ABA - River City Ballers

Post by **Coyote** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 6:53 pm

OMAHA/COUNCIL BLUFFS TO HAVE ABA EXPANSION TEAM

What a horrible name.

Minneapolis Boy · Post by **Minneapolis Boy** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 7:05 pm

Yeah, the name is horrible! Why not something like the Expedition or Explorers that relate to Lewis & Clark's "Corps of Discovery" expedition/journey? I can hear the chants now: "We've got balls, yes we do. We've got balls how 'bout you?"

Swift · Post by **Swift** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 7:24 pm

River City, that means it's in Council Bluffs right?

Post by **Coyote** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 7:34 pm

Swift wrote:River City, that means it's in Council Bluffs right?

On Sports Radio this morning they announced that a venue has yet to be chosen and that an announcement will be coming soon in the next few days. I am guessing that it will be in CB - they have been using Omaha/Council Bluffs as the designation city.

GoWest · Post by **GoWest** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 7:38 pm

I don't like River City and I don't like the Ballers. There is no River City in the area and Ballers sounds kind of rough and perverted.

OmahaRules · Post by **OmahaRules** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 7:47 pm

There is no River City in the area and Ballers sounds kind of rough and perverted.

Reminds me of my ex-gf rough and perverted. But seriously why waste the time with this? I see no support for it but maybe I am wrong!

Swift · Post by **Swift** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 7:49 pm

I don't understand this....flood the market with minor leauge teams and watch half of them fail, then use that as evidence that we can't support a (one) major league team.

Post by **Coyote** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 7:49 pm

This league is full of stupid names and only a few acceptable names.

(West)
Bellevue Blackhawks
Calgary Drillers
Fresno Heatwave
Las Vegas Rattlers
Long Beach Jam
Los Angeles Stars
Ontario Warriors
Orange County Crush
Portland Reign
Dragones de Tijuana
Utah Snowbears

(Central)
Arkansas Rimrockers
Cincinatti Blaze
Colorado Storm
Kansas City Knights
Kentucky Colonels
Louisiana Cajun Pelicans
Detroit Wheels
St. Louis Rotts
Texas Tycoons

(East)
Atlanta Vision
Boston Frenzy
Carolina Thunder
Reigning Knights of Georgia
Harlem
Jacksonville Wave
Maryland Nighthawks
Mississippi
Nashville Rhythm
New Jersey Skycats
Philadelphia Fusion
Pennsylvania Pit Bulls

Post by **Brad** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 10:19 pm

The "ballers" will fit in with those teriable names. Also River City will not work for a sports team(example lancers), Omaha and CB want teams named after the home city. Anyways who watches basketball, I was a little young but what was the crowd size like at the racers games?

OmahaRules · Post by **OmahaRules** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 10:25 pm

At least they are kind of different from the norm...thats about all I can say for most of those names.
I like the Fresno name though.......kinda.

eomaha · Post by **eomaha** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 10:58 pm

I don't think they could have blown the name any more. Geez... why not go with the Racers if nothing else (or does someone own this name too?)... Council Bluffs' could have tied it in with the dog track.

flyOMA · Post by **flyOMA** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 11:05 pm

Seriously...Add this to the already rich list of stupid team names in Omaha history. So, we can cheer on our Omaha BEEF and our River City BALLERS...Beefy balls?

Whoever started this "River City" naming nonsense needs to be smacked in the head. "River City" and Tri-City" are names that can apply to hundreds of areas around the country, yet, Nebraska takes full advantage of the originality these names have never possessed.

Bring back the Racers!

eomaha · Post by **eomaha** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 11:16 pm

Now as it happens... I LIKE the Beef.

omahastylee459 · Post by **omahastylee459** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 11:52 pm

I would have to say my favorite name is the Louisiana Cajun Pelicans. Sooooo....do they eat the pelicans then? Are they cajun flavored? I definitely agree with you guys, they need to drop the name River City. Ballers is a stupid slang word but will probably catch on, its better than some of those names. I barely remember the Racers, but I remember going to the games a few times. What ever happened to that league?

Post by **Coyote** » Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:04 am

ABA franchise headed for Omaha

Even though Qwest, Civic, and Mid-America have dates filled - they are still optimistic about finding a venue. Maybe they can play at UNO.

almighty_tuna · Post by **almighty_tuna** » Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:12 am

Orange County Crush....clever...

*I got my basketball, I got my Orange County Cruuuush*

Post by **Brad** » Wed Apr 27, 2005 9:11 pm

One of my jobs is at a sports bar bartending. No one liked the Ballers name. Most favored the racers name comming back. The other suggestion was to try to pick local talent like former Creighton and NU players for the roster to create local interest.

