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November 13, 2006
Dyno-mite!
I know all of you are huge soccer fans, so you probably know that the Houston Dynamo won this year's MLS Cup yesterday. This turn of events reminded me of an interesting piece of news.
Before this year, the Houston Dynamo were known as the San Jose Earthquakes, but moved to Houston when they couldn't get a stadium deal. A contest was held to pick a name for the new team, and the contest winner was Houston 1836, a reference to the year the Republic of Texas was founded. (Some European soccer teams name themselves after the year they were founded.)
A lot of Texans thought the name was cool, as 1836 was an important year for Texas. Unfortunately, a segment of Texas was pissed off about the name - that is, Hispanics who didn't like the reference to the war which freed Texas from Mexico in humiliating fashion. I guess they are still sore about that. Enough people raised a stink that Houston decided to rename the team Dynamo, a la other soccer clubs, and leave it at that.
Needless to say, a whole group of people then went off and complained about how this is a victory for political correctness over common sense, and Houston Dynamo execs were pansies for bowing to all the pressure.
So here is my question: are Houston Dynamo officials PC-jackoffs because they didn't want to offend a large segment of their audience, Hispanics? Or, should I frame the question like this: are they idiots because they bowed to the pressure of politically correct whining? Personally I think it was a perfectly good move to change the name. There is no use in choosing a name that has negative connotations to the very people you depend on for support. (For example, when the Columbus Bluejackets NHL team started off in Columbus, a lot of people complained because blue was also the color of their hated rival, Michigan. Imagine that... the whole color of blue is a no-no in Columbus!)
Posted by oz115 at November 13, 2006 05:46 PM