Hockey betting fans have plenty to look forward to this upcoming season, but one thing in particular sticks out. As is common knowledge by now the NHL will be expanding into Las Vegas. Everybody who is into sports betting knows Sin City will be getting its very own professional hockey team. With the recent hiring the owners have been making the management aspect of the new club is finally starting to take shape. On top of that it seems the franchise is finally getting ready to select its own name. Bill Foley is the majority owner of the new Vegas team and his company Black Knight Sports & Entertainment have been the frontrunners in bringing an expansion team to Nevada. Earlier this week that same company registered several different domain names, giving hockey betting enthusiasts some insight into the final decision for the name of this NHL expansion team.
The majority of the media were expecting the name to include the word ‘knight’ in homage to the founding company. The Black Knights, the Silver Knights, or Red Knights were some of the more popular guesses being thrown around. However it seems that they have elected to use a homonym of knight instead. The most notable of the 3 registered domain names is the ‘Nighthawks’ alongside ‘Desert Hawks’ and ‘Red Hawks’. Foley wanted to originally use the name Black Knights to pay homage to his alma mater, the United States Military Academy. With this in mind it’s not unreasonable to assume that the company will be leaning towards ‘Nighthawks’.
“It’s not Black Knights, that’s been vetted, and there were too many objections from my alma mater [West Point],” Foley elaborated on the naming decisions on Sportsbook Radio. “But the name is going to have Knights somewhere in some fashion, some way. Or, there’s one particular animal, a bird, that we have available to use that we might use.”
Foley’s comments validate the assumptions currently floating around in the media. While the name has been narrowed down to three candidates, there are still some uncertainties regarding what the expansion team will be officially called. For example, it’s still uncertain whether ‘Nighthawks’ will be one word or two. There are also still some questions regarding what will precede ‘Nighthawks’. The organization will have to make up its mind to either go with ‘Las Vegas’ or simply ‘Vegas’ because both options are still currently on the table.
The name ‘Nighthawks’ would be fitting for a Las Vegas team as a nighthawk is a bird native to the Nevada region. The most notable thing about this bird is that the undersides of its wings feature a solid white stripe, making it a beautiful sight to observe mid-flight. Ironically, most hockey jerseys feature a solid white stripe and having a bird that shares this feature as their logo would lead to some pretty interesting jerseys.
Sticking to the military theme a Lockheed Nighthawk is a military fighter jet famous for making its maiden flight (the first time an aircraft leaves the ground) in Nevada. The team has yet to announce a formal decision and this is more than likely due to the legal loopholes they have to jump through. ‘Redhawks’ is already being used by the University of Miami (OH) and ‘Nighthawks’ was previously used by an AHL hockey team that hailed from New Haven. Whatever decision they make one thing is for certain the addition of an expansion team in Las Vegas is certain to spice up the world of hockey betting.
