The Knicks are a smoking crater, from what I understand, tho.
Do sports teams really have a limit on available names?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottawa_Rough_Riders
These teams played <i>in the same league</i>.
Toronto's soccer team in Major League Soccer is called "Toronto FC" or "Toronto Football Club". Calgary: "Cavalry FC" which seems extra confusing when spoken.
Sports naming is so weird.
Originally, it was perfectly normal North American naming convention, $PLACE $NOUN. Then sometime in the aughts, they started bringing in boring European names, and worse yet, just aping them for no reason. Only the pretentious call soccer “football” in North America, and no one calls themselves a “sports club”. Even the Baseball Club of Seattle, doesn’t call themselves “Seattle BC”. They’re the Mariners. Half of the league’s names are an insult to North American sports culture.
A special place in sports hell is set for the dude that named Real Salt Lake. He explicitly aped Real Madrid because he’s such a fan. Dude. We literally fought a war to overthrow a monarchy.
Those European style names are because international clubs began investing in MLS.
The Abu Dhabi royal family's fund that owns Man City has 80% ownership of NYCFC, who started the "FC" naming trend in MLS, and plenty of other MLS clubs are owned by people who also own European clubs.
> Half of the league’s names are an insult to North American sports culture
What the hell is "North American sports culture".
Naming conventions in Soccer/Football have always been European based because it is the primary region for prestige Soccer.
It's like complaining about Israeli or Chinese Basketball leagues using NBA style names and jerseys or Mexican College Football (yes that is a very popular thing there, and the Big10 is considering adding them to the conference) using Big10 style branding and stadiums despite soccer being more popular in those places
The aesthetic matters from a branding perspective.
Lots of people whose cultural origin isn't in the US or Canada do, and that overlaps a lot with the people who care about soccer at all.
When you watch soccer, you expect Tier 1 soccer aesthetics and branding - especially as an owner trying to recoup your investment.
It was Abu Dhabi that started the FC/SC naming conventions in MLS after they were the first international investor in MLS with NYCFC.
After that, the door was opened for plenty of investors who didn't see an RoI or have to ability to invest in Tier 1 European Soccer.
x FC is just a common way to name football clubs around the world, adopted by MLS clubs
Edit: Announced during their seventh season; joined in their ninth
Edit; Chicago, Dallas, Houston Vancouver and Toronto had FC In their name before NYC FC existed
True, but isn't he much more hands-off now compared to a couple years ago?
Dolan's Wikipedia page blames him for the post-94 dip, which may be fair, but if that's the case, then he's seen them through two rebuilds, one of which culminated with a Stanley Cup Finals appearance (2014, if I recall). I'll never forgive him for not getting Hank a Cup, but sometimes these things can't be helped. Hockey is fickle.
And his employees are expected to attend his shows. And he checks on this.
(To be clear, speaking from experience, poverty isn't so fun either.)
Come on...
Understatement of the year. Dolan successfully destroyed 2 major sports franchises (Knicks and Rangers) he spent millions on acquiring and managing.
He is also using facial recognition to ban all employees of law firms suing MSG (his company) from going to any of their properties, and NY State is considering pulling his liquor license as a result.
The only reason he's solvent is because the Madison Square Garden is basically el dorado (financially speaking) and he inherited a bunch of money from his father (the founder of HBO and Cablevision)
Imagine if GOB Bluth became CEO. That's Dolan.