iepgwf1112 - 5-22-2013 at 08:09 AM
How Orlando became Magical
The Orlando Magic recently revealed their new promotional campaign for the upcoming basketball season to quite a positive fanfare. Alongside the Magic
slogan are calls to action, telling the City Beautiful to Amazed Fanatical and There While this isn the best slogan the team has created (See: Total
Team Effort, circa 2005; Heart and Hustle, circa 2000),http://ubuntugen.com/blogs/entry/old-ordered-to-remove-numbered-football-jersey, it definitely better than others we seen (See:
CommITment: It Counts, circa 2006). But with the new advertising infiltrating the media, it got me thinking: how in the world did a tourist trap town
with no major metropolitan base land one of the most competitive franchises in the NBA? Well, in an effort to go along with the Examiner promotion
(and a way for me to set the record for most sidebars ever in an article), I now present to you an abridged version of how your Orlando Magic came to
be.
In order to understand the 20 year history of the Magic, you got to first understand David Stern way of thinking. Because he spends so little time not
realizing how incompetent his referees are (cheap shot),http://www.gwmicro.com/blog/index.php/all/, he actually become one of the most successful commissioners of any sports. he taken
basketball to international levels,http://ajaxphpforms.com/classified/profile.php?user=winkz11asu&v=comments, creating a global empire (in fact, there are even
rumors of creating an NBA: China or NBA: Europe league). But the real genius of Stern lies in his propensity to be the only ticket in town. Think
about the cities he chooses to have teams in: San Antonio, Oklahoma City,http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/,http://www.yaman520.com.idserver-1.yunhosting.net/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=439548, Portland, Memphis, Orlando, Salt Lake
City, Sacramento of these are, in relation to others, small market cities. However, Stern doesn care. Yes, he have a team in New York, a team in
Chicago, and a team in Dallas,http://www.zglbicycle.com/bbs/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=1352423, but if he can establish a presence in all of these
smaller markets, he captures 100% of their attention. Why go to a city like Pittsburgh, where you compete with the NHL Penguins,http://datesmush.com/profile.php?user=134596&v=comments, the NFL Steelers, and the MLB Pirates when you can go to Charlotte
and dominate the sports market? Expansion teams struggle anyway, so why have them battle against these already established franchises that have sucked
in the money with season tickets, merchandise, and apparel?
(Side note: has this ever worked for any other industry? If you were trying to expand a shoe company,http://123.30.51.23:8082/forums/showthread.php?p=476446#post476446, would you forgo putting a store in populous Kansas City or
St. Louis and instead put your store in a city like Santa Fe or Sioux Falls? In fact, wasn that what the NFL was trying to do in the mid-90s when it
put a franchise in Jacksonville? Clearly that failed or they wouldn have blacked out seats and be struggling to sell tickets yes, I still getting
weekly e-mails from them to buy tickets. Why then does it work for the NBA where cities like Oklahoma City and Portland are fanatical beyond belief
for their teams? I know that many will say it because Jacksonville is a college football town, but why then did Charlotte succeed with the Panthers, a
town far from college football fanaticism? Was the NFL trying to re-create small-town love like in Green Bay?)
(Side note again: Can we all just finally admit that putting an NFL franchise in Jacksonville was a mistake? Look,http://www.centokmseregno.com/it/galleryassist-115526, I not trying to bash on Jaguars fans, but year after year, surveys come
out that Jacksonville is the least popular franchise in the league. And even after covering up nearly their entire top deck, they still struggle to
sell out their games. And this is coming from a guy who has been to many Jags game and had a blast! But when Los Angeles doesn have a team, and
Jacksonville does,http://upstatelocalradio.com/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?433369.last, something wrong.)
Which brings me to the year 1986. The NBA (then only 23 teams) agreed upon expansion of 3 teams to begin play towards the end of the decade. decades
ago) and Charlotte (a team which at the time had no other professional team Stern, smart) were
Way back in 1987, two men with a dream had no idea they'd
be creating an entire city's image.
easily frontrunners, with a third franchise set for the Sunshine State. Orlando businessman Jim Hewett, alongside then 76ers GM Pat Williams, started
convincing the city that having an NBA franchise was a smart choice, not only in terms of financial growth for O-Town, but for national recognition.
