(23 August 2000) — The XFL has announced that the team names will be revealed on Thursday, 24 Aug 00 at 1PM EDT.
We’ve been speculating and rumor-mongering on this board for the past four months and we are glad that the league will finally make it all official.
The nickname rumor train gave us something to keep us busy in the time that we waited for the XFL to get things in order. People want rumors, and the nicknames were the most famous rumors of them all.
We have come a long way from the day that a supposed insider named XFLFAN gave us the notorious list: Pioneers, Skyscrapers, Orcas, Condors, Terminators, Bloodhounds, Gamblers and Nighthawks.
You are probably wondering what happened to XFLFAN. I will go on record saying that XFLFAN was not an insider, although we initially thought that he might be. He is actually a guy from Lakeland, Florida who was a good guesser at some things. He was also somebody who just wanted things to go his way, mostly by starting some good rumors and then hoping that they will come true some day. Once this was discovered, he was done at XFLBoard. XFLFAN and I have been in contact lately. He now brags about how he fooled everybody, including the admin of this web site. But now that is ancient history – on to the famous future.
The notorious list did make it all the way to the XFL head office, but they did not bite. After all, they had their own marketing studies, which were leading to determine the possible names.
From what we can piece together, based on actual WWFe trademark registrations and internet domain name registrations, this is what actually occurred:
There were some initial nickname choices made by the league: Empire, Demons, Crusaders, Chaos, Snake Eyes, Xtreme, Warlords, Vipers, Rock, Predators, Hitmen, Enforcer, Lazers and Maniax. These names were all trademarked first, but were not linked to cities yet. A marketing study was done to decide which names were popular.
Once studies were complete some secondary choices were linked to XFL cities: San Jose Demons, New York Chaos, Los Angeles Xtreme, San Jose Demons, Memphis Maniax and Chicago Enforcers. Birmingham and Las Vegas were up in the air at this point, so they did not figure into the equation. Further marketing studies were done on these names.
On June 14th, laxtreme.com, nychaos.com and chicagoenforcers.com were registered as internet domain names to the WWFe. These were obviously solid choices for names of these cities at this time.
On August 13th, a meeting was held to make final decisions to team names. NY Chaos was changed to NY/NJ Hitmen. The names Birmingham Blast, Memphis Maniax were approved. A new internet domain name losangelesxtreme.com was chosen.
On August 14th all the new internet domain names were registered: BIRMINGHAMBLAST.COM, CHICAGOENFORCERS.COM, LOSANGELESXTREME.COM, LASVEGASOUTLAWS.COM, MEMPHISMANIAXX.COM, NYNJHITMEN.COM and SANJOSEDEMONS.COM.
On August 22nd, due to public furor in Alabama, the name Birmingham Blast was dropped as a potential team name. What will the new Birmingham name be? We don’t have a clue, although several good names have been suggested in our message board. My personal favorite is IRONMEN.
The only thing we don’t know is a name choice for the Orlando team. The name Rage is rumored by the Orlando media, but we have no evidence of this in either trademark information or domain name registrations. The internet domain ORLANDORAGE.COM is registered to a private concern, but it is very recently registered and there is a sports related website at that location. We are not sure what is going on, and we don’t wish to speculate at this time.
We are now ready for the XFL to reveal the official team names.
Just to clear the air in advance, we don’t care if the rumors on this web site are proven to be true or false. If we turn out to be absolutely wrong, we would like to say in advance “Good job Vince, thanks for keeping us in suspense!”
After all, what we really want is for the names, logos and colors to be really “cool”.
Then let’s play some football!
Mark Nelson – XFLBoard Editor
XFL Press Release:
23 August 2000 Get ready for the XFL logos
Over the past two months, the XFL has been busy announcing the eight cities that will host teams during its inaugural season. And now its time to get to the fun stuff! This Thursday, August 24, the XFL will unveil all eight team logos and nicknames in eight simultaneous press events held in each XFL city. The cross-country celebration will kickoff at 1 p.m. ET with WWF New York serving as “party central” – so if you’re in the tri-state area come on down to Times Square and join the fun! Plus, a video featuring the names and logos will be broadcast over the NBC video billboard in Times Square! The press conference will follow the video – so you can watch the entire press event from the street in New York City’s Times Square!
Attention News, Entertainment and Sports Editors: Media Advisory – XFL to unveil team names and logos
WHAT: XFL Press Event WHY: XFL will announce the names and logos of the eight teams for its inaugural season WHO: Basil V. DeVito, Jr. – President, XFL Drew Pearson – Vice President and GM of NY/NJ team WHEN: Thursday, August 24, 2000 1:00 p.m. WHERE: WWF New York 1501 Broadway (corner of 43rd Street and Broadway) New York, NY 10036
