Ice Hockey is not one of our country’s major sports - not surprising when we don’t get much in the way of frozen lakes - so clubs have to try every trick in the book to attract supporters, media coverage and sponsorship.
It’s the same for the Newcastle Diamonds Speedway, Sunderland Ladies Football Team, Newcastle Eagles Basketball and Northumbria Netball. Football, and none more so than in the North-East, rules and the rest, including other major sporting teams like the Newcastle Falcons and Durham CCC, are left to fight for what is left.
So I could not help but chuckle at the attempts being made by the owners of the Newcastle Vipers Ice Hockey team to re-brand themselves in an effort to expand their fan base.
The Vipers have been enjoying some decent results on the pitch - sorry rink - in recent years, but they are still keen to expand the commercial side of things.
Now we all know how important regional identity is in the North-East and heaven help the uneducated southerner who arrives in the region believing that Sunderland and Gateshead are part of Newcastle.
Alright, I admit it, I did come to the region thinking something similar 10 years ago and yes I do still struggle to distinguish between the Newcastle and Sunderland accent and no I don’t know all the versus to the Blaydon Races and yes I say Barth rather than baath, but anyway....
The point is, the problem with been known as the Newcastle Vipers is that people from Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Carlisle, or wherever, are automatically inclined to hate rather than support you. Picture, if you will, the Sunderland supporter whose little Billy wants to watch the ice hockey, but who knows his friends would ridicule him - and worse - if they found out he was crossing the Tyne Bridge to cheer on a Geordie team.
Little Billy will just have to wait until the garden pond freezes over in the winter and then he can have some ice hockey fun. Alternatively, he could always travel to Whitley Bay, but that’s still north of the Tyne so.....
As a result of this pressing problem, the Newcastle Vipers have requested they be knows as the Mobilx Vipers from now on - clever as it wipes out the Newcastle and it makes them instantly more attractive to sponsors. But will it work?
The problem is, unlike the USA, we do not really understand the franchise systems here, when teams move homes depending on who owns the franchise. Sports teams - with the exception of Manchester United, Celtic, Glasgow Rangers, et al - belong to the local area and have a strong affinity with the town or city they represent.
Ultimately, the Newcastle Vipers play in Newcastle and I wonder whether changing the name will do anything to change the perception that they are a Newcastle team?
Only time will tell, although Wimbledon’s decision to move to Milton Keynes and change their name to the MK Dons has hardly been a rip roaring success has it!
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