Alt(Bayern)München · Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:44 pm

"What ever happened to that league?"

The RACERS were also ABA...
Steve Idelman, owner of Idelman Telemarkemarketing, was the owner. He was losing money, he wanted more local businesses to buy season tickets to help cover his costs, he threatened to shut down the team if he did not sell a certain number of tickets by a certain date...he didn't come close and the team folded.

Post by **Brad** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 12:01 am

Alt(Bayern)München wrote

The RACERS were also ABA...

The racers were in the CBA

Alt(Bayern)München · Thu Apr 28, 2005 12:12 am

Your right (too many minor leagues coming & going!),
I just dug out some old programs, etc from the RACERS & LANCERS days at the AK.

Big E · Post by **Big E** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 8:01 am

Anyone remember going to the Racers' games at Ak? I was in the little pep band they had above the entrance, circa 94-95. That was me and some buddies from Burke going down there for free tickets and pizza. Not a bad deal when you're 14.

-E

icejammer · Post by **icejammer** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 9:14 am

Swift wrote:River City, that means it's in Council Bluffs right?

What's with the rolling eyes? For most people in Omaha, it's roughly the same distance to the Qwest or MAC, so I don't see this as a problem for the team, wherever they decide to have games.

As to the name, personally I'm glad the River City is in there, as I'm sure most folks around here wouldn't want BALLERS attached to their city's name. Geesh!

Swift · Post by **Swift** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 11:41 am

I just hate the euphemism, if you're going to be in CB, just call it the CB Ballers!

Post by **Coyote** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 11:53 am

Since when has Omaha/Council Bluffs wanted to be known as River City or River Cities fo that matter? I don't know how long AkSarBen has been running the River City Roundup and I'm sure people have referred any city on a river as the River City, but who is responsible for O/CB receiving this moniker?

loyalomahan · Post by **loyalomahan** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 12:21 pm

Swift wrote:
River City, that means it's in Council Bluffs right?

What's with the rolling eyes? For most people in Omaha, it's roughly the same distance to the Qwest or MAC, so I don't see this as a problem for the team, wherever they decide to have games.

I have no problem with the 'River City Roundup' name. It sounds better than 'Omaha Roundup'.

But using 'River City' in this case (and that of the Lancers) is/was just a way to appease the people of Council Bluffs with it being hosted by their arena while attempting to not disassociate themselves from the much more important Omaha market overall. Last I looked though, the New York Giants were still the New York Giants even playing in New Jersey's 'Meadowlands'.

I personally have no problem with the Mid America Center hosting some of our sports franchises. It is a fantastic facility and as icejammer said, is just as convenient to most Omahans as downtown.

But the franchise should carry the 'Omaha' name. That's where the vast majority of fans will be coming from, that is the locale which the team represents. And calling it 'Council Bluffs' would would undermine the geographic importance of the franchise ('River City' has the same effect... leaving people scratching their heads just as we do when we see 'Round Rock' playing the Omaha Royals... they're a freaking suburb of Austin?!)

Post by **Omaha Cowboy** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 12:17 am

I totally agree loyalomahan!..

..Ciao..LiO....Peace

icejammer · Post by **icejammer** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 8:34 am

loyalomahan wrote:But using 'River City' in this case (and that of the Lancers) is/was just a way to appease the people of Council Bluffs with it being hosted by their arena while attempting to not disassociate themselves from the much more important Omaha market overall.

That may have been true with the Lancers originally (which was silly, imo), but I don't think a venue has been selected for the BB team yet, so it may be a little premature to assume 'River City' was selected to appease one segment of the metro over another.

loyalomahan wrote:But the franchise should carry the 'Omaha' name. That's where the vast majority of fans will be coming from, that is the locale which the team represents. And calling it 'Council Bluffs' would would undermine the geographic importance of the franchise ('River City' has the same effect... leaving people scratching their heads just as we do when we see 'Round Rock' playing the Omaha Royals... they're a freaking suburb of Austin?!)

Frankly, I generally don't care what it's called, and neither should anyone else. There's no sense in being territorial over a team's name, or what it should be. Though it's not quite the same - just look at the Royals when they switched the name to Golden Spikes; some people actually stopped going to games just because the name was changed - that's just plain nuts. It was the same team, same players, same big league affiliation, just a different name. I don't care if the Royals are playing Round Rock or Austin or Central Texas - I'm going to the game to watch the Royals.

And like I said before, if they're going to call the team Ballers, please, oh please, let's use River City rather than Omaha or Council Bluffs. Please.