Hawaii Hurricanes - UPDATE!

The ABA keeps on chugging away adding teams all willy-nilly and hoping that at least a handful of them make it beyond the first week of the season. The latest sucker to join the party is Honolulu's Andrew Moss, the new owner of the ABA's most far-flung and travel budget busting basketball team. Yeah, good luck with that. I wonder how many teams will actually make the trip out to Honolulu when most of them struggle to get to their game at the middle school gymnasium down the street.

Hawaii has hosted ABA basketball once before. The Hawaii Mega Force lasted all of two games during the 2005 seasons. The players were never paid and the owner, Orrys Williams, was banned from the league by Joe Newman himself (although I'm sure he would be reinstated and championed by Joe if he would just cough up some cash).

The Mega Force left doom and gloom and destruction on the face of paradise's professional basketball scene, so in an attempt to distance themselves from that destruction and to put a happy face on the return of basketball, Moss decided to go with a positive team name that would brighten everybody's day. A team name that suggests good times ahead and great things to come. A team name that...Oh who am I kidding, they called the damn team the f-ing Hawaii Hurricanes. You know, a big, destructive, killer storm that rips through an island leaving nothing but a mess behind it. Or, as I like to call it, the perfect metaphor.

And to top it off, they designed a logo showing a big ABA basketball ready to brutalize the islands. I mean seriously, if this team tanks and leaves a slew of unpaid bills, ripped off ticket holders and conned investors in it's wake like it is destined to do, when his day in court comes, all Moss will have to do is point to the logo and say "we warned you!" Personally, I think all ABA teams should change their name to Hurricanes. It just works so well.

You know why I know the Hawaii Hurricanes won't survive? Because according to their logo, they will be playing with a ball that has all sorts of hard angles and points. Dribbling that ball is going to be one hell of an adventure. Nobody is going to pay to see that.


UPDATE - 10/16 - Hey Hawaii...don't make me say I told you so. From the Honolulu Advertiser...

"The Hawai'i Hurricanes professional basketball team has been downgraded before it even hit the Islands. After several "shady" business deals by Hurricanes owner Andrew Moss, ownership of the Hawai'i franchise was transferred to a group of investors called Pacific Rim Inc. yesterday."

Gee, what a surprise. Shady business deals from an ABA owner? The whole ABA is a shady business deal. What a joke.

Why don't people do some research before they join the league, buy season tickets or sponsorships or commit to coach or work or even play in this league. The general rule is "you are going to get screwed" and then you should be surprised if you don't.

It's to the point where I don't have any sympathy for anybody who associates themselves with the ABA. The broken promises are par for the course. Quit getting suckered.


Team: Hawaii Hurricanes
League: American Basketball Association
Location: Honolulu, Hawaii
Arena: Neal Blaisdell Center

Chaminade University Silverswords

Quick question for all the logo designers out there. What would you ask in return to design a new logo and brand for a Division II college that gets a lot of national exposure for one week each season? Would a trip to Maui, tickets to the Maui Invitational and $200 spending money do it for you?

Well if it does, then I have good news for you. Chaminade University in Honolulu is holding a contest to design their new athletics logo. The winner gets everything above or $500 in cash. The contest is open to anyone 18 years or older and submissions must be received by September 1st.

If you decide to take the challenge, you have quite a bit to work with. I love the Silverswords as a nickname and the possible imagery that you can derive from that name, both abstract and literal, is endless.

On the literal end, the Silversword is a beautiful plant that grows only on Maui's volcano Haleakala that only blooms once every twenty years with one big flower. But one of the requirements is that the logo have the possibility in the future of a mascot tie-in so they are basically asking for an abstraction of the literal.

I'd be willing to bet, or at least hoping, that what they are looking for is a mixture of both done in a classy, conservative, Hawaiian way.

But is the reward enough to get what they are looking for? This is a pretty good opportunity for a young, up-and-coming or, perhaps, amateur designer, but I doubt that many professionals will be lining up for the opportunity. Maybe I'm wrong. I might take a stab at it just for kicks. It's enough of a reward for me but I know I won't win.

No matter what happens, it will be an improvement over what they use now. Notice that I didn't add a logo to this post? That's because they don't really have one. They just use the university crest when needed.

