The Official NBA Season Thread: SFA Prevails

[osh kosh bosh]

Twitter ridiculed Ethan Strauss for this take.

as usual twitter is dumb and wrong.

The take is right, why would you throw away all the built up branding equity and launch totally new brands for all the women's team.


works great for women's soccer. Same branding, same jersey.

 

[ill steelo]

Kinda crazy they started the pod together as a front for an extensive job interview

We know he’ll be the fall guy for the roster shortcomings that will cause their elimination from the playoffs.

So his next gig after the Lakers will be what’s interesting.

Hopefully he doesnt end up like Steve Nash

 

[RustyShackleford]

How many WNBA teams even have an owner that owns a NBA team?

I thought the number was around five or six? So maybe not even half.

That would be necessary for joint branding

It happens in soccer (excluding National teams because including them seems kinda pointless) because they are part of one organization. So across sports they have the same name and branding

So for this to happen some WNBA teams with the ownership set up, will have to change their name.? Like the Liberty need to change their name so they can be closer in branding to.....check notes....the Brooklyn Nets?

Also, the WNBA did try to align with the NBA branding when it started. That seemingly didn't help them much.

I really don't see the major upside to this for it be considered some marketing magic bullet.

 

[addict4sneakers]

How many WNBA teams even have an owner that owns a NBA team?

I thought the number was around five or six? So maybe not even half.

That would be necessary for joint branding

It happens in soccer (excluding National teams because including them seems kinda pointless) because they are part of one organization. So across sports they have the same name and branding

So for this to happen some WNBA teams with the ownership set up, will have to change their name.? Like the Liberty need to change their name so they can be closer in branding to.....check notes....the Brooklyn Nets?

Also, the WNBA did try to align with the NBA branding when it started. That seemingly didn't help them much.

I really don't see the major upside to this for it be considered some marketing magic bullet.

What are we naming the Connecticut Sun after? The Seattle Storm? the Aces?

What are we even talking about?

 

[RustyShackleford]

I just realized that under osh kosh bosh plan the Washington Mystics (whose naming already aligns with the NBA) might have to change their name to the Washington Witches

I'm sure that won't cause any PR blowback

 

[Coupé It]

as usual twitter is dumb and wrong.

The take is right, why would you throw away all the built up branding equity and launch totally new brands for all the women's team.


works great for women's soccer. Same branding, same jersey.

Sneaker MFer

 

[ill steelo]

Also, the WNBA did try to align with the NBA branding when it started. That seemingly didn't help them much.

I really don't see the major upside to this for it be considered some marketing magic bullet.

All of these marketing ideas that pop up every few years were tried when the teams initially launched

 

[addict4sneakers]

Let’s not stop there. Why call the Salt Lake City stars and not the jazz? What about the Maine red claws?

 

[nick.]

as usual twitter is dumb and wrong.

The take is right

 

[rolaholic]

How many WNBA teams even have an owner that owns a NBA team?

I thought the number was around five or six? So maybe not even half.

That would be necessary for joint branding

It happens in soccer (excluding National teams because including them seems kinda pointless) because they are part of one organization. So across sports they have the same name and branding

So for this to happen some WNBA teams with the ownership set up, will have to change their name.? Like the Liberty need to change their name so they can be closer in branding to.....check notes....the Brooklyn Nets?

Also, the WNBA did try to align with the NBA branding when it started. That seemingly didn't help them much.

I really don't see the major upside to this for it be considered some marketing magic bullet.

Those womens soccer team names are for clubs that have been long established for decades and decades, and in some cases over a century, before they ever established women's teams so it's really an apples to oranges comparison when most WNBA teams don't share the same owners of the mens pro equivalents. In soccer they all literally form part of the same team.

That's why they're called 'clubs' in soccer because a lot of the time, they have everything from junior teams and academies to even teams for other sports so those club names carry much more of a cultural and community signifier than your typical American franchise.

If ownership was linked for every team then I could see an argument to be made, even though many names just straight up wouldn't translate well to women's sports , but they're not.

 

[Coupé It]

Here’s why you can’t do it tho….

Soccer teams are actually local clubs. They have youth teams, academies, schooling, etc.

It could never work here. We have franchises. It’s a completely different structure.

Franchises have to have their own identity. This is the American way.

