Could Oklahoma City land an NFL franchise?
Oklahoma City Roughnecks?
by Justin C. Cliburn
UPDATE: The winner of the design competition is the Oklahoma City Infantry submission by Shane Maddox and Anthony Wustenfeld.
In January 2014 I rambled about Super Bowl stories that interest me (few did other than the game itself). Somehow I ended up discussing what the chances were that Oklahoma City could one day land an NFL franchise, what the name should be, where they might play, and more.
For the record, I ended up settling on Roughnecks for the team mascot. But all that was buried in a post about the Super Bowl, so it was easily overlooked. So let's consider Oklahoma City's NFL chances in a page all its own.
I generally laugh at suggestions that the NFL would grant Oklahoma City a franchise, but I used to scoff at the prospects of a successful NBA team here too. Plus, a couple recent lists of potential NFL cities included OKC. It made me strongly consider what the authors of the lists saw and make the case for OKC. It's actually not a hard case to make. Sure, there are plenty of markets that are as deserving or more, but that's always the case. The slam dunks already have NFL teams (well, except for one), so why not OKC? After all, the OKC media market is larger than four current NFL cities. Well, here's the case for OKC:
UPDATE: The winner of the design competition is the Oklahoma City Infantry submission by Shane Maddox and Anthony Wustenfeld.
In January 2014 I rambled about Super Bowl stories that interest me (few did other than the game itself). Somehow I ended up discussing what the chances were that Oklahoma City could one day land an NFL franchise, what the name should be, where they might play, and more.
For the record, I ended up settling on Roughnecks for the team mascot. But all that was buried in a post about the Super Bowl, so it was easily overlooked. So let's consider Oklahoma City's NFL chances in a page all its own.
I generally laugh at suggestions that the NFL would grant Oklahoma City a franchise, but I used to scoff at the prospects of a successful NBA team here too. Plus, a couple recent lists of potential NFL cities included OKC. It made me strongly consider what the authors of the lists saw and make the case for OKC. It's actually not a hard case to make. Sure, there are plenty of markets that are as deserving or more, but that's always the case. The slam dunks already have NFL teams (well, except for one), so why not OKC? After all, the OKC media market is larger than four current NFL cities. Well, here's the case for OKC:
Cover32 listed 10 possible NFL cities on page two of its article discussing which NFL teams should relocate. EliteDaily listed 10 potential NFL cities in November 2013. And both lists include Oklahoma City. Further, Nate Silver at the incomparable FiveThirtyEight.com, estimates there are over 270,000 hardcore NFL fans in Oklahoma City. And that's not counting OKC's future growth and its proximity to other unrepresented markets.
The OIL is made up primarily of Oklahomans, so we know how much OKC has grown. An NFL team would be fantastic from a personal standpoint. And it's not a stretch to think it would attract season ticket holders from:
The OIL is made up primarily of Oklahomans, so we know how much OKC has grown. An NFL team would be fantastic from a personal standpoint. And it's not a stretch to think it would attract season ticket holders from:
- Wichita (closer to OKC than to Kansas City; metro population: over 600,000);
- Tulsa (metro population: over 900,000); and
- Fort Smith (closer to OKC than to NFL cities Kansas City, New Orleans, Dallas, and Nashville; metro population: over 290,000) to the north and east; and
- Ardmore (metro population: over 50,000);
- Lawton/Fort Sill (closer to OKC than Dallas; metro population: over 120,000);
- Wichita Falls (equal distance to OKC and Dallas; metro population: over 150,000);
- Amarillo (closer to OKC than to Dallas or Denver; metro population: over 230,000);
- and the whole of western Oklahoma to the south and west.
That's a pool of over 3.5 million people to sell tickets. And when you tally the populations of Oklahoma as a state, Fort Smith/Van Buren, and the Amarillo, Wichita, and Wichita Falls metros, the number comes to over 4.9 million potential ticket-buyers. Are you telling me savvy marketers in charge of an NFL franchise couldn't sell 50,000 tickets in a market that large?
Plus, while Little Rock is over four hours east of Oklahoma City, it and its 893,000 metro inhabitants are still closer to OKC than to NFL cities Dallas, Nashville, Kansas City, New Orleans, and St. Louis. And Oklahoma is home to U.S. Air Force bases in Altus, Enid, and Midwest City, and the home of the U.S. Army's FIRES Center at Fort Sill. Wichita and Wichita Falls also house U.S. Air Force bases. Soldiers and Airmen from all over the country live here because of those installations. No matter the opponent, an NFL game is bound to attract fans of the opposing franchise to centrally-located Oklahoma City.
Oklahoma City
Classic Oilers helmet.
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 AHL's Proposed Roughnecks logo
What would be the name of this hypothetical NFL franchise? Cover32 listed the Raiders as a good candidate to relocate to Oklahoma City and retain its name, but I just don't see it. If the Adams family would allow it, I'd love to see a resurrection of the Oilers moniker.