For more information, here's the press release and here's the PDF flyer. If you do submit a logo for the contest, I would love to see it. I swear that I won't share it with anybody.


Team: Chaminade University Silverswords
League: Pacific West Conference - incidentally, one of my favorite league logos
Location: Honolulu, Hawaii - Not Lahaina like I thought when I visited Maui. You should have seen the look on the lady in Lahaina's face when I asked her where the college was. They just play the tournament there.

Hawaii Hurricanes

The ABA keeps on chugging away adding teams all willy-nilly and hoping that at least a handful of them make it beyond the first week of the season. The latest sucker to join the party is Honolulu's Andrew Moss, the new owner of the ABA's most far-flung and travel budget busting basketball team. Yeah, good luck with that. I wonder how many teams will actually make the trip out to Honolulu when most of them struggle to get to their game at the middle school gymnasium down the street.

Hawaii has hosted ABA basketball once before. The Hawaii Mega Force lasted all of two games during the 2005 seasons. The players were never paid and the owner, Orrys Williams, was banned from the league by Joe Newman himself (although I'm sure he would be reinstated and championed by Joe if he would just cough up some cash).

The Mega Force left doom and gloom and destruction on the face of paradise's professional basketball scene, so in an attempt to distance themselves from that destruction and to put a happy face on the return of basketball, Moss decided to go with a positive team name that would brighten everybody's day. A team name that suggests good times ahead and great things to come. A team name that...Oh who am I kidding, they called the damn team the f-ing Hawaii Hurricanes. You know, a big, destructive, killer storm that rips through an island leaving nothing but a mess behind it. Or, as I like to call it, the perfect metaphor.

And to top it off, they designed a logo showing a big ABA basketball ready to brutalize the islands. I mean seriously, if this team tanks and leaves a slew of unpaid bills, ripped off ticket holders and conned investors in it's wake like it is destined to do, when his day in court comes, all Moss will have to do is point to the logo and say "we warned you!" Personally, I think all ABA teams should change their name to Hurricanes. It just works so well.

You know why I know the Hawaii Hurricanes won't survive? Because according to their logo, they will be playing with a ball that has all sorts of hard angles and points. Dribbling that ball is going to be one hell of an adventure. Nobody is going to pay to see that.

Team: Hawaii Hurricanes
League: American Basketball Association
Location: Honolulu, Hawaii
Arena: Neal Blaisdell Center

North Shore Honu

Hi everybody! I've been off in my hometown of Olympia, Washington for a wedding over the last week or more (click here to read my toast). The family in Oly has dialup, really, really slow dialup even, so posting was interrupted.

So I'm just now getting to the big news that the Hawaii Winter Baseball League is back. I was always very much in love with the idea of the HWB, small ballparks in little Hawaiian towns featuring exciting, international talent. Is there anything better than baseball in paradise?

Well, the new HWB isn't quite the same. There are four teams based on Oahu playing in two ballparks. The Waikiki BeachBoys and the Honolulu Sharks will play their home games at the cavernous Les Murakami Stadium at the University of Hawaii while the West Oahu CaneFires (great name!) and the North Shore Honu (above) play at little tiny, decrepit Hans L'Orange Field.

It will be interesting to see how the locals react to having two teams based out of the same ballpark. How would you choose who to support? The HWB before was localized with teams in Maui, Kauai, Hilo and Honolulu, each team had it's own community to draw from. Obviously, the HWB is not shooting for local fan pride like it may have dreamed of before, but I hope that they can sustain some success and eventually expand. I would love to see a league of four to six teams in Hawaii fighting for their area's pride each winter. It has (or once had) the potential for greatness.

My favorite logo in the HWB is the North Shore Honu (although the CaneFires is cool too). A little constructive criticism from my wife though. The last thing she thinks of when she thinks of a turtle is a scowl. She says get rid of the scowling turtle and she would love it. I'm with her there. I just hope the team uses the turtle that they use as the "O" in Honu on their caps. I will be all over that.

And throw us a bone here. Bring back the Maui Stingrays, if only so I can finally get a cap. I always wanted a Stingrays cap, and you seemed to be able to buy one anywhere, but I never purchased one. I've been bummed about it for years.