New A-League teams

Hey its no different here in the UK, the Ice Hockey and Basketball teams all have silly American names and the Rugby and League teams are smilar, read Cardiff Blues (Rugby) and Leeds Rhinos (League).

Northern Thunder,Worst name ever, they were laughing at it on total football. Their emblem is so sh*te, saw the press conference for it and they said they will be playing in red because they want to be like Manchester United. Nestling2007-11-29 02:09:36

...and Adelaide.  They are as likely to be allowed Red as we were Yellow.

HAHAHAH northen thunder...doesnt that just remind you of melbourne storm(league)

Those New Zealand teams all copied the All Blacks, who gained that name back in 1905 when they were touring in the UK.  Nothing American about it.

The Wallabies and Springboks also got the idea from the All Blacks and named themselves after local fauna for their UK tours.  All of those other Australian teams then copied the Wallabies.

This was long before anyone cared about American sport.

Bones - yes the All Blacks thing started in an organic fashion, same as football. However, now what we are seeing is those names formalised  into the actual name of the teams - as per American practice and as is gradually creeping in to English football too. Like I said, I think this is because teams can then copyright those nicknames. SiNZ2007-11-30 11:43:46

All Blacks has been a trademark of the NZRFU for a long time.  They have been referred to as the All Blacks in a semi-official fashion for as long as anyone can remember.  More recently they added the All Blacks name above the silver fern on the jerseys because they could not copyright the silver fern itself.

It is a southern hemisphere rugby thing.  Not American.

A-League names are a different matter, but then Rugby League (and AFL?) has had similar names for a long time.

Arsenal are CNUTs  - Edinburgh Gunners - the rugby team in the Heineken League were made to change their name thanks to Arsenal kicking up a storm.

Bizarre given that a) It was a rugby team and b) The club logo was Edinburgh Gunners with a cannon firing over it, representing the famous 'One O'Clock Gun' (which American tourists love to ask at which time is it fired!)



The logo is now either



or


ginger_eejit2007-11-30 12:21:22

The point I am trying to make is that the All Black name was around for 90 years before rugby became professional, and the NZRFU has been using it almost as long.

Super 14 franchises may have been based around the American model, but the All Black name was embraced for a different reason, which is more about pride than profit.

It's okay, I understood what you were saying. 90 years after? Did rugby only become professional in (checks 1905 quote above) around 1995? Blimey - I never knew it was so recent, but then I know absolutely nothing about rugby (went once at the request of a new girlfriend, got very bored, never went again and converted girlfriend to football!).

Thats right, 1995.  The super 12 in '96 was the first pro competition, before that players had to switch to rugby league to get paid.  They could not even receive book profits while still playing.

The story about the name is that the journalist wrote that they played like all backs, but it got misspelled.  Considering they played in black that story was probably rubbish.

I am waiting to get banned for talking about rugby.

At this stage there are three bids that are more advanced than the others, being Northern Thunder, Illawarra and the Gold Coast.  The Thunder bid is based in Townsville however will treat the region from Rockhampton to Darwin as its catchment area (and hopefully play a few games in Darwin).  Given the chance to further increase the exposure of remote aboriginal communities to football, and the resultant pool of talent (now largely the domain of AFL and to an extent League), it would be good for Australian Football if this bid gets up.  The Gold Coast have the money and the infrastructure as well as being in one of the fastest growing areas in Australia.  I'd expect the licenses to go to two of these bids though the option of two Qld teams coming in at once may be baulked at (though remains a possibility). 

Other potential bids include Tasmania, Canberra and Geelong though none of these have much in the way of substance or momentum at this early stage. There is a real desire by the FFA to have a Western Sydney side and another side in Melbourne however they have to wait for the 5 year moratorium to expire.

As for names Thunder relates to the wet season up North where there is deep rolling thunder.  Hence it has a connection as do most of the other names.  There are only two clubs in the A-League without official monikers. So be it, it is their club and they can call themselves whatever they like.

Personally I'd be happy for clubs to wear whatever colours they desire, no need to be precious however I understand that it is part of the marketing strategy by the FFA to develop brand recognition at the development stage of the competition.  Once we can get away from solid colours and into patterns (stripes, hoops etc) then there will be more room for yellow in the Nix top, red in Thunder's etc.