Montreal Red Bulls of the NHL?

I recognize that MLS, and soccer in general, is a different animal than many of the mainstream sports in America. Sponsorship, for one, is much more accepted. So, how would the NHL fanbase react if their team was renamed to a previously established product?

The Globe and Mail.com have this very interesting story.

Red Bull's modus operandi with all of the sports teams they acquire is to rebrand and rename them as part of their own corporate logo. As such, the Montreal Canadiens will become Montreal Red Bulls.

 

Re: Montreal Red Bulls?

I would say he'd be a fool to do it if it came to be. You can get away with it in a smallish European soccer and MLS, and obviously in F1 where the owner can call his team whatever he wants.

To do that to the Canadiens would be a financial suicide note because no-one would buy any merchandise.

 

Re: Montreal Red Bulls?

I'm not hockey fan by any stretch of the imagination (though with all the violence, I should be, given my temper), but if that was seriously considered, I would be outraged beyond belief. Les Habs are the only team that can approach the Yankees when it comes to both history and number of championships. Fuck them damn Euros for coming into the States and trying to run our leagues.

(on that note, Bruce Ratner should sell ManU. That team should always be in English hands.)

 

The Cleveland Cavaliers are presented by Cub Cadet.

Makes sense.

 

While I would agree in principle, I can't imagine Montreal hockey fans cutting off their nose. It also arguable that the F1 team they took over was a rather big one and they pissed off a significant amount of individuals with that one.

 

I think anyone from Quebec would declare it a cold day in hell before they pulled on a jersey with two Red Bulls butting heads instead of a "C" on the front.

While the Jaguar name might be big, the team hardly was when it was taken over. It was a '97 start-up by Jackie Stewart before Ford and Jaguar got involved and never really competed. In their last season Mark Webber was the teams leading driver, 13th in the standings with 7 points behind both drivers from Sauber.

 

Well, it kind of was done once recently - the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim (not sure people ever liked that name).

And it used to be done years ago. In the Federal League (1914-15), the Brooklyn team was called the Tip-Tops ... as the owner also owned the Tip-Top bread company. In fact, I think the Milwaukee Admirals of the American Hockey League were called the Admirals because the guy who owned them originally sold Admiral refrigerator products or something.

Now, changing an existing name to a company name ... I don't see that going over very well with people.

 

Lantaur, I think that is the key difference here. The Mighty Ducks name was their original name when the franchise came in in 1993. It didn't change the name of an established franchise.

 

WON'T EVER HAPPEN.

EVER.

You can take that to the bank.

Slow news day at globeandmail.com

 

Yup, see the last line in my post.

 

We can only hope the Cavs get bought by the Stanley Steamer company......

 

I respectfully disagree.