted right.
What are some markets you see? Or do some gaps seem good for arena?
Boise and Lexington, KY have been mentioned by the league. What about San Diego and Oakland, or an Inland Empire brand?
Greenbowwwwwway, A L A B A MMMMMA
Green Bay, Wisconsin is the third largest city on Lake Michigan with over 100,000 folks. Population is way bigger by Sunday.
Clanton, Alabama doesn’t have 9,000 and they’re not even on a big lake. They’re pretty much just off a car river called I-65 in the center of Alabama between Birminghamland and Montgomery.
The Sundays after the Saturdays could be huge. Pastors will hunt you down!
Did I guess wrong? Where’s a good megachurch stadium for the football cheesy crazy heads to tailgate pilgrimage to?
Woodstock, Alabama is between Birmingham and Tuscaloosa. What about there, hippies?
NFL Name: Elephants? Alabama Iron.
Hammers. Slammas?
Meta AI did not do a good job of greasing the name game for sore connotations: For Alabama as an Old South NFL team, you want something that hits Southern heritage without sounding like a college team - tough, regional, and works on a helmet. Here are the names that would actually work: Heritage / Old South identity:
Alabama Yellowhammers - Alabama's nickname, state bird, Civil War nickname for Alabama troops. Shorten to the Hammers. Great helmet logo, not used in NFL.
Alabama Iron - Birmingham was the iron and steel capital of the South. Tough, industrial, blue-collar. Colors: forge black, crimson, steel gray.
Alabama Dixie - Classic Old South term. The Dixie Express or Dixie Stars would have been the 1960s AFL-style name. Very marketable for music/culture.
Alabama Generals - References the military history of the state, works for football - field generals.
Alabama Rebels - Ole Miss uses it, but it's the most common Old South sports name for a reason - rebellious spirit, independent.
Alabama Cottonmouths - Old South agriculture + a venomous snake. Great for a defense. Shorten to Mouths or Cotton.
Culture / Place based: Alabama Red Clay - That iconic red dirt that defines Alabama football fields. Unique, tough, very Southern.
Alabama Magnolias - State flower vibe, Old South elegance, but you can make it tough - Magnoila black and white.
Alabama Forge - Same family as Iron, but sounds more modern NFL.
Alabama Rivermen - Alabama River, Mobile Bay, riverboat South.
Alabama Stallions - Horse country, Black Belt, speed and power.
Alabama Confederates - If you wanted to go fully historical Old South, that's the direct name from the 1860s. Would be the most historically literal, but hardest to brand today.
Liberty Township, Monroe and Middletown, Ohio go from south to north along I-75 respectively, sandwiched with some elbow room between Cincinnati and Dayton metros.
A nice Ohio brand could be deemed. What team name say you?
Being over I-75 in north Liberty Township and looking Southwest (for top-left and bottom depiction). Top-right is a west by southwest view.
Kind of looking south-by-southwest over Monroe. You can see casino racetrack in background. The depiction should be a little west away from the interstate. 
Middletown’s old mall would be bowled over here. The old stomping grounds of Jerry Lucas, Chris Carter and Kyle Schwarber may rejoice.
Magic v. Heat
Orlando SC v. Atl Utd.
Suns v. Cubs
Sharks v. Jaguars
Solar Bears v. Lightning
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| Tempe |
Enough of that shit. I’m posting some A.i generated logos:
Niagara niagaras is a fictional team. Maybe the mascot can be the Tipper.
Right across the waterway in Detroit is Windsor. Have a team there called the Tigersmackers or Zookeepers.
An annual exhibition preseason game at UTEP.
Cowboys and Texans would obviously buck such an expansion.
Cowboys has a nation. Texans vie for the state in name.
A.I. agglomerated and offered up Iron Wolves. Renegades, Outlaws, Scorpions, Stampede and Express.