The Oilers look was a classic part of the AFL and NFL for 60 years. |
But then Bud Adams moved the franchise to Nashville, changed the mascot to Titans, and took the Oilers trademark and history with him. The Titans still hold the rights to the Oilers name and, if they wouldn't sell those rights to the new Houston franchise back in 2002, odds are an Oklahoma City-based ownership group doesn't stand a chance.
Oklahoma City's AHL franchise.
The AHL's OKC Barons have a great logo, but that name is taken. It looks as if they strongly considered Roughnecks before settling on Barons. So, what about Roughnecks? I'd be partial to that name. I like team mascots that say something about the people the teams represent.
And for an OKC NFL team to succeed it will have to speak to the area as a whole.
And for an OKC NFL team to succeed it will have to speak to the area as a whole.
The people of Oklahoma, north and west Texas, Kansas, and west Arkansas can all relate to the name Roughnecks. No matter what your ties are to the oil and gas industry, no one questions the toughness of roughnecks. And we all know how integral the discovery and mining of oil and gas in Oklahoma was to the development of our state.
Apparently, a reality show called "Roughnecks" will premiere soon. Click the image for more info.
According to its Wikipedia entry, "Roughneck is a slang term for a person whose occupation is hard-manual labor, typically in a dangerous working environment. The term is most commonly associated with oil rigs. The ideal of the hard-working, tough roughneck has been adopted by several sports teams who use the phrase as part of their name or logo." Yeah, I think the people of this region could get behind Roughneck.
 Devon Energy
Plus, the major corporate sponsors in Oklahoma would love the name. Think of the branding and marketing opportunities sponsors like Chesapeake and Devon would jump all over. I'm sure Chesapeake would pay for the team to advertise that its stadium is run exclusively on natural gas. And Love's would covet the opportunity to advertise that all Roughneck vehicles are powered exclusively by Love's CNG.
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Headquartered in Oklahoma City
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Oil field workers all across the region would identify with Roughnecks and feel "ownership" of the name. And everyone in this region knows how hard roughnecks work. It would be Oklahoma's Packers, Steelers or 49ers. Like the Steelers, the Roughnecks would evoke an immediate affinity because of the history of the name. It would not be like creating a typical team identity from the ground up. But now I'm getting ahead of myself.
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I'd love to see it happen. And the Thunder has shown that we have the corporate sponsors to support a professional sports franchise. The question is if we have enough to cover two, though. And you'd be naïve to think the Thunder ownership group would welcome an NFL team in their market. They would lobby and fight like hell to keep one away.
SandRidge is yet another Oklahoma-based energy company.
That's not meant to denigrate the Thunder ownership group. Resisting competition for consumers is the smart business decision. Plus, the Thunder could always threaten to relocate if it's not the only game in town. It's not like it hasn't happened before.
We love the Thunder, but would the Thunder love competition?
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But would the powers-that-be in Norman and Stillwater block an NFL team from competing with the Sooners and Cowboys for football fans, season ticket holders, and merchandise sales?
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Football is big business for both schools. OU has been OKC's de facto pro football team up until now (although OSU has made a recent run at the title). It's not crazy to consider what role the state's two largest universities would play in the politics surrounding an NFL expansion franchise.
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 The sour grapes submissions were the best.
And where would a stadium even go? Who would pay for it? Would tax-hating Oklahoma vote to fund an NFL-caliber stadium? According to one article, a three-year extension of the MAPS3 sales tax could fund an NFL-caliber stadium. These are all questions that require serious consideration before anyone can think of the NFL in Oklahoma City as a foregone conclusion. So, for now, my dream of an NFL franchise in Oklahoma City is just that: a dream. Still, I wish UniWatch would run some sort of logo/uniform design contest for my hypothetical Roughnecks (like it did for what became the Thunder).
To the left is a representation of Andrew Krause's Roughnecks design used by Yancy Baldwin's Roughnecks franchise in the OIL. Looks pretty good, huh? Click here to see other OIL franchises "in action." |
Designing the Roughnecks
Here are submissions we received for a hypothetical NFL franchise in Oklahoma City:
If you enjoyed this piece, check out the oral history of our league's greatest rivalry.
- Tom Bierbaum's 89ers submission.
- David Firestone's Crazy Eights submission.
- Blake Campbell's Roughnecks submission.
- George Burnett's Spirits submission.
- Keith Good's Roughnecks submission.
- Skott Schoonover's Roughnecks submission.
- Andrew Seagraves's Rattlers submission.
- Lennie Nelson's Roughnecks submission.
- Andrew Seagraves's Roughnecks submission.
- Shane Maddox's and Anthony Wustenfeld's Infantry submission.
- Craig Priestley's Untitled submission.
- OIL Manager Yancy Baldwin's Roughnecks franchise.
If you enjoyed this piece, check out the oral history of our league's greatest rivalry.
Other Links on the Subject
Oklahoman and former NFL quarterback Rusty Hilger has a few posts of his own on the subject at his site:
