Originally published at: The Cleveland Indians new name, the Cleveland Guardians, already belongs to a roller derby team. So does the .com | Boing Boing
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That one time someone forgot to do a Google search…
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Pay them a couple million bucks to change the name. I bet that would be a huge infusion of cash into the league.
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Derpity Derp Derp!
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Pay them? Fuck, no. They’ll go straight to a lawsuit, you watch
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You’re probably right. 
But, I mean, who ever they have as a lawyer now sucks if they didn’t do basic research into the use of the name.
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All baseball teams redirect to mlb.com and cleavelandguardians.com does not come up. The roller derby team is on Facebook. Is this really a problem?
The other potential team names that were tossed around have already been taken as well. Cleveland Rockers, domain taken. Cleveland Spiders, domain taken. The Indians management probably anticipated this issue with The Guardians and knew it would cost some money. It’s just the cost of doing business. The easiest alternative would be to keep calling themselves the Indians but I hope to see them as The Guardians next season.
(Cleveland Guardian photo credit to Roger Mastrioanni)
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St. Louis used to have the Cardinals MLB and NFL teams. Having two different sports play with the same name in the same city isn’t that big of a deal. The domain name is maybe an issue, but doesn’t actually seem to be in use, so it seems like the baseball team could buy that from whoever owns it with no major problems. I’m not saying there won’t be problems because when egos and money show up people often act like jackasses, but this doesn’t have to be a big problem.
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How very Cleveland…
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So, “Cleveland Balloons” wasn’t available?
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Sure, it doesn’t come up if you spell it wrong. But clevelandguardians.com works fine.
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From a branding and marketing perspective you bet. Imagine how much more trouble the roller derby team would have selling tickets to their events without causing confusion.
I agree the simplest solution would be for the baseball people to pay the roller derby people several million dollars to change the name of the roller derby team if both parties were open to such an arrangement, but if not the baseball team should be the ones forced to change.
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It’s stories like this that just go to prove that titans of industry are mostly incompetent morons with more luck than business sense.
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Seriously, I can’t even. How did someone not check this first?!
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Maybe the roller derby team could pickup the Indians name and attract all the trump supporters that think it’s a travesty to change the name of the baseball team.
Man, roller derby in the 70s in Detroit. Kansas City Bombers, Fabulous Thunder Birds, and the Big Time Wrestling feeling with the managers and the fights. I remember late night tv at grandma’s house watching all the excitement and seeing it live whenever they came to town.
I did take my 80 year old dad and duaghter to see one last match up several years ago at Cobo Arena before they tore it down. It’s still fun to watch but it is more serious and not so fake anymore.
I hope the roller derby team gets some sort of monetary settlement to fund the sport for years to come.
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OK I can’t spell, I’ll admit it. A cheaper option would be to a more modest payment to the roller derby team for a front page link “Looking for the baseball team?..”
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Did they even do a search to see if “Cleveland Guardians” had already been trademarked? That seems like a more expensive issue than the domain name.
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To hell with the baseball team, I’m still trying to get over the fact that a roller derby team is mostly dudes. Somebody fetch me a fainting couch!!!
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