The Oklahoma City Dodgers are the 2023 Pacific Coast League Champions!

[Dob Hooligan]

^^^^^^^^
That’s essentially correct. My understanding was that key 89ers ownership (which included Clay Bennett and the Gaylord family as majority shareholder at the time) likely had already invested in development of the RedHawks name and marks, as they were also among the potential owner group for an NHL club, which OKC seemed to be within reach of obtaining via expansion.

At the time the Blazers were the best-attended minor league hockey franchise in North America (never mind the fact that this was heavily bolstered by comps). Mayor Norick had connections with the NHL (including the fact that his son Lance’s NASCAR team was sponsored by the NHL), OKC had a new NHL-capable arena coming via MAPS, and the NHL gave OKC a serious look during the expansion process, including a Board of Governors visit to the city. At the end of the day Columbus and Minnesota prevailed, however.

So (again, this is second-hand info, so take it with a grain of salt) the 89ers ownership had brand new marks sitting on the shelf, and they were moving into a beautiful, brand new ballpark, so the decision was made to change the team’s name to drive excitement. Seems to have worked; the ballpark was absolutely PACKED for the first few seasons.

I can’t swear that this is the way it went down, and I don’t believe it was definitively reported upon, but it was really sort of a “worst kept secret” at the time.

I recall the NHL was adding 4 teams over a couple years in the late 1990s. Atlanta, Nashville, Columbus and Minnesota were the 4 cities chosen. Mayor Norick was a big hockey fan, and was the main owner of the OKC Stars of the CHL in the mid 1970s. That was the team that continued after the original Blazers, I think, kinda folded. The CHL of that time was a AAA level league. I recall Mayor Norick was an investor in the OKC expansion group, and I think he didn't really have much (or any) sponsors for his son's Craftsman's Truck Series racer, so he put the NHL Shield on the hood for a few races as a sweetener in their expansion effort.

I think the Gaylord's were the largest investors in both the Nashville and Oklahoma City NHL expansion groups. And kept their interest in the Predators for around 10 years.

All of these speculations led to the belief that the Gaylord group had already paid for the Redhawks brand package, and used the move of the 89ers to the new Bricktown Ballpark as an opportunity to monetize their expenditure.

[Mississippi Blues]

Thank you all for the responses, that helps a lot. RedHawks does sound like a hockey team name from the 90s, early 00s, so that makes sense. I remember being ecstatic when the change was announced but no small part of it was from my dislike of the RedHawks branding. I do like the Dodgers using the namesake as it does give a level of immediate recognition and ties Oklahoma City to one of the richest histories in baseball.

I feel it’s next to impossible this happens but for the sake of imagination, I love to think about them becoming an MLB franchise and changing their branding back to the 89ers.

[Laramie]

Thank you all for the responses, that helps a lot. RedHawks does sound like a hockey team name from the 90s, early 00s, so that makes sense. I remember being ecstatic when the change was announced but no small part of it was from my dislike of the RedHawks branding. I do like the Dodgers using the namesake as it does give a level of immediate recognition and ties Oklahoma City to one of the richest histories in baseball.

I feel it’s next to impossible this happens but for the sake of imagination, I love to think about them becoming an MLB franchise and changing their branding back to the 89ers.

Would love to see Oklahoma City join Milwaukee in becoming an NBA and MLB town and 89ers would have been my favorite.

It won't happen; our current Bricktown Ballpark expansion capabilities indicates that a 35,000-seat maximum expansion could
occur for that facility. Barry Tramel former writer with the Oklahoman felt that the number for MLB in OKC wouldn't work:

"Now OKC and baseball are mentioned together again, this time after new commissioner Rob Manfred talked about the possibility of expansion and ESPN was among the outlets that listed Oklahoma City as one of the 10 markets targeted for consideration. The others were Montreal; Charlotte, N.C.; San Antonio; Portland, Ore.; Las Vegas; northern New Jersey; Mexico City and Monterrey, Mexico."-- https://www.oklahoman.com/story/spor...c/60735026007/

At least we are being mentioned whenever expansion or relocation comes up.