Last week I wrote about the newest NHL expansion franchise in Las Vegas announcing that their name would be the “Vegas Golden Knights” and showcasing their new team logos. I was heavily critical of their chosen main logo not even being an actual knight’s helmet and looking more like something from a “Transformers” movie or 7th century Greece.
Well folks, the team is back in the news again this week. U.S. Army officials are putting the team name under review, as the U.S. Army Parachute Team has been using the name “Golden Knights” since the 1960s.
I don’t necessarily like picking on the new kid in class, but I have a few issues with what’s going on in Vegas. Here we go.
- First off, Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley was completely aware of the Army Golden Knights before naming his franchise. He even wanted to “have the Golden Knights drop in for the ceremony, but it got kind of complicated.” For the franchise that had trouble operating a simple PowerPoint presentation at their unveiling, no wonder it “got kind of complicated” when they wanted to involve humans literally falling out of the sky.
- What exactly do medieval warriors have to do with Las Vegas you ask? Literally nothing. The only reason Foley wants to name his hockey club something involving “Knights” is because he graduated from West Point, where their sports teams are called the “Black Knights.” Foley reportedly wanted to use the name Black Knights at first, but “encountered resistance” from West Point.
- I have no idea why the NHL and the team want to shy away from any names involving gambling. THE TEAM IS IN LAS VEGAS. No one is going to forget that gambling is the one major tourist attraction of your city just because you name your hockey team something outside of it. I also have a really hard time thinking any majority of people will have trouble with a gambling term being the name. Avalanches and Hurricanes literally kill people yearly, and there’s a team named after Lucifer himself. I think you’d be fine as the Aces.
In the end, I don’t think the Army will win any trademark battles over the name Golden Knights, if for no other reason than that hockey and parachuting have nothing to do with each other. But why not maybe ask first, Bill?
You’re probably asking yourself, “Why do you care about this so much Chris…?” while quickly heading to Twitter to unfollow my crazy self. I do have an answer for you, though. I have an irrational, extreme frustration with incompetent people in the front offices and ownership groups of sports franchises. This mainly stems from them being involved in unofficial “Old Boys Clubs” where they just cycle from job to job on team to team. The Las Vegas team name fiasco is just another example of what that cycle produces.
