1) let's not compare raping kids to changing a team name. not only is it grossly inappropriate, but one is a scandal and the other is a public appeal. scandal does not fall under the umbrella of publicity (which is deliberate). 2) i've yet to see any transcript, quote, etc that says Crane is nothing more than "open" to changing the team name. as in, if it makes sense/people want it, then it may happen. so, why are you worried? what sense would changing the name make business-wise? you sound very paranoid. (las vegas, really?) the AL move was unfortunate, but that was not of Crane's volition and under entirely different circumstances. to use that as reason to distrust him on this issue is silly. you're looking into this *far* too seriously, IMO. but, as a consequence of that, the astros are getting more attention now than they have in the last 5 years... bad publicity? i think not. crane is kicking the tires and testing the temperature, and my bet is the fans will coalesce around the team to prevent any kind of perceived change. you know what doesn't move seats? sitting on the backpage of the sports section. it's a brilliant PR move to generate interest in the team outside of the hardcore.
1. i'm not trying to draw a comparison. pointing out that the generality of "all publicity is good publicity" is just that...a generality. there is always context relative to audience and message. Would it have been good publicity for the Astros to come out yesterday at a press conference and say, "hey, you know what...we're gonna RAISE ticket prices!!!" Sure...that's publicity...but you'll never convince me just being in the news is a good thing in and of itself. 2. i don't believe any of this generated interest that will amount to anything other than distrust by fanbase of the current regime. and i don't care all that much if you think i sound paranoid, donny. i don't want the name of my favorite sports franchise...he served it up...i was part of the response saying, "hell to the no" yesterday. i don't believe they're changing the name either...but then again, i didn't believe they were moving to the AL, either. this is an investment for Crane...I'll still be an Astros fan long after he's sold it off.
With all due respect, Donny, many and many of us scoffed when we first heard of the move to the AL. It simply couldn't happen. It was too stupid to consider. The team had a 50 year hstory in the NL, the league where they still play baseball as it was meant to be played. Moving to the American League didn't have a chance. Golly, Donny, look at how that turned out. And you expect the fans to trust the new ownership after what we just witnessed? You have to be kidding. It will take a very long time for Crane and company to win back that trust. Floating a name change, for whatever reason, was exactly the wrong way to go about it.
But for Crane's baggage, MLB didn't have a smokescreen to hide behind regarding the AL move. And I still come back to the fact that had Crane absolutely refused the move, MLB would have blinked. No way they were walking away from what he was willing to pay, because it was tons more than anyone anticipated (having a positive effect on the valuations of all MLB clubs going forward) and there was little indication that there was anyone else waiting in the wings to purchase the franchise. It could have been years before Drayton found a buyer with little guarantee, particularly at that point, that the new purchasor would be willing to pay anywhere close to what Crane offered. I've made my peace with the AL thing for the most part...but it's a lot of change all at once...and makes for awful context in floating a name change to a fanbase celebrating 50 years of its ballclub's existence.
I was told personally, by Crane, that the AL move was a component of any sale; that there was no way around it. Had he backed out, the next suitor would have been given the same option.
Just when you thought you were safe from Richard Justice articles: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120125&content_id=26459142&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb Astros' name connects with fans' pride in city They are the Houston Astros. That's forever, OK? I'm guessing new Astros owner Jim Crane agrees with me on that one. I'm also guessing he's thrilled by the response to his leaving open the possibility of a name change. At a time when attendance is down and the team is being rebuilt, he has found out how deeply people in Houston care about their baseball team. In announcing a series of sweeping changes -- from lowering ticket prices to allowing fans to bring food and drink into Minute Maid Park -- Crane said there could be changes to team colors, uniforms and logo. When someone asked if the name Astros could be changed, he said he was willing to consider it. "We're going to study the information from the fans and from all sorts of marketing people," he said. "I'm not saying we're going to change. We haven't made a decision yet." Let's say right up front: Crane is handling all of this brilliantly. He has been meeting with groups of fans over the past few months to hear what they like and don't like about the franchise. When they told him they didn't like not being able to bring food and drink into the ballpark, he changed the rule. When he heard that tickets were too expensive, he lowered prices. If an owner has just one chance to make a good first impression, Crane is making an excellent one. Now, about that name change. Based on conversations with club officials, Crane is already finding out that changing it would tamper with something the good people of Houston hold near and dear to their hearts. They're not just the Astros. They're our Astros. Crane has owned dozens of companies and hired thousands of employees and been successful in a way most of us can't begin to comprehend success. Still, owning a Major League Baseball team is a completely