NBA in OKC: Still searching for the perfect nickname

By Darnell Mayberry

Published: July 17, 2008

Lions and Tigers and Bears...all gone!

When it comes to Oklahoma City's yet-to-be-named NBA franchise, a for-sure, can't-miss nickname is difficult to come by. Marketing experts say the easy choices are already taken, long ago gobbled up by the hundreds of professional franchises.

But options remain.

"Now you kind of get down to a name that fits who you are and where you are,” said Vince Orza, dean of the Meinders School of Business at Oklahoma City University.

Good names, Orza said, are terms that are positive, short, easy to spell and easy to pronounce. The best ones also reflect strength and characterize the team's region.

"You kind of want a fun term also,” Orza said. "Four letter names are always the best if you can get them. If you think about it, Ford, Oreo, Coke, the reason those names are so successful is they're easy to say, easy to remember and easy to spell.

"Simple means bigger, and the bigger you can get it on a uniform and cap the easier it is to see the image and the impression of the name.”

Tom Fugleberg, executive creative director at Minneapolis-based Olson, a sports branding and ad agency, said it's most important for Oklahoma City's nickname to reflect the region.

"It might take more mining to come up with something unique, but Oklahoma City is a very unique place,” Fugleberg said. "Geography is important. It's important that they try not to think of a name that's necessarily going to be popular in the NBA but popular in their city.”

That's precisely what the Toronto Raptors did, said Dan Rascher, president of Oakland, Calif.-based SportsEconomics, a sports economics, finance and marketing research firm.

The Raptors, who began as an expansion team in 1995, were named in 1994, one year after the release of the hit movie "Jurassic Park.”

"Dinosaurs were more popular 15 years ago,” Rascher said. "But you look down the road 10 or 20 years later and it's not so exciting.”

Animals, however, generally are good options. Thirty-seven of the 121 professional sports teams in the four major North American sports leagues — NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL — have animals as nicknames, excluding Oklahoma City's NBA franchise.

The commonly chosen animals are fierce beasts that represent strength and above all can be marketed well if you choose the right creature.

But the choices have become slim with Detroit home to the Lions in the NFL and the Tigers in MLB, Chicago home to the NFL's Bears and MLB's Cubs, Philadelphia home to the NFL's Eagles and Atlanta owning the rights to the NBA's Hawks.

"There are probably still other animal names out there, but the good easy ones are gone,” Orza said.

Weather-related nicknames have become popular among fans because of the state's penchant for storms. But names like Tornadoes and Twisters are long and could reinforce negative images about the state.

Thunder could work, Orza said, because it's a shorter name and implies power. But it doesn't end with the letter S, which Fugleberg thinks is a bad idea.

"I think there's more of a sense of a community when you are a fan of the Blazers and not the Storm,” Fugleberg said. "There's a feeling that you are a part of that.”

Whatever direction the team owners and the NBA go with the selection of the team name, it's important that they get it right, Rascher said, because millions of marketing and merchandising revenue dollars are riding on it.

"It's what you build the brand with,” Rascher said. "If they pick a name that people don't like or the colors aren't right, the fans aren't going to buy as much merchandise and the brand isn't going to be as strong. So it's really a key decision and one that they should spend their time on.”

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