A question crossed my mind as I was driving around today.
It's pretty much a guarantee that the Sonics are moving now and that Seattle isn't getting another NBA team for a long while, if ever. As many have pointed out, maybe some Seattle fans, because of proximity and because we're semi-likely to do well in the near future, would adopt the Blazers. If the front office is banking on this, though, it's sure to occur to someone that the "Portland" label could be a bar to that adoption.
Certain teams--the New England Patriots come easily to mind--have adopted regional names instead of city-specific ones. If somebody in the front office got the bright idea to change the name of the team to the "Pacific Northwest Trailblazers" or some such thing to make it easier for Seattle to embrace the Blazers, provided they still stayed and played exclusively in Portland, how much would that bother you (or not)? Would it make a difference?
Note I'm not talking about whether "Pacific Northwest" sounds good...they'd figure out an exact name later. I'm just saying if they re-named the team something more regional sounding, whatever that may be, how much of a difference would that make to true Portland fans?
--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)