Think it could ever happen? It used to be the Boston Patriots before they relocated their stadium (to still within a suburb of Boston) and they re-named it the New England Patriots. Suddenly it was Maine's team, Conneticut's team, etc. Seattle doesn't seem to want to support their own stadium, so the Blazers have become the de facto home team. Doesn't hurt that our best player is from there. The moniker "trail blazer" still makes sense, since Lewis and Clark and the Oregon Trail left their mark all over the region. Seems like the biggest downside is risking pissing off many of the people who frequent this board--the Portland rabid fanbase who think of the Blazers as just "their" team.
In my limited observations, former Sonics fans have pretty much tuned out the NBA versus adopting the Blazers as the new "home" team. And despite the tepid support for a new arena right now, I eventually expect the Sonics to be reborn, especially with teams like Charlotte, Memphis, et al. doing so poorly in their current situations.
Yeah, you're probably right for now. However, nothing builds a fan base like success. If this team is a title contender like I think it could be, I think it'll pick up more and more bandwagon Seattle fans, and that fanbase may stick. It may depend on the magnitude of the success. After all, nobody ever talked about renaming them the Northwest Seahawks. But then the Hawks only ever won one conference, and has no championships. If Portland can win a couple of titles in a short window, I think a lot more Seattle fans would adopt the team. You could be right. I just look at how likely it's going to be that everybody's taxes are going to start going up in the coming years to cover our federal deficit, and I'm not sure bond measures to cover arenas are ever going to be as popular again as they were over the past 15 years.
I'm all for it as long as 1. they keep "Portland" on the road jersey and 2. they be prepared for Seattle to get a new team in the future. If they do it right Seattle may never get another team if they can draw in the fan bases up there along with Idaho and Montana.
When I see the name "Northwest Seahawks" and "Northwest Mariners", then I'll get behind the "Northwest Trail Blazers". Until then, Seattle can kiss my grits.
We should change the name to USA's Trail Blazers! That would make us a large market team. In fact the largest market team! The next 10 championships would be ours. Never a bad call from the refs. The only problem I can see with it is that the championship parade would last for a couple of months as it wound through all 50 states.
Seattle doesn't want anything to do with the Blazers and no one in Portland wants anything to do with Seattle. So... no. Not gonna happen Ed O.
Doesn't work at all. I totally agree with Mr. O. Just thinking about the traffic up there makes me want to vomit.
I suggest we go even bigger. The North America Trail Blazers! Scratch that...the World Trail Blazers!
There are 100 million people in Pakistan, money to be made. Why not the Al Qaeda Trailblazers? Is the vote for whether the Blazers will become more popular in Seattle, or whether the name will be changed to "Northwest"? Either way I say no. Never--other reason. Seattle will not build a new arena or even renovate Key Arena. They were mad even before the Sonics moved, and the move made them madder. They built a brand new stadium, Key, and about 5 years later the Sonics started threatening a move unless they got big improvements in Key. It's now an ego thing between Stern and Seattle. Seattle won't change Key, so they won't get a team until Stern retires or, better yet, dies in a painful fire. I practically wrote a book on it in this thread (Post #s 28, 37, and 38). http://sportstwo.com/threads/156658-Brent-Barry-Ballsy-Comment-on-NBA-TV/page2
