CFL in Ottawa: Ottawa RedBlacks

[AuxTown]

My vote's for Raftsmen....but it might be due to the many under-age nights I spent drinking at the Raftsmen and Club L'Extension back in high school. The rest of the names seem kind of lame IMO.

[isaidso]

Not a fan of Raftsmen. Sound so hilly billy. Rams, Rouge, Reds, etc. would be better.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Hybrid247

I don't like the sound of Ottawa Raftsmen very much... I would rather something like Ottawa Red Raiders

Red Raiders sounds ok but I would rule it out because it sounds like we are copycatting the Oakland Raiders.

[isaidso]

It's likely that there were tons of teams named Raiders before Oakland came along. The reality is that many sports names are shared by numerous teams. That a name exists in some other country around the world shouldn't have any bearing on what we decide upon.

[kevinbottawa]

Voyageurs is a decent a football name, but it doesn't have the "R".

Rush just flat out 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 and Nationals doesn't sound like a football name.

It's either Raftsmen or RedBlacks. Something rubs me the wrong way about Raftsmen, can't put my finger on it, but it's the best option on the short list. It's definitely relevant to the history of the region. RedBlacks has actually grown on me, but I think it would be better for the soccer team.

[kevinbottawa]

Hunt for Ottawa’s CFL team name appears to be down to five

By DON CAMPBELL, Ottawa Citizen January 23, 2013

OTTAWA — What’s in a name?

Obviously plenty for the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment group.

For more than a month, the people leading the revival of Lansdowne Park have been listening to focus groups of every demographic, trying to pick their minds about what would work best for its Canadian Football League team when it takes the field in 2014.

And the research for a name the group hopes one day might rival the “Rough Riders” tradition is nearing completion. Wednesday night, group after group spent almost two hours downtown debating what will work best and what will hit home with fans.

It would appear the new name of the football team will come from one of the Nationals, Raftsmen, RedBlacks, Rush or Voyageurs. Those names are in alphabetical order only.

“People want to know there’s a story behind a name,” said Andy Davidhazy, creative director at downstream, a research firm enlisted by OSEG. “We want a reference point.

Davidhazy’s firm conducts research into a city or history or sports and then tests its findings in focus groups. Then it reflects the findings in branding.

“Authenticity matters,” he said. “You don’t want to be trying to be something the team was never meant to be.

“It is difficult to have 100-per-cent uniqueness in a name, and I don’t think it’s a requirement.

“But we need to reach a certain kind of target and the name must appeal to the youth market. This is an important process to go through.”

OSEG is looking for a name to connect in many ways. It wants the name to be authentic to Ottawa and the capital area. It wants it to have the sound of a football team. It would be a plus if was also unique. It wants to it satisfy both official languages and either be the same in both French and English or easy to translate.

And it wants it to have appeal when it comes to merchandising.

Each of the five finalists has strengths and weaknesses in each of the five areas. And two of the names put forward do satisfy the all-important “R” requirement for the throwback helmet logo, at the very least.

One of the panels Wednesday included media, both past and present, Gary Page, a longtime indispensable member of the Rough Riders’ front office, former Rough Rider Bruce Walker and former Renegade Mike Sutherland, who has turned to broadcasting in his post-playing career.

Some argued that RedBlacks was not a name, but just two colours, and may not translate well.

The Nationals were equated to a failed World Hockey Association team that was in Ottawa for the 1972-73 season before moving to Toronto.

Sutherland, who works on Montreal Alouettes broadcasts for RDS and spent part of 10 seasons in the CFL, liked the potential of Raftsmen or Voyageurs.

Others, some older in years, argued the Raftsmen and Voyageurs had potential in drawing on the region’s history and linking the club to Ottawa’s football past.

“I come from an area where it’s Lions, Tigers and Pistons,” said Walker, a Windsor native who played for the Riders from 1979 until ’84. “People do identify with their roots.”

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© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/Hu...wn+five/7862873/story.html#ixzz2Iu3lFsjH

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by isaidso

It's likely that there were tons of teams named Raiders before Oakland came along. The reality is that many sports names are shared by numerous teams. That a name exists in some other country around the world shouldn't have any bearing on what we decide upon.

