Quote:
Originally Posted by MonctonRad
True to a point, but conversely, people in Halifax tend to overinflate the importance of their city in people's consciousness's elsewhere in the region.
In general, the influence of a city tapers off with distance. Influence is highest within about a 90 minute driving distance. Once you get to about a three hour drive, then influence drops off considerably. For this reason, Halifax just isn't that important in the daily lives of most NBers or PEIslanders. When you throw in CB, more than half the regional population lives more than three hours from Halifax. The only other city within three hours of Halifax is Moncton, and that's just barely. For most other Maritimers, Halifax is just a place you visit once or twice a year for a break. NB and PEI are pretty self sufficient most of the time (even for such things as higher end medical services. The only exception being advanced pediatric care at the IWK).
Most of the time Halifax just isn't that relevant to most Maritimers in NB or PEI.
I'm not going to get drawn into the debate over where the team should have gone. That ship has sailed.
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This is why I believe that they are making a mistake with the Atlantic name.
Obviously a franchise should market itself regionally by doing things like sending players out to schools and to events, as well as perhaps holding training camp in Moncton or Saint John. People have no trouble cheering for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, Boston Bruins, Toronto Blue Jays, etc..
Sports franchises are named for the city or state/province where they play. There are only 2 franchises in the big 4 North American leagues that are not (New England Patriots and Golden State Warriors). In the Patriots case, they were the Boston Patriots for the first 11 years of their existence. In the late '60's, they started trying to get a stadium built in Boston (which ultimately failed). They ended up moving to Foxboro, which is something like halfway between downtown Boston and the Massachusetts/Rhode Island border. That is why they changed their name.
People compare Atlantic to Saskatchewan, but it's not the same. The actual equivalent would be calling their team the Prairie Roughriders.
Doing a little research, the only other New England that I found is a subdivision of the state of New South Wales in Australia. Atlantic is too vague, unless they call the team the Atlantic Canadians. IMO, it is a timid way to present yourself as a professional football franchise, and is a bit disrespectful because they are ultimately going to have to use Nova Scotia taxpayer dollars to get a stadium built.