NHL: will the Minnesota Wild ever change their awful name? (St. Paul: bill, retire)

[ryanthegoldengod]

Originally Posted by 2x3x29x41

No, they weren't.

Minnesota North Stars attendence over the team's last dozen seasons here:
1981-82: 15,220 (7th in the league)
1982-83: 14,485 (9th)
1983-84: 14,355 (11th)
1984-85: 13,480 (13th)
1985-86: 13,215 (14th)
1986-87: 13,512 (15th)
1987-88: 11,440 (20th)
1988-89: 9,795 (19th-21st*)
1989-90: 11,354 (21st)
1990-91: 7,838 (21st)
1991-92: 13,447 (17th)
1993-93: 13,900 (17th)
[*Probably 21st, but data is unavailable from two franchises (Chicago, New Jersey) that massively out-drew the Stars in both the preceding and following season]
NHL attendance history at hockeydb.com

The only season the franchise ever filled Met Center to capacity was during the 1981-82 campaign, which followed the Stars first run all the way to the finals. They then tacked on another three winning seasons out of four, and won at least one playoff series following three of those seasons, but attendance quickly fell to the middle of the league's pack. After a pair of seasons missing the playoffs (albeit not by much: on a tiebreaker in 1986, by 1 point in 1987) the bottom fell out. They had another two losing seasons, although the records improved, but they were still mired at the bottom of the league for attendance. Met Center stood half empty. Only when the pump was primed by another Cup run in 1991 did attendance climb a bit, but by that point the NHL had become much more popular, and merely matching the numbers that were tepid nearly a decade earlier was an even worse performance measured against climbing league-wide attendance.

Also, bear in mind that Minnesota had long had problems supporting its professional hockey teams. In 1978, the North Stars had for three seasons been able to outdraw only two other franchises (the California Seals - who relocated to Cleveland; the Kansas City Scouts - who relocated to Colorado, and later to New Jersey). Finally, in 1978 both the North Stars and the Cleveland Barons were on the verge of financial collapse, and to save the embarrassment of having not one but two franchises fold, the NHL allowed the teams to merge. The Gund brothers (owners of the Barons) had more financial resources, and became the majority owners of the team, which continued in Minnesota because the Twin Cities was considered the better market than Cleveland.

Regardless of Norm Green's personal foibles, the team was not well-supported by area fans. Stadium issues were obviously a major factor. Green position was simple: spend hundreds of millions of dollars building me a stadium - funds that won't even begin to be returned by money that wouldn't already be spent on other local businesses - or I'll find another city that's dumb enough to do so. The state refused; Green found a dumb city.

Of course, the locals later reversed course, thereby getting the worse of both worlds: losing the long-established team and forking out the money in the end.

Oh: and 'Wild' must be the dumbest name** in the big four leagues. 'Voyageurs' would have been excellent, very regional. But 'Freeze' - another original finalist' would have been as bad.

**Well, 'Magic' is pretty bad. And 'Jazz' is definitely worse.

Jazz wasn't bad--when they were the New Orleans Jazz where it actually made sense. I've never been to Salt Lake City but I'm pretty confident in saying it's not a hotbed for some red hot jazz music.

I never understand teams that move and take the name even when it no longer makes sense in their new location. The Atlanta Flames made sense in Hotlanta but Calgary Flames? I guess if you mean a warm fire on cold Calgary night. And then, of course, there's the Lakers.

[RbccL]

We still wear our MN Northstar jerseys to the games. The logo and name really aren’t that bad, there are better, but if you google which teams have the best attendance it’s always up there in the top 10. Weird, because no one goes to the games because we love the name, and logo, it’s packed in there because of the fans. It’s a state that loves hockey.

I really don’t think that logo is a bear though, as stated earlier...no one around me discusses it anyway. It probably wouldn’t matter if it was Al Franken... we’d have a beer and watch the game.

[Astron1000]

I don't care about the name either way. But the logo is an effing masterpiece. It captures the landscape of its home state like no other NFL logo. The pine trees, the river, the sunset, the North Star. And how those graphic elements come together as a profile of a wild animal is terrific. It all works together as one of the best major league team logos.

[Veritas Vincit]

Im a big time hockey fan and I always thought the Wild is kind of a silly name choice, but I dont think its really the main reason the franchise is so anonymous. I think as an expansion team in an already established hockey market thats in a part of the country not drawing a lot of attention from the national media anyway, the only “story” that would catch peoples attention is success and that just never happened with the Wild.

[Stoke]

I've always jokingly thought of Minnesota as the 8th Canadian team. I know it sounds dumb but I love the State and it's so close.

No disrespect to the U.S of A.

Hope you win a cup soon, aslong as it's not at our expense.

[Campeador]

Originally Posted by Stoke

I've always jokingly thought of Minnesota as the 8th Canadian team. I know it sounds dumb but I love the State and it's so close.

No disrespect to the U.S of A.

Hope you win a cup soon, aslong as it's not at our expense.

I've always felt similarly. We grew up taking fishing trips in Canada. Now that I've moved away and traveled and lived around the world, and have more perspective, the similarities between MN and Canada seem even stronger.

[slamont61]

Considering I'm from Pittsburgh and we have the 'Penguins', the Wild isn't so bad. Up until the late 70's the Pens were very much the namesake, a colony of Flightless Birds. The history of the team after that time has changed the franchise forever. The Wild just need to take that next step, a deep run in the playoffs to beat back the stigma of a not so great name.

The logo is fine, the colors of the uni's are as bad as advertised.

[wamer27]

Originally Posted by Stoke

I've always jokingly thought of Minnesota as the 8th Canadian team. I know it sounds dumb but I love the State and it's so close.

No disrespect to the U.S of A.

Hope you win a cup soon, aslong as it's not at our expense.

You guys gonna wait until the last minute to sign Marner?

[TheOldPuss]

With their current state of play and roster, the Wild could be best described as the Minnesota Mild

[Canes2006Champs]

I like the name and logo myself.....