Given the perceptions that exist (which I don't agree with BTW - but they still exist) about the CFL being second-rate to the NFL, it is best to avoid any name that evokes an NFL club.

Plus, there is nothing particularly Ottawan about a "Red Raider". Unless people think of pseudo-Commies (reds) raiding their bank accounts with high taxes!

[JeffB]

Originally Posted by isaidso

It's likely that there were tons of teams named Raiders before Oakland came along. The reality is that many sports names are shared by numerous teams. That a name exists in some other country around the world shouldn't have any bearing on what we decide upon.

I think it is more that when people hear about a pro football team called the Raiders, their thoughts will immediately jump to the Oakland Raiders and not any "Ottawa Red Raiders". So in terms of branding this team that isn't going to work out well.

Nationals made the list and is being used by teams elsewhere (Washington MLB and Hamilton MLL) as is Rush (Edmonton NLL and Chicago AFL) so they aren't avoiding names because they are used elsewhere.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by kevinbottawa

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/Hu...wn+five/7862873/story.html#ixzz2Iu3lFsjH

Betcha anything Raftsmen emerges as the clear leader after the focus groups. Whether or not they pick it is another story.

There is no other one of the four remaining names that seems to have the potential to be darkhorse or a sleeper. Voyageurs is a good name too and is probably second-best but I think it is too French-sounding for a pretty large portion of the team's target market area.

[migo]

Originally Posted by Hybrid247

I don't like the sound of Ottawa Raftsmen very much... I would rather something like Ottawa Red Raiders

I like 'Red Raiders' because it's close to Rough Riders and you have the red in 'Red' and the black in 'Raiders'.

If they want a total departure from Rough Riders, my 1st choice would be Voyageurs (Samuel the Champlain...voyageurs riding the rough Ottawa River).

[J.OT13]

Citizen article offering explanation for the whole "Rough-Riders" "Roughriders" fiasco;

Please, anything but the RedBlacks


How bad is the name RedBlacks?

So bad I thought one longtime football broadcaster was going to work himself into a stroke, or at least a seizure, as he considered Ottawa RedBlacks as a potential name for a reborn CFL team.

So bad that when Citizen readers were given the option of voting either A) Yes or, B) Uh, is this a joke? No; an overwhelming 91 per cent selected the latter choice. And that poll had nearly 4,000 respondents.

It’s true, the joke part. RedBlacks has the feel of someone having us on, a comical red herring, designed to so offend the senses that any other name is exalted by comparison. When I was asked to take part in Wednesday’s focus group to discuss CFL name options, I sent my regrets along with my two cents: “RedBlacks is awful. Almost makes me pine for ‘Rush.’”

Colour-wise, I suppose it could be worse. They could be the Pink-Yellows or the Roses-R-Reds.

The Black & Blues — not to be confused with the Rhythm ’n’ Blues — might be a handy name if the new team is either good at dishing out a beating or receiving one. Think of the football link — to a time when the old NFL Central Division (now the NFC North) was nicknamed the Black and Blue Division because of the notoriously physical style of the Chicago Bears, Minnesota Vikings, Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions.

We’re told the list has been chiselled down to the Final Five: Rush, RedBlacks, Raftsmen, Voyageurs, Nationals. Not exactly a clear winner among the bunch.

When the RBs were mentioned to Russ Jackson, the brilliant Canadian quarterback of the Ottawa Rough Riders in the 1960s, he told a reporter that the RedBlacks name “seems to get you to a soccer situation.”

Or to a psychiatrist’s couch. One or the other.

As we’ve noted in this space before, finding a new name is hellish. One last time, let us curse the green hordes of Saskatchewan for their greed in ensuring the new Ottawa team could not revert to its historic Rough Rider handle.

At the risk of sounding like every sibling argument — “but I had it first” — Ottawa does have the historic claim on the Rough Riders name, with origins dating all the way back to the 1860s and ’70s. In the mid-1920s, only for a couple of seasons, Ottawa changed its name to Senators, reverting back to the Rough Riders prior to the 1927 season.

In 1924, Saskatchewan seized the opening, swiping the Rough Riders name for its football club, although the prairie team spelled it as one word, Roughriders. For the better part of a century, the Roughriders and Rough Riders co-existed, somewhat happily, although they had to fend off jokes from outsiders about this tiny league so heavy in Rider content.

