I really like the 89ers, I think it's historic, makes sense, and is not hickish. There are the Philly 76ers (also historic), San Fran 49ers, why not have the OKC 89ers. I love it. Hopefully the owners to rights for the 89ers name of former AAA baseball team wouldn't try any lawsuits or anything.

Bad idea, if they do name the Oklahoma City 89ers, the owner to rights for the 89ers will sue them guarteended!

I remember the Cox family as being a very loyal Oklahoma City family, if they still owned the rights, I'm sure they would be open to selling the rights.

If the Redhawks own the rights, I'm also certain they might also be open to sell the rights to a team that was not playing baseball.

But you never know.

The 89er's is what I have been hoping for all along, but I doubt it would ever happen, which is why I've been trying to hard to come up with something original. I think 89er's is the best.

I like the Oklahoma City Rush. You could go one of two ways with that, land run or oil.

What about something more aviation related. Would tie in with Will Rogers, Willy Post, Tinker, Altus AFB, Vance AFB, the 99 club, and pay a little tribute to the Sonics franchise.

Aviators
Pilots
Sky
Navigators

Although it makes me nervous to discuss this before anything is a done deal, I still like Thunderbirds, shortened to T-birds. It's got both the Air Force and Native American connection.

Not that I'm advocating the name, but the Oklahoma state bird is the Scissor-Tailed Flycatcher ... "flycatcher" does have a bit of a sports ring to it ... but probably more like baseball than basketball. The real name of the bird, "muscivora forficata," would probably not work! :woowoo:
I do think that it would be nice if something "new" and "uniquely Oklahoman" could be thought of.

For those which have been floated here so far, 89ers still makes the most sense to me and I'd suppose that the name could be acquired, though I don't know.

I'm sure the old 89ers name could be aquired for probably $2 million and that's a drop in the bucket for Bennett and Co. Depending on who owns the rights, they may even donate it pro bono for philantrophic reasons as well. I'm not sure what the legalities are cross-sports. (i.e. baseball team might have same name as an NBA team, or NFL team might have same name as NBA team). There may be no restrictions on this as long as the logo and mascot are different.

I doubt it'd be too much trouble to get the name and whatever trouble would be well worth it. The name has a strong historical significance for this state and it actually sounds good.

I've never been a fan of the '76ers' or '49ers' names. I understand its historical, I just don't like it for a sports team. OKC Thunder, OKC Thunderbirds, OKC Oilers, OKC Lightning, OKC Broncos, or just OKC Sonics.

How about these choices for OKC's new NBA nickname:

Stampede (honoring the Land Run)

Slickers (aka "City Slickers")

Roughnecks (oil industry)

Jets (aerospace industry)

Barons (honoring Will Rogers and Wiley Post)

Or go with a European thing....

OKC United....or better...The Oklahoma United.

ohhhh I like the Euro idea, and often sports names have nothing to do with their respective cities anymore. Last time I checked, there wasn't a huge Grizzly Bear population in Memphis and Utah sure isn't known for its' Jazz music. OKC United, that rolls off the tongue nicely!!!! My first vote is for 89ers, but I definitely wouldn't mind buying an OKC United jersey for gamenights!

Or go with a European thing....

OKC United....or better...The Oklahoma United.

Save the euro name for our MLS team.

It also needs to be 'Oklahoma City _____'

The precinct by precinct unofficial vote tallies are in today's blog post, Doug Dawgz Blog: March 4 Unofficial Returns (http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2008/03/march-4-unofficial-returns.html) . The vote carried in 164 precincts but failed in 84. I'm in the process of identifying the precincts more particularly.

Doug, excellent discussion to bring up. Please let us know how it develops. I'd be interested to see if there is a trend in the NO votes in certain parts of town.

Doug, excellent discussion to bring up. Please let us know how it develops. I'd be interested to see if there is a trend in the NO votes in certain parts of town.

Just have to find out where most of the older folks live

Love the Sports Animal caller who walked in with an elderly lady who told him "I hope you are voting no on this Hornets thing"

Nothing against our elders, but they hear the word tax and tune out the rest

He should have told her the Hornet vote was next week and that Tuesdays vote was to elect a new Emporer for the Imperial Senate.

I was browsing a Tulsa forum and found some interesting discussion about us passing the Ford Center vote. Most of the postings that I skimmed through seemed to look at OKC in a positive light!

I like Tulsa and have family that live there. I think it is a naturally beautiful city and don't want to start a "were better than them" comparison discussion, but I did find these posts interesting and they made me more proud to live in Oklahoma City!

Here is the link (http://www.tulsanow.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=9141)

Whether one is happy, or not, with the outcome of the 03-04 vote, there's room to be proud that the number of participants was about double the typical election. Even though the turnout represented well under 40% of those eligible to vote, it was a significant turnout compared to past elections, adn that's a good thing, no matter which side comes out on top

Here's the March 4 vote if viewed by Wards ... notice how much more volume of votes were cast in Wards voting Yes than No ... and despite that many precincts voted No, only one ward did, and then just barely.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/NBA/march4votebyward.jpg