Are you f*^%ing kidding me - Jacksonville Suns change name to Jumbo Shrimp

[KenFSU]

I mean, when he changed his other teams name to "Akron RubberDucks" attendance went up by 27%.
Maybe he knows what he's doing?

Correlation does not equal causation, and the local media parroting this stat need to be a little more responsible. You know what else happened during the offfseason? Canal Park - Akron's minor league stadium - underwent a $5.4 million renovation, the largest in its history. The biggest scoreboard in Double-A baseball was installed, club sections were gutted, restaurants, family picnic zones, and a tiki bar were added, the works. Literally took ten seconds of Googling to figure this out. I have a sneaking suspicion this may have been a bigger contributor to the attendance uptick than a magic name change.

[TimmyB]

B.  There was nothing wrong with the Lugnuts, as it was their name from the start and a few teams have called themselves by a quirky name, which actually DID have ties to the community.

It's worth pointing out that the vast majority of teams with quirky/ridiculous names are tiny-market franchises looking for a fun, family-friendly hook. It's exceedingly rare to see a top 50 market leveraging wAcKy nAmEs. Normally, markets our size prefer to maintain some idiom of honor and respect, not to mention history. Babby is effectively defining Jacksonville down to Modesto, Lehigh Valley, Lansing, Visalia levels with this bullshit.

It's a total disgrace, and a slap to the face of the fans who have made the Suns one of the more successful teams of their class over the last 50 years, and particularly since our beautiful new Baseball Grounds opened.

In a city where history is often held with so little value, this is one we need to fight.

You and I are in complete agreement with this, Ken.  I wasn't defending the silly-name thing; I was saying it made sense for the Lansing market.  Their team is still playing after 20 years in Lansing and has survived the death of their park's namesake (Oldsmobile) and a recession like most of the country did not witness.

My wife, who couldn't give two flips about sports, absolutely LOVES going to the Suns' games.  When I told her of the name change this morning, she almost hurled!

[KenFSU]

^RIGHT???

I normally avoid the T-U comment section for the good of my own sanity, but they are just lighting up ownership over this decision.

Rare to see such an insanely united front, I read about 50 comments, and I didn't see a single post in support of the decision.

Will be interesting to see what happens, but man does it feel like the sports gods ever hate Jacksonville this year. The Jags debacle. The Sharks and Armada in semi-limbo after their leagues are collapsing around them. And now the Jumbo Shrimp.

[KenFSU]

B.  There was nothing wrong with the Lugnuts, as it was their name from the start and a few teams have called themselves by a quirky name, which actually DID have ties to the community.

It's worth pointing out that the vast majority of teams with quirky/ridiculous names are tiny-market franchises looking for a fun, family-friendly hook. It's exceedingly rare to see a top 50 market leveraging wAcKy nAmEs. Normally, markets our size prefer to maintain some idiom of honor and respect, not to mention history. Babby is effectively defining Jacksonville down to Modesto, Lehigh Valley, Lansing, Visalia levels with this bullshit.

It's a total disgrace, and a slap to the face of the fans who have made the Suns one of the more successful teams of their class over the last 50 years, and particularly since our beautiful new Baseball Grounds opened.

In a city where history is often held with so little value, this is one we need to fight.

You and I are in complete agreement with this, Ken.  I wasn't defending the silly-name thing; I was saying it made sense for the Lansing market.  Their team is still playing after 20 years in Lansing and has survived the death of their park's namesake (Oldsmobile) and a recession like most of the country did not witness.

My wife, who couldn't give two flips about sports, absolutely LOVES going to the Suns' games.  When I told her of the name change this morning, she almost hurled!

Sorry Tim! I totally got that from your post, my apologies if it came across like I was saying you supported it. I'm with you. Totally makes sense in other situations. Just not here. In a large market with a 50+ year tradition of Suns baseball.

[fsquid]

That name is quite shit

[TimmyB]

B.  There was nothing wrong with the Lugnuts, as it was their name from the start and a few teams have called themselves by a quirky name, which actually DID have ties to the community.

It's worth pointing out that the vast majority of teams with quirky/ridiculous names are tiny-market franchises looking for a fun, family-friendly hook. It's exceedingly rare to see a top 50 market leveraging wAcKy nAmEs. Normally, markets our size prefer to maintain some idiom of honor and respect, not to mention history. Babby is effectively defining Jacksonville down to Modesto, Lehigh Valley, Lansing, Visalia levels with this bullshit.

It's a total disgrace, and a slap to the face of the fans who have made the Suns one of the more successful teams of their class over the last 50 years, and particularly since our beautiful new Baseball Grounds opened.

In a city where history is often held with so little value, this is one we need to fight.

You and I are in complete agreement with this, Ken.  I wasn't defending the silly-name thing; I was saying it made sense for the Lansing market.  Their team is still playing after 20 years in Lansing and has survived the death of their park's namesake (Oldsmobile) and a recession like most of the country did not witness.

My wife, who couldn't give two flips about sports, absolutely LOVES going to the Suns' games.  When I told her of the name change this morning, she almost hurled!

Sorry Tim! I totally got that from your post, my apologies if it came across like I was saying you supported it. I'm with you. Totally makes sense in other situations. Just not here. In a large market with a 50+ year tradition of Suns baseball.

No problem, Ken!  We are moving to Jax next year, and we don't want to look back and say, "Oh, yeah, we arrived the same year as..."   

[TimmyB]

Hilariously (or not), someone has already changed the listing on Wikipedia.  It still is under the Jacksonville Suns listing, but the first sentence reads, "The Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp..."

[Gators312]

What was the reasoning behind the name change to the Expos during the '80's?  When I was a kid those teams were my first memories of going to games as a kid.  I was clueless to the history prior to that growing up.

[Adam White]

Hilariously (or not), someone has already changed the listing on Wikipedia.  It still is under the Jacksonville Suns listing, but the first sentence reads, "The Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp..."

The team's Facebook page (official page) has been changed already. Logo and everything.

[TimmyB]

What was the reasoning behind the name change to the Expos during the '80's?  When I was a kid those teams were my first memories of going to games as a kid.  I was clueless to the history prior to that growing up.

I can't speak for Jacksonville's specific situation, but that's pretty common in most minor league sports.  When the parent club changes, they like to have the feeder programs have that same mascot.  Unfortunately, those affiliations change so often, it doesn't make sense for these small teams to have to change EVERYTHING (signage, logos, etc.) every few years.

[lowlyplanner]

I wonder if there will be any City money invested in the name change... 

There's a lease agreement between the City and the team that lays out how the relationship works and who pays for what at the ballpark.  Maybe MJ can dispatch its crack staff to get ahold of the document?

City may also have to give consent to signage, etc.

[Snufflee]

https://twitter.com/darrenrovell/status/793823192334860288?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet



That logo..... so proud

[Adam White]

"Community First" - unless the community doesn't want you to change the name of the local baseball team. In that case, screw 'em.

[BridgeTroll]

[KenFSU]

My favorite is the logo where the "tenacious shrimp" appears to be sexually assaulting the entire state of Florida.