Sorry Thunder But OKC Blue Just Blows

By Randy Renner

It's official now the Oklahoma City Thunder's D-League team is going to be called the Oklahoma City Blue.

The Oklahoma City...Blue.

A team named after a color.

I wrote a few weeks ago when our friends at ThunderObsessed.com found evidence in a trade mark filing that Blue would likely be the new nickname of the 66ers that I didn't much like it. I didn't really see a need to change the name from 66ers quite honestly. I mean Route 66 runs through OKC too in fact as the old song says, "Oklahoma City looks mighty pretty...when you get your kicks on Route 66."

But if a change had to be made, I thought Lightning was pretty good, you know before Thunder there's Lightning.

I could have even gone for Blues. Back in the day the Deep Deuce area of Oklahoma City was known for it's great jazz and blues clubs. But the Thunder, and its D-League team, aren't about the blues. They're more about the BLUE.

I guess I really just don't care for singular team nicknames, like Heat, Storm, Galaxy, Magic. I didn't much care for Thunder either but it's grown on me.

One thing you can about Blue, it's truly a unique nickname among pro sports franchises. No other pro team in the major or minor leagues (that I could anyway) is named the Blue.

Now the Piscataway, New Jersey franchise of the National Women's Soccer League (see extensive research) comes mighty close they're called the Sky Blue FC, but no other team is just plain Blue.

Of course the Thunder brass who came up with Blue as the nickname for the D-League team don't think of the name as "just Blue" they don't think of it as just a color.

Here is the portion of the official press release with an explanation of why Blue was chosen.

"Blue is one of our primary Thunder colors, but it has become more than just a color for us. It has come to represent the passion, loyalty and unity of our fans and our community in their support for our team. Our players wear it proudly on their uniforms, our fans sport Thunder blue shirts, Thunder blue flags fly across Oklahoma and our statewide Blue Alliance fan groups show their connection to our team and what it stands for," said Brian Byrnes, Thunder senior vice president of Sales and Marketing.

 "It is only fitting that our development team, which is such an integral part of our organization, be called the Blue to represent the cohesion it has with the Thunder. We think this new name accurately reflects the enhanced unity between the two teams, which are now geographically and philosophically aligned in Oklahoma City and focused on development."

So there you have it. I'm guessing blue will be a primary color in the Blue's uniforms (which will be revealed later).

The logo is out though (kind of a bluer version of the Thunder logo) and so is information on ticket pricing. Most of the Blue (Blue's? see the problem I have with singular nicknames?) home games will be played at the Cox Center, although four of them will be at Chesapeake Energy Arena.

You can visit the team's website by clicking here and you'll find out how to BLUE UP or get your BLUE on, let's just hope the team never gets BLUEN out.

Okay I'm done now.