EP Triple-A team GM explains “odd” choice of names

El Paso Triple-A team’s ownership group revealed the five finalists for the team name on Thursday. They are the Aardvarks, Buckaroos, Chihuahuas, Desert Gators, and Sun Dogs.

El Pasoans were slightlyslightly surprised by the choices. On the ABC-7 Facebook page we received over 700 comments, most of them, negative.

But the team’s General Manager Brad Taylor told ABC-7, that’s a good thing.

“I think the volume in which they have shared their opinions over the last day in a half shows that this is important to them,” Taylor said.

Taylor says he received over 5,600 submissions for names, when the average usually hovers around 3,000.

“Last night there was a game seven, NBA final,” Taylor said. “And what everyone was talking about this morning was what was the name of our team going to be.”

Speaking of the NBA finals, lots of our viewers like the El Paso Heat, or the El Paso Padres.

“No disrespect to the Padres, but they’re the Padres. Lets be something else,” Taylor said.

The names chosen are the final choices. But get excited, Taylor said.It was a mixture of the team’s ownership, management, consultants and the branding company that decided on the final five.
And branding is the key word. These names have to be usable, and a name they can trademark. It will be on hats and sold on shirts. And the possibilities are endless.

“You can’t just look at letters on a shirt,or letters on a paper,” Taylor said. “You have to get the whole package that comes with it. And I think if you look deep enough and really open your mind and really use your imagination like kids do, that’s when you can start seeing the good things that happen with all this stuff.”

The teams ownership tells ABC-7 they have already both the website domains for each of the final choices.

People have until June 27th to cast their vote. People can vote once per day at ElPasoTripleA.com.