Oklahoma City NBA team to get name next week
29 minutes ago

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma City's new NBA franchise has finally set a date to announce its name and team colors.

The team said Wednesday that it would unveil the name and colors simultaneously on its Web site and at a downtown event Sept. 3.

Clay Bennett's ownership group has applied for trademarks for six names: Thunder, Energy, Wind, Marshalls, Barons and Bison.

Oklahoma City television station KOCO has reported that the choice will be Thunder, but Bennett has refused to comment on what the name will be.

The former Seattle SuperSonics announced on July 2 that they would be moving to Oklahoma City.

The Associated Press: Oklahoma City NBA team to get name next week

OKC NBA team nickname to be announced Sept. 3 | NewsOK.com

By Mike Baldwin
Staff Writer
The wait is nearly over.

Oklahoma City’s NBA team is expected to announce Thunder will be the nickname at 5 p.m. next Wednesday, Sept. 3, when it releases the team name, its mark, the four team colors and logo at a press conference at Leadership Square.

Team officials would neither confirm nor deny whether Thunder is the nickname.

Team uniforms, home and road, won’t be announced until late September.

Team merchandise will be available on Wednesday following the announcement.

And don’t put any credence in uniform designs that have appeared on the Internet with Thunder logos. All designs have been speculative and have no affiliation with the NBA or Oklahoma City’s franchise.

All signs pointed to Thunder being the nickname when the NBA released the 2008-09 schedule earlier this month. For a few hours, if someone linked Oklahoma City on any of the team’s 82 games on the NBA’s master schedule, all links pointed to www.nba.com/thunder.

Later that day the Thunder URL was inactive.

The NBA filed trademark rights to six nicknames for Oklahoma City’s franchise in July, according to the U.S. patent and trademark office. Thunder was one of six names filed. The others were: Barons, Bison, Energy, Marshalls and Wind.

Thunder has been believed to be the nickname for more than a month after KOCO reported the company the NBA uses to file domain names purchased okcthunderbasketball.com on July 10.

Since Thunder is expected to be the nickname, there’s been speculation whether Oklahoma City’s NBA team would try to purchase domain names from a communications company in California, which has owned thunder.com and thunder.net since 1994.

That won’t be necessary.

The NBA owns rights to its Web site which would allow the league to link the Oklahoma City team’s Web site to the page: www.nba.com/thunder without infringing on the domain rights of the California company.

For example, jazz.com is a music Web site that currently features a story on whether hip-hop and jazz can mix, but THE OFFICIAL SITE OF THE UTAH JAZZ takes you to the Utah Jazz’s home page.

Thunder.net communications in July extended domain name rights through 2011. In a question and answer segment on the Web site, it was asked if the thunder domain names could be purchased.

The answer: “In case you thought you’re the first to ask, you’re 14 years too late. The answer has always been No. They’re not for sale. The domains are in use.”

A follow-up question suggested everyone has a price. The answer was: “You’d have a real challenge trying to convince an unmotivated party to sell. Sale prices in recent years indicate prime dictionary-based domain names are worth many millions, so your initial offer would have to break records for domain name sales prices.”

I've heard the color scheme will be a dark blue or royal blue with silver or white. That's just what I've heard.

__________________
...this shortest straw has been pulled for you

That sounds okay. Not the Black and Gold I was hoping for, but if true, it is much better than the red, white and blue scheme I had feared would be chosen.

Either way, I'm still wary of some of the enthusiasm getting lost in the football craze.

Its going to be the Barons.

My friends mom who did the balloons for the Hornets got hired to do the balloons for the announcement. She could be pulling my chain but she has been reliable on stuff in the past.

Interesting.

__________________
...this shortest straw has been pulled for you

I really like those colors of dark blue and silver/white...don't care for Energy nor Wind for the name...I can handle Barons, Marshalls, Thunder or Bison (in that order) just don't care for the wind and energy...jmo

If the dark blue and silver/white holds then my hopes for Energy might come true. With an announcement still a week away and uniforms a month out I don't think the name is Thunder. According to the media, Thunder has been the name for over a month. I think you could come up with a uniform in a lot less than 2 months. The media has been hood-winked with the Thunder links and leaks.

__________________
Oklahoma City - The surprise your family has been looking for.

Is there any way you can find out the color scheme for the celebration?

__________________
...this shortest straw has been pulled for you

If she also had inside info on Devon's tower being 925 ft tall, then I'm content with her announcement to you!

Worthy Cook I hope your mom is right!

Im sure they already know what its all gonna be

Why cant they just tell us?

Barons!