Instead of expansion I’d have preferred relocation. LA, justified though it may be, is greedy. Texas Bolts or Chargers would been good. Even a Portland Power would’ve been better. Toronto Power. San Antonio Chargers. Anything.
Big five Mountain Time champ = Denver. Sorry, Phoenix hockey.
Central time defaults to Dallas.
Populationwise as well, in the Midwest it’s Chicago.
Dirty South could be New Orleans depending how much we fragment this vibe-map. Another swampy south but tropical vibe mention is Miami. For sports they got it all.
Atlanta is a strong default in mentioning a ball hog of the south. Puck that. Nashville might vie for it in decades to come.
Northeast is double-up NYC.
For geographic purposes a king of north claim could be had for Minneapolis.
St. Louis Opening Day tickets package,… maybe. Year 2100 A.D.
Cards v. Reds
Blues v. Penguins
SLSC v. Columbus Crew
Battlehawks v. Bears
Rapids v. Bucks
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| Battlehawks. Rapids. |
Saints vs. Bengals
Parades and Cardinals
Bayou v. Austin SC
Pelicans v. Jazz
Gators take on the Flames
Louisville needs the Horsemen NBA and Kentucky Downs NFL
SLC after baseball Eagles can have Raptors
Portland Talls and Stags
OKC is decades away from a market substantially over a million for two more, though I think a lot of markets can swing a tailgate for NFL, especially states that have two big college contenders in them. Oilers anyone?
Toronto is the no-brainer for that balance on the NFL map.
Central
Texas Sidewinders
Central Texas with San Antonio & Austin have about two-thirds the market Dallas does.2040?: Carolina Cats & Portland Talls
2060: Indiana Farmers & Oklahoma Pilots
Will the Expos ever reincarnate? Will Anglo and Franco ties be looser in Western politics in a Brexity-fragmented Euro-world kind of way, thereby Quebec blowing off baseball?
If my year 2040/60 panned out, below is what turf is staked.
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| A.I. missed some teams. |
The Ranch travel from Albuquerque to Bootleggers Utd. in Louisville this week.
Canyon against Bayou
PACOM in Honolulu, Oakland and occasionally Anchorage camped “home”. Represent.
Drive OK takes on Scout Platoon Idaho
Diamond Club @ Deisel
The Parade @ Indiana Infantry ground game
Intra-Canadian battle of Energy taking on the Flock. The Meece Flock fans bang the drums.Atlantic Fleet at tier 2 will have camped games docking at Norfolk or Charleston for the loser of the Sac Rep v. Austin FC. Winner of that takes on Great Lakes. Pitt goes down river to take on FCC.
Maybe relegation structure of two-tier league will usher in wider geographical inclusivity decades earlier.
Pretty much it wants more than 25k seats. It does mention higher scalability for renovating to accommodate more seating. If British Columbia wouldn’t stack up to even only 40 games, more seats can be stacked in Montreal.
What year could this be? 2075 or 2100…
Tennessee Stars vs. Utah Raptors
Carolina Cougarcats vs. Indiana Farmers
Louisville Lumber Co. vs. Omaha Oaks
Oklahoma Pilots vs. Portland Talls
New Orleans Parades vs. Orlando Gators (OG?) or Palms
North Country Jacks vs. Central Texas Sidewinders
For now, Portland, Orlando and Montreal need bigger league teams. Some of the other cities could have, and have sustained bigger teams like Trip-A before. Not shown, Richmond and Dayton has the attendance figures to sustain AAA. Austin or San Antonio for MLB?
In the previous post I had A.I. do Montreal’s rendering. I like the brand ‘Jacks for our North Country neighbors.
Expos, or call them Internationals.
I’m really about multi-nodal all-Canadian brands in MLB and the NFL, North Country and Norde Force.
The North Country Lumberjacks sharing time in 15,000 seat ballparks in Vancouver and Montreal. The triple-A squads can share the places.
Spoiler alert…a future post talks about how A.I. countered my notion with economic sense.