"Will Controversial Sports Team Names Be Gone in Five Years?"

From Adweek

Analysis by Natalie Bernstein in SRM 435 (section 1)

The article we chose to discuss was by Adweek and it was entitled “Will Controversial Sports Team Names Be Gone in Five Years? Prominent Native American Activist Says Yes” by David Gianatasio. In the article, Gianatasio shows how this year’s fight to change the Redskins name has gained a significant amount of momentum. He provides examples of this through quotes from various people who are closely linked to the Redskins name. While most people seem to agree that there needs to be an immediate change, people like Dan Snyder, owner of the Redskins, says he will never change the name.

From a marketing standpoint, this type of rebranding is going to cost a significant amount of money, not to mention the thousands of fans that will be infuriated. The question also arises that if they change the Redskins, a name that has been around for eighty-one years, will people even accept the change? Will they buy the new merchandise? This instantly makes me think of JMU’s Rose Library; the name was changed from east campus a couple years ago and students still refer to it by its old name, and this is just a library. When examining a multi-million dollar organization, changing the name will not solve all of the protestors’ problems. I doubt people will instantly stop referring to their favorite team as the Redskins, and I predict that it is going to be a challenge for several years after the official switch. However, with all of the negative sides to changing the team name, I believe the Redskins don’t have a choice. When broadcasters and other media sources refuse to even speak the team name, you have a major problem. Everyone is focusing more on the racism and less on the sport of football. So hopefully this change will bring people back to what this sport is all about with a politically correct name, that way both sides are happy. 

This topic is relevant to our course because it deals with a sports team who is about to undergo serious rebranding. When the name gets changed, the Redskins are going to have to come up with a completely different marketing strategy in hopes to make the name stick.

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Analysis by Connor Massei in SRM 435 (section 1)

This article questions whether or not the Washington Redskins and other controversial professional sports franchises will change their name within the next five or ten years. The article gives quotes and examples for reasons as to why these franchises will change their names as well as to why they will not. The article explains that with current pressure and support from Native Americans as well as from other groups, these organizations and the Washington Redskins in particular may not be able to resist changing their name in the near future. However, Redskins owner Dan Snyder has been quoted as saying he will never change the team name.

Analyzing this article from a marketing perspective brings up some interesting points. I feel that if the Redskins were to change their name, sales in different departments would, at least initially, decrease. I think fans would shy away from buying new team merchandise because they have previously spent money on merchandise when the team was still referred to as the Redskins. I also believe that ticket sales would initially decrease. I think the organization would lose a substantial amount of supporters because so many people are against a name change. I wouldn’t be surprised if some fans boycotted going to games as long as the Redskins have their new name. It could be difficult to market the franchise as the Washington-anything-other-than Redskins. Redskin fans and NFL fans in general are so used to seeing and hearing the Redskins’ name that it could cause problems for marketing and promotion teams when trying to make a different team name catch on.

This article is relevant to the course because whether or not you think controversial team names should change, it undoubtedly would affect these franchises from a marketing standpoint. They would have to figure out ways to promote the new name, logo, or even fight song. Fans would have to be persuaded to continue to buy game tickets whether they supported the name change or not. Marketing teams would have to use many of the strategies and things learned in class in order to successfully deal with the changing of any professional sports team name.