Because Ottawa went dormant, twice, over the past two decades as Rough Riders and then Renegades, the OSEG partners now running the club had no leverage to demand they get “Rough Riders” back. In fact, as a condition of returning to the league, Ottawa had to agree to use another name.

So, here we are.

Do you like ANY of the five supposed finalists?


Nationals is a two-time loser. Not only was it the name of a WHA team here for just one season, it is also a reminder to the many Montreal Expos fans in the region that the Washington Nationals stole the Expos.

Rush is a rock band, and a name with zero connection to Ottawa, the Valley or Outaouais.

The Raftsmen speaks to Ottawa’s logging history and provides the team’s marketers an opportunity to use the single “R” logo so familiar to football here. So there is that.

Voyageurs offers a wonderful historical component, the name has a decent ring to it and works in both official languages.

In practical usage, the Raftsmen would surely become R-men in your friendly neighbourhood headlines. Voyageurs is trickier to condense, but Voys might be their anglo short form. As someone tweeted to me the other night, they could be our “Voys of Summer,” to borrow from Roger Kahn’s book, The Boys of Summer, on the old Brooklyn Dodgers.

Someone living under my roof likes the name Raiders, one of the dozens of names pitched by the public. Great sports team name. Yes, there is a team with that handle already, living and breathing in California, but I rather doubt Ottawa will land an NFL franchise any time soon, and I’m sure the Raiders would appreciate a northern cousin.

The name not only has the “R” component, it is so close to our dearly beloved Riders, fans here could almost taste it. In fact, they could be the Rough Raiders. As for designing a logo, the Raiders name is a slam dunk for any artist with half an imagination.

Ottawa Raiders.

Ottawa Rough Raiders. It’s original.

Just throwing that out there.

It’s no RedBlacks.

And that’s a good thing.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/sports/Please+anything+RedBlacks/7868467/story.html

[JeffB]

Someone living under my roof likes the name Raiders, one of the dozens of names pitched by the public. Great sports team name. Yes, there is a team with that handle already, living and breathing in California, but I rather doubt Ottawa will land an NFL franchise any time soon, and I’m sure the Raiders would appreciate a northern cousin.

He's kidding right?

I suppose now that Al Davis is dead, management may have more of their marbles, but he tried to sue the Tampa Bay Buccaneers because they infringed on their trademarks, namely the pirate logo. And they wanted to prevent the Carolina Panthers from wearing their silver and black (and blue) uniforms in California because they were too close to theirs. Thats suit got tossed out.

http://www.sptimes.com/2003/04/22/Sports/Bucs_free_to_use_pira.shtml

The suit did create one good joke. Someone suggested the "confusion" between the Bucs and Raiders logos explained why Rich Gannon threw so many passes to Bucs defenders in Super Bowl XXXVII.

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by JeffB

I think it is more that when people hear about a pro football team called the Raiders, their thoughts will immediately jump to the Oakland Raiders and not any "Ottawa Red Raiders". So in terms of branding this team that isn't going to work out well.

Perhaps initially, but no one seems to have an issue with the BC Lions and Detroit Lions sharing the same name. That said, I hate 'Raiders'.

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Plus, there is nothing particularly Ottawan about a "Red Raider". Unless people think of pseudo-Commies (reds) raiding their bank accounts with high taxes!

I'd prefer 'Rouge', but that name seems to have been discarded.

[eemy]

Considering Rouge in English basically means make-up, I don't blame them.

[Acajack]

Rouge is also the old name for the unique-to-Canadian-football single point, but it has faded into disuse.

[kevinbottawa]

Seems to be official now.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/cfl/st...awa-redblacks-nickname-logo.html?cmp=rss

[NOWINYOW]

My hope was for the Rafters or Lumberjacks. Something relevant to Ottawa.

I guess Red Black is somewhat relevant. Never in the Black, always in the Red.

[Capital Shaun]

We were just talking about this at work. The consensus here is Highlanders or Regimen would have been better choices. (Neither were on the short list.)

[LeadingEdgeBoomer]

My hope was for the Rafters or Lumberjacks. Something relevant to Ottawa.

The black circle is serrated, like the circular saws used in lumber mills. Perhaps it is meant to pay homage to Ottawa's lumbering past.