So apparently the Marlins are getting a new stadium, and when they move, the team name will be changed from the Florida Marlins to the Miami Marlins? Yeah, that's stupid. I'm usually not a fan of state names for teams (as opposed to the usual city names). It's usually a lame effort to make people who don't live in city big enough to support a team feel like they are included. ("No, really, the team is for the whole state. Just because Tallahassee is like 8 hours from Miami, that doesn't mean this isn't your team. Yay Florida!").
It's even further out of control in the Carolinas, where the team's location is even more vague. Last time I checked, North and South Carolina were actually 2 separate states, not one big Carolina. (For the record, the "Carolina" teams are in NC...Charlotte for the Panthers, Raleigh for the Hurricanes. Sorry about that, SC.) Even my very own Buccaneers are from Tampa Bay...wouldn't want St. Pete to feel left out. And don't get me started on the Golden State Warriors. That's the worst. That's a state motto, not an actual place. We don't have any Sunshine State teams. Although, I now want New Hampshire to get some sort of team and name them the "Live Free or Die" Bears, or something. That would be cool.
In this day and age, location has little to do with fan base. With ESPN and the Internet and 24 hour sports programing, it's not like people necessarily root for their home town/state team anyway. You can pretty much easily follow any team you want, so people are are just as likely to choose a rooting interest based on a player they like or the team their dad rooted for or a club with a lot of players who went to their college or a million other reasons apart from proximity.
But, I digress. My point was Miami Marlins just sounds wrong. And Miami is dumb. So, while I would normally be all for the downsizing of the geographic nomenclature, in this instance I vote nay.
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