 

[Coupé It]

While I was typing Rol basically said the same thing.

Pretty much that.


Sidenote - This doesn’t have much to do with it but I always liked how all the Pittsburgh teams wear black & yellow. Gives the city a communal identity.

 

[RustyShackleford]

What are we naming the Connecticut Sun after? The Seattle Storm? the Aces?

What are we even talking about?

Well, I guess since it is about following the men if Seattle and Vegas get expansion NBA teams, the long established WNBA teams will simply change their names and branding to match the newly created NBA team.

I'm sure the World Champion Las Vegas Aces who have tons of local fan support will not mind wiping out their brand identity to match a team that will probably be horrible for at minimum a few years

Again, no way something like this doesn't cause a PR nightmare. No way

 

[DripNick]

Dumb take as usual with buddy

Sakina Karchaoui tho

 

[lawdog1]

All the other excellent points on the subject already made aside, the idea that it’s “hard” to learn the name of a WNBA team in the same city as NBA team with a different name is fundamentally ridiculous.

It’s only “hard” if you don’t actually care and changing the name to “W Pacers” isn’t going to make the kind of people who don’t want to learn a one word name care more.

This reminds me of when Osh was all in on Steven A’s absurd take that it’s a problem that Shohei Ohtani doesn’t speak English.

* Edit - to be fair, Ohtani's lack of being able to speak English was a a problem insofar as it caused him to need an interpreter and the person who he hired for that job turned out to be a degenerate gambler to siphoned off money from him. But that's it.

 

[rolaholic]

 

[aepps20]

I hope these conversations encourage additional viewership to the WNBA and women’s sports in general. I’ve always loved women’s sports and got into tennis because of Monica Seles and Graf.

 

[toneboi76]

Chris Haynes is getting worse

 

[osh kosh bosh]

I just realized that under osh kosh bosh plan the Washington Mystics (whose naming already aligns with the NBA) might have to change their name to the Washington Witches

I'm sure that won't cause any PR blowback

i think mystics-wizards is close enough.

mystics are already aligned to the wizards branding anyways.

 

[pr0phecy718]

 

[addict4sneakers]

i think mystics-wizards is close enough.

mystics are already aligned to the wizards branding anyways.

They had the Detroit shock, Houston comets, Sacramento monarchs and the Phoenix mercury.

Only one team is still here

 

[Maximus Meridius]

It's weird how the WNBA declined over time. I remember watching them Comets games with Cynthia Cooper and Sherl Swoops with my stepfather back in the day. Them games was packed. **** is dead in there now. Until more women watch and support it's not gonna change.

 

[us3less]

I don't know if this has been posted, but NBA on TNT has Draymond and Vince Carter as fill-ins for today's coverage because Shaq and Chuck are meeting with other networks in NY according to Ernie (apparently as a yearly meeting anyway). I'm in denial; I love watching their pre-/post-game and halftime/game break coverage.

 

[osh kosh bosh]

All the other excellent points on the subject already made aside, the idea that it’s “hard” to learn the name of a WNBA team in the same city as NBA team with a different name is fundamentally ridiculous.

it's "hard" to launch new brands. this is just the reality of marketing, 100% factual.

It’s only “hard” if you don’t actually care and changing the name to “W Pacers” isn’t going to make the kind of people who don’t want to learn a one word name care more.

you are just arguing a strawman version of the take.

it's hard to launch new brands, it's especially hard in sports where your competing with 50+ year old brands.

you're in a league with existing brands that have tons of equity built up, why torch that and start over? what is the upside?

there is a reason film and tv is obsessed with pre existing IP, because launching new brands is really really hard.

This reminds me of when Osh was all in on Steven A’s absurd take that it’s a problem that Shohei Ohtani doesn’t speak English.

* Edit - to be fair, Ohtani's lack of being able to speak English was a a problem insofar as it caused him to need an interpreter and the person who he hired for that job turned out to be a degenerate gambler to siphoned off money from him. But that's it.

if Ohtani spoke english he'd be a way bigger star.

Speaking the language of the people you are marketing towards is obviously helpful.

it's such an obviously correct take, people just wanted a reason to be mad at SAS.

 

[osh kosh bosh]

They had the Detroit shock, Houston comets, Sacramento monarchs and the Phoenix mercury.

Only one team is still here

uh and?

what point are you making?