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Trump threatens to block Washington Commanders stadium deal unless team changes back to former name (www.cbsnews.com)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/nottheonion@lemmy.world
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"The Washington "Whatever's" should IMMEDIATELY change their name back to the Washington Redskins Football Team. There is a big clamoring for this," Mr. Trump wrote.

Hours later, Mr. Trump said he "may put a restriction on them that if they don't change the name back to the original 'Washington Redskins,' and get rid of the ridiculous moniker, 'Washington Commanders,' I won't make a deal for them to build a Stadium in Washington."

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[–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

I still wish they would've done the Spiders, but as I understood it, even setting aside the "literally worst record in pro baseball" thing, there was some weird licensing shit.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago

    We have an AHL hockey team here in Cleveland. The Cleveland Monsters. Back in the 1990s, there was a different hockey team. The Cleveland Lumberjacks. And back in the 1930s-1970s (as well as a short lived reboot in 2003-2005) we had another AHL hockey team called the Cleveland Barons.

    So in 2006, when they announced Cleveland would be getting an AHL hockey team, everybody said "BRING BACK THE LUMBERJACKS!!!" Well, a couple of problems there. The Lumberjacks were never part of the AHL. They were part of the (at the time) recently defunct IHL. Completely different league. So, you can't "bring back" the AHL Cleveland Lumberjacks, because they never existed.

    Which is the case for the Cleveland Spiders. You can't bring back the American League Cleveland Spiders, because they were part of the American Assosiation. When AA folded, the Spiders moved to the National League, which at the time was it's own seperate league. The formation of what we know as the MLB didn't start until 1903, and the Spiders were defunct by 1899.

    So working within the context of what was happening at the time, the American League and the National League were two different seperate competing leagues with no connection to each other at all. Kind of like how the UFL today is not in any way connected to the NFL. Except that the AL and NL were much closer in size and popularity than UFL and NFL.

    So, you can't bring back the AL Cleveland Spiders. They never existed, and the Spiders never even existed in the MLB.

    All that being said, I still think the Spiders is a stupid name, with a stupid logo. I'm not entirely opposed to the Guardians name, but I DO think their logos are just garbage. It should be the face of the statue that's across the street from the ballpark. The imagery makes itself. I've heard it's because they can't own the copyright on the image of the statues. So, my suggestion is, do what Disney did. Disney can't own the copyright on public domain works like Snow White or Pochohantas. So they make their own fictionalized cartoon version of it. They make a version they can copyright. Do that. Make a version that is unique to your baseball brand, but also recognizable so that tourists leaving the stadium can see that big ass statue, that you can even see from inside the ballpark, and say "Oooooh, the logo is based on that!". While at the same time, keep them out of court.

    Yes. I have opinions on Cleveland Sports.

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