Barons!

Barons!

__________________
ProjectOKC.com

not my mom. friends mom who got hired to do balloon work. like i said, take it with a grain of salt. but it seemed pretty legit. either way I just want a damn name.

maybe the name WAS going to be thunder and purposedly leaked it to get responses. when all the negativeness and genericness (is that even a word) came out about it maybe they changed thier minds.

who knows though. finally glad this guessing game will be done.

Barons, Barons, Barons.

Notice how irresponsible the Daily Oklahoman was and has been all throughout this ordeal, trying to PUSH the name 'thunder' on its readers. Whereas, look at the AP story (first post here) and see it was STRICTLY THE NEWS.

Steve, is there ANY WAY you could provide feedback to the editor and the brass at the Oklahoman, that their reporting is so biased and subjective - that it gets in the way of REPORTING THE NEWS! See post 1 vs. post 2 in this thread, and tell me which is proper journalism and therefore preferred.

The whole article written by Mike Baldwin of the Oklahoman seemed like he's trying to push people to ACCEPT Thunder as the name, that it is so! - and yet not official tho. Come on, Im so tired of third grade reporting in OKC. Why couldn't Mike just write the story like the AP did - "OKC NBA expected to announce team name, colors, etc on Wednesday."

No speculation, no bias, no PUSH. JUST NEWS!!!!!

Anyways, tell the D-OK that the majority here on the forum (and that voted in the OKC business poll) like Oklahoma City Barons - maybe they can start PUSHING that.

__________________
Oklahoma City, RENAISSANCE CITY!

can someone give an example of what blue and silver would look like?

How hard is it to see that it is Thunder? You can still go to http://www.nba.com/thunder and get the blank page. If you go to any other site other than a team that already exists you get the page not found. Just try it and you will see that it still works.

Oh nooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Less than a week and the message traffic takes a dive because there will be such a dearth of matters to speculate and fret about. Whatever will we do, whatever will we do?!

It is possible the Thunder was a plant after KOCO reporting it's Thunder. Remember Bennett likes plural words with a "s" at the end. If the Thunder thing was a swerve, brilliant job on their part.

Having worked in the marketing field for 12 years now I can see whats going on.

They are using all the message boards, newspapers, etc. as a Focus Group. They want to have a name that is well accepted and liked. I am sure Bennet has someone reading these things everyday and reporting back our responses.

As for the website addresses.....It only takes minutes to change the code on the web server. All they have to do to change it over to the Barons is change one line of HTML. It is so easy to put up a temporary link to through everyone off.

Guess we will find out next week.

Well, I have credible info that it's the Thunder. I guess we cancel each other out.

I agree. I think it is plausable. Only time will tell. I agree, this could easily be a "focus group" test run to test market reaction. It's easy to set up a spoof link and change it on a moments notice, heck I can do it and I'm not an IT guy. I think there could still be a dark knight out there, 89ers. There old colors where white and blue with a hint of red. Bennett's basically already owns the name if I remember correctly. I think it nods to our history nicely and isn't too "hickish" for people that are too image conscious. OR this whole "leaking of info" could be intentional. As a marketing professional as well okc bel air, let's not forget the possibility of this being an intentional name leak and the value of building up hype through that means as well. The name could already be fixed as Thunder, like it or not.

Let's play this out a little if the "source" is reliable on the colors if they are blue, silver, and white. Potential Names: Thunder, Energy, Wind, Marshalls, Barons and Bison.

Thunder - possible, if going with a "lightning" theme.
Energy - very possible, especially with McClendon and his blue flame company
Wind - possible, doubtful because too lame of a name and easy setup for media jokes "The wind breaks lose", "OKC couldn't break wind tonight".
Marshalls - doubtful, name is not spelled commonly and no one really uses the term much
Barons - lame colors for mascot, name is doubtful given NBA stipulations and current situation
Bison - very doubtful, not likely to have a blue and silver bison
89ers - plausible, similar to past colors but possibly an image update, could be the dark knight name in all of this.

Haha Im sure your source was more credible. But I figured I would tell everyone what I heard cause it took me by surprise.

Thunder or Barons or whatever, it doesn't matter to me anymore.

I too have inside info that claims the name is Thunder. They also say the colors will be the dark blue with silver/white. I'm going with that. I like the colors and the name. I know certain people think we can't have a good mascot with that name....but if the Jazz can have a note, I think we can have a cloud with lightening coming out of it. The design looks sharp with the colors! And who doesn't want to chant AC/DC at a basketball game?!

That alone sold me.

You've been.....THUNDERSTRUCK!!!!