The citizens were immediately onboard (after all,http://www.venturepad.com/, the most recent taste of a professional sports team were the Orlando Renegades of the USFL). But
alongside Orlando came a group of businessmen from Miami with the exact same idea. Thus began the weirdest bidding war in sports history. The NBA,
wanting 3 expansion teams to even out the league, looked to establish only 1 franchise in Florida was just waiting for the best offer. Season ticket
deposits were sold in an effort to prove to the NBA that the city was fully committed to supporting the team. Owners were brought on and kicked out at
the request of the Association to ensure that proper management would be established.
Later that year, Orlando had secured over 14,000 season ticket deposits; the most of any of the bid cities. Although Miami had a more organized and
solidified management structure, the impressive showing of local commitment convinced the NBA expansion committee to allow both Orlando and Miami to
have a team. Starting in 1988, Miami and Charlotte were to begin play, with Minneapolis (changed to Minnesota,http://www.xzhiv.org/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=2460718, as we know them now) and Orlando to join a season later.
(Side note: did you know that the Charlotte team was tentatively called the Spirit? In fact, there are a bunch of news articles from 1986-1987
referencing the Charlotte Spirit as the new expansion team that will begin play in How extremely awkward is that name? The Charlotte Spirit? What on
earth would their mascot be wispy cloud? Or maybe they were going along the lines of conjuring spirits,http://comunitatibacauane.ro/share/, and it would be more of a sorcerer or witch on their jerseys funny would that have been? In
the year 2009,http://inherent.petra.ac.id/node/4280810, you would have a league that has the Wizards, the Magic, and the Spirit surprised the
Canadian teams weren nicknamed the Cauldrons and the Potions when they were introduced in 1995)
Although the Timberwolves, Heat,http://blog.lefigaro.fr/obamazoom/2010/09/mosquee-ground-zero-pas-pour-tout-de-suite.html#comments, Magic, and Sprit, errr
Hornets soon established their mark in the league, they did so in the most awkward of fashion. It wasn enough for these teams to expand the league and
provide new venues for every franchise to play had to do it in a rotational fashion. For the season, Charlotte competed in the Atlantic Division while
Miami was in the Midwest. Remember, this was when the NBA only had 4 divisions (Pacific and Midwest in the West, and Atlantic and Central in the East)
so the Heat first season took place with the likes of Utah, Denver,http://comunitatibacauane.ro/share/, and the 3 Texas teams.
The following season, when Minneapolis and Orlando entered, Charlotte and Minnesota would play in the Midwest Division (which makes sense for the
T-Wolves, but not so much the Hornets) Orlando in the Central Division, and Miami in the Atlantic Division. The next year, Orlando moved to the
Midwest (one of the most baffling moves),http://www.watcharabic.com/vb/showthread.php?p=844038#post844038, Charlotte to the Central, with Minnesota remaining in the
Midwest and Miami in the Atlantic. Finally, in Miami and Orlando would both play in the Atlantic Division,http://www.sihezayuan.com/uchome/space.php?uid=3734&do=blog&id=1464113,http://alaopo.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=1282423, with Charlotte in the Central,http://www.uinitial.com/node/58?page=525#comment-26284, and Minnesota in the Midwest.
From dark and mystical to bright and cartoonish, Orlando truly
has given us 20 years of Magic.
Confused? I don blame you. Little do people remember that, for the first 2 years of existence, Orlando has a majority of its road games against Utah,
San Antonio, Chicago, Denver, Cleveland,http://quintonandcharlotte.com/node/, etc. The reasoning behind it, as David Stern argued, was to give the fans in the new cities
a chance to see nearly every far away team multiple times before geographic rivalries were established. I surmise that Stern and company were
establishing the biggest practical joke on its fans.
(Side note: how come the NBA didn continue to do this when it expanded to Canada or when it re-gave Charlotte a team? Granted, it did place Vancouver
in the Midwest instead of the Pacific due to division size, but it at least kept them there. In fact,http://www.chaptersandchats.com/, it acted as a precursor to when they moved to Memphis. Wouldn it have been kind of fun to have the Bobcats play
their first season in the Pacific, getting absolutely destroyed by the Lakers and Kings in the early 2000s? Then have them move to the Southwest and
get killed by the Spurs, Rockets, and Mavs before finally arriving in the Southeast? Heck, if they did that in the late 80s to increase exposure, why
not have the Oklahoma City Thunder play their first season in the Atlantic? Maybe Kevin Durant gets the respect he deserves if half of his away games
are in Boston, Philly, and New York City.)