different kind of endeavor. Fans see him not as an owner, but as a caretaker. That's because they believe they own the team. They second-guess the manager, debate the trades and evaluate the prospects. When the Astros are playing well, the mood of the entire city seems to brighten. In places like Boston and New York and Philadelphia, they may look at a team like the Astros and not think much of its history or tradition. After all, the franchise was born a mere 50 years ago. Another thing they may not understand is that Houston is a great baseball city. In a season in which the Astros lost 106 games, they still drew more than two million fans to Minute Maid Park. That's a significant decline from the glory days, but it shows that interest in the team is still very, very high. In nine of the past 12 seasons, the Astros have drawn at least 2.5 million fans. They've drawn more than three million fans four times. There are generations of fans who still have certain moments etched into their hearts. For instance, the Game 6 loss to the Mets in the 1986 National League Championship Series. Or the Albert Pujols home run in Game 5 of the 2005 NLCS. There's nothing like those times when a professional sports team holds a city in the palm of its hand. That's how it has been for the Astros at times, especially in 2004 and '05, when they started slowly and sprinted to the finish line, clinching playoff berths on the final day of the season both times. Tickets were in such demand at times that the club had to hire temporary help to answer the phones. And when the Astros won the NL pennant that night in St. Louis in 2005, fans rushed out of their homes to line up outside local sporting goods stores to get a T-shirt proclaiming "National League Champions." No, the Astros don't have the history of the Tigers or Reds. But in 50 years, they've come to connect generations every bit as much as the Yankees or Red Sox or any other team. To these people, the Astros are woven into the fabric of their lives. Thousands of middle-aged men remember their first trip to the Astrodome -- still the best of all the domed stadiums. They were the Colt .45s during the three seasons the Astrodome was being constructed. This will be their 48th season as the Astros. It's a perfect name. It's unique, short, catchy -- brilliant. Its roots are in Houston's ties to the space program and all that implies. Houstonians take enormous pride that their city has been a world leader in energy, medicine and space exploration. Even now, at a time when the Astrodome has been allowed to decay to the point where it is almost beyond repair, no local politician can bring himself to say, "Tear it down." That's because it's symbolic of a time when Houston's greatness was defined by its spirit, by large dreams and large deeds. To millions, that first moment of seeing the Astrodome rising up shiny and magnificent will live forever. It stands there still, a reminder of a special time, one of the things that make Houston special. That's how fans feel about the name Astros. It's not exactly whether they love it or not. It's part of who they are and evokes countless memories. It should not be tampered with.
Yup. Everyone working at MMP knew this. My sister was discussing it long ago when Drayton first made the final decision to sell. The leverage wasn't Crane's past, it was the fact Drayton was insistent on selling. Whomever bought the team would have to agree to move..
what? It wasn't Drayton's decision to make. No matter how much he wanted to sell the team, the decision was the potential buyer's entirely, whether that be Crane or someone else. That's not leverage.
If memory serves, it was the Colt Arms Company that forced Judge Roy Hofheinz to change the name because they weren't benefiting financially from Houston's use of the name. Still believe that would preclude any change back to said name.
They weren't going to apporve *any* buyer unless they agreed to the move. that is most assuredly leverage, assuming you actually want to own the team.
This is an 8-page, and counting, thread full of panty-wrining; the thread about all the other things he mentioned the very same day? Still a page. And there's no way the Chronicle puts, "Bring in Your Own Water!" above the fold on its front page. I don't think he meant to, but his slip has most assuredly generated much greater Astros talk than cheaper hot dogs.
Right. They're going to walk away from a ridiculously huge offer which inflates the value of every team in the league, thereby holding in a reluctant owner who doesn't give a damn about owning one of their franchises any longer. Sorry, I don't buy it. they had a perfect smokescreen about pretending to be concerned with Crane's background. That allowed them to continue to drag crap out.
If he had come out and said new uniforms, cheaper prices and new food policy, he still makes front page news locally...which is where it matters if you're trying to move tickets. The whole name fiasco drowned out the part the whole press conference was designed to communicate.
Change name to Houston Greens pants : desert tan shirt: olive green ancillary colors : black It goes with the future park, all the great golf courses, and our love for nature ... Think it sounds silly?, put it next to the Reds, Royals, Mets, etc. I am serious, Do it!
This. And I don't think using this message board as proof of something is all that relevant. If so, that must mean the Rockets are by far the #1 thing in town...I mean look at how many people here are talking about them and the number of threads about them compared to the Texans and Rockets! That said, I really don't think he meant this as a serious consideration. My former manager made a similar comment when she first started here when she said that absolutely nothing was off-limits with regards to how we did things in our department. If memory serves, she even made a jab about the name of our main program.
