Talk:Spokane Empire

Merger proposal
I propose that Spokane Shock be merged into Spokane IFL team. The team itself has said they will be retaining the Shock's history (though they have to find a new name). Similar to how the Amarillo Dusters history is kept by the Amarillo Venom and the Arkansas Twisters history by the Texas Revolution (in similar AF2 cases), the IFL team is still the same franchise, only with different marks. We can revisit this IF the Shock brand ever comes back to the AFL. Tom Danson (talk) 15:55, 20 October 2015 (UTC)


 * Agreed: There is no reason for this there to be a new article when the team maintains the same ownership and history DMC511 16:32, 20 October 2015 (UTC)


 * Disagreed: Unfortunately, the Arena Football League owns the rights to the Spokane Shock name and do not want ANY ties with the new Spokane IFL team. Neither does current franchise owner Nader Naini.  The two sides had been in discussions with regards to Naini's group purchasing the rights to the name, logo, identity, etc., but could not come to terms.  The league is believed to have wanted $250,000 for the naming rights which Naini's group refused to pay.  So as a result, the league retained the rights and wants no ties with the current franchise.  Sources close to me say that the Shock is still technically an AFL franchise, owned by the AFL and a merger between the two Wikipedia articles would not be in the best interest.  NostalgiaBuff97501 (talk) 16:49, 20 October 2015 (UTC)
 * So is that a Disagree? Also, from the team press release here: "Nonetheless, our history will remain as a part of the community..." There they said it themselves...their history will remain.  Tom Danson (talk) 16:58, 20 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Mr. Naini does not understand how things work in today's AFL. ALL team histories, name, logos, identities, etc. are the intellectual property of the Arena Football League unless someone purchases the rights to them.  The Iowa Barnstormers were mainstays for 20 years in the AFL until Jeff Lamberti moved the franchise to the IFL.  He also offered to purchase the trademarks and did so.  He also had the options of keeping the past history of the AFL with the current franchise after the purchase, which he did.  Mr. Naini refused to pay what the AFL was asking and, in a sense, relinquished the rights to the history of the Spokane Shock back to the AFL, thus giving the AFL an option of either starting a new franchise with the name and trademarks or relocating it.  Therefore, Mr. Naini can not add the Shock history to his current IFL franchise's history due to the subsequent relinquishment of the identity and the new IFL franchise in Spokane is essentially an expansion team.  The AFL is all about politics now.  It's not a fans' league any longer, so everything is up to the AFL in this case and they exercised their rights to retain the trademarks and history of the Spokane Shock.  NostalgiaBuff97501 (talk) 20:35, 20 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Whatever the case may be, the press release says the IFL team is retaining the Shock's history (though the name, logo and colors are staying with the AFL). In that case, how do you think we should handle the Amarillo Venom and Texas Revolution histories? Tom Danson (talk) 13:19, 21 October 2015 (UTC)
 * If the team can't be known as the Shock and has no rights to Shock intellectual property, then it isn't a continuation of the Shock as much as it might like to be and therefore the articles should NOT be merged. 2600:1004:B14F:C56D:D2C:FC68:E12E:40A6 (talk) 04:03, 30 November 2015 (UTC)