But how did Orlando come across the name for its franchise? Well, once it became official that the city was in the running for an NBA team, the
Orlando Sentinel held a write-in contest to garner suggestions for the new name. A whopping 4,http://cocoachina.com/bbs/,http://www.acpcenter.com/bbs/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=566710,300 entries were submitted and a committee sifted through
them to find the best choices. (Think about that, 4,300 entries for a newspaper contest to name an NBA franchise. This was before the internet, so,
people actually had to draft letters, address them properly, and mail them in. If this happened today, how fast do you think it would take before
4,300 entries were submitted? 1 hour? 30 minutes? 10 minutes?) The finalists (prepare yourselves) - The Heat; The Tropics; The Juice; and The
Magic.
(Ok, MAJOR side note here: How bizarre, and I mean BIZARRE would it be if the Orlando team were called the Heat? Just think about that for a second.
We were within a quarter chance of having a team called the Orlando Heat. What would the Miami team be called? Would they have become the Miami Magic
or would they have tried for something like the Miami Spirit they held a naming contest of their own. Amongst their finalists: The Flamingos,http://discuz.ucatv.com.cn/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=3294775, The Suntan, The Palm Trees, and The Beaches. We almost lived
in a world that included the Orlando Heat, Charlotte Spirit, and Miami Flamingos about those names just feel wrong. Actually, one of the front-runners
for the Miami franchise was the Sharks. I know it has its own connotation with Given Sunday but, I still think it would been cool to have the Miami
Sharks in the NBA)
(MAJOR side note number 2: The Orlando Juice team was close to be called the Orlando Juice. Although not as ridiculous as the Miami Suntan or
Charlotte Spirit I still can get over mean it sounds like a WNBA reject could have been rooting for an orange and green clad Orlando Juice squad.
Millions of dollars would have been spent creating merchandise and apparel, graphics and signs would been produced, all for the mighty Orlando Juice.
Maybe they even bring in a former football superstar to attend the games, act as the team version of Jack Nicholson. I REALLY hope you get where I
headed. Just 5 years later, how much of a panic and headache would that front office endure by having to do an overnight name change? Considering that
the infamous Bronco car chase occurred during the Finals,http://www.dingsou.net/plus/view.php?aid=123540, how monstrous of a PR hit does Orlando take? Do you think the franchise in and
of itself would issue a public apology? Would they resort to changing their team name to the Magic, or does the context of why they had to change
their name team void the mystical connotations (especially if,http://hotface.com.br/blog_entry.php?user=scheap369168&blogentry_id=2626717, after the guilty verdict, people start making
the Magic how he got away with murder jokes). With the NBA introducing the Raptors and Grizzlies later that year, does Orlando steal one of those
nicknames? The Orlando Raptors make just as much sense as Toronto course, I probably shouldn be the one commenting on the Toronto Raptors. I know the
Wizards used to be called the Bullets, but, that was a long, drawn out process of recognizing how detrimental the team name is to the city. Simpson
fiasco. If history ever documents the all time biggest bullets dodged, let that easily be in the top 5)
While this committee was still contemplating over the 4 final names, Pat Williams ended up taking his 7 year old daughter to all the attractions
Orlando had to offer. After all, daddy was going to move there
You have no idea how close we were to having this
as the face of our franchise,http://www.treadswap.com/ads/fash-mob-wednesday-guest-post-spun3/.
soon. As fate would have it, while little Karen Williams was at the airport, about the board the plane, she told her dad, really like this place. This
place is like magic. Pat immediately knew he had to push for that moniker. The committee ended up choosing Magic publicly stating that it fits best
with the city multiple attractions and that the team name was due to the that the city of Orlando brought its residents (and NOT because of the Mickey
Mouse organization main attraction). They also cited that the left too negative of an image (take that Miami), the were more of a reference to South
Florida, and that the would be received negatively as the area was recently hit with a winter freeze that destroyed acres of citrus crops in the
Central Florida area (which, finding that out just blew my mind even more. If it weren for the cold winter of 1987, we would be introducing the
Orlando Juice to the world citrus freeze is what prevented the City Beautiful from the biggest public relations nightmare in sports history how fate
has smiled upon us).
So, there you have it, a brief history as to how our town was awarded an NBA franchise. We come a long way in the short 20 year history of the team: a
logo change, a new arena,http://www.asscommvolla.it/index.php?option=com_blog&view=blog, 3 number one draft picks, and uniforms going from this and this (which, I
still think the black pinstripes were the best uniforms in team history) to this (which,http://tech.michaelmcnairy.com/node/1175727, at the time was a good uniform transition, as it came with a much needed logo change
in hindsight, was one of the most cartoonish uniforms in NBA history except for maybe this) to the much improved this and upgraded this and this.