Thursday, 6 May 2021

1963 Team Updates and Changes

 Introducing the Halifax Mariners


Halifax Owner Elliot Hudson was overjoyed to show off the complete rebranding of the Worcester Athletics. He decided quite early on that the team would not retain the “Athletics” name. However, the new name was something that he struggled to come up with. There were several names that were being suggested from the Halifax Highlanders to the Atlantic Admirals, however, Hudson finally landed on the Halifax Mariners. The name made a lot of sense for Halifax because of the heavy navy presence in the city as one of Canada’s main navy hubs, as well as a large number of ships and other ocean-related industries. The aim of the name is to connect to as many people as possible within the city as many have connections to the marine industry. It also, hopefully, can grab some fans from the other Atlantic Canadian provinces with the area being known as the Maritimes. 

The new look is aiming to honour the history of the Athletics (mainly before Chester Paul) and bring in a fresh new feel from Halifax. Hudson decided to maintain the Athletics’ cream from their design, but switch out black for an Atlantic Blue. The logo will simply be the team’s blue helmet with “HALIFAX” in cream on the sides of the helmet. They will switch from cream at home to cream on the road with the addition of an Atlantic Blue home jersey. They will also move the double stripe from the sleeves to the shoulders. The last detail is that they will keep the heart patch to honour Harold Paul, the long-time and fondly-remembered former owner of the Worcester Athletics. 

Lastly, the team will be moving into Atlantic Stadium for this season which will ultimately seat 34,200 people upon opening. It was originally only going to seat 20,000, but with the increase in funding from the other NAAF teams, they were able to expand the stadium by quite a lot. The final size is only 300 seats smaller than Western Fair Stadium in London, Ontario. 

Buffalo to Open new Stadium with Fan-Chosen Name
The new stadium in Buffalo had broken ground last year and with quick development, the new building would be ready to go for this upcoming season. The new 54,000 seat stadium which will be right on Lake Erie will be the new home for the Blue Wings for the foreseeable future. The Blue Wings’ owner Milton Charles is ecstatic about the new stadium and cannot wait till the home opener. However, there was one thing that he was unable to come up with, and that was a new name for the stadium. He eventually decided that the fans should submit and then vote on a name. They went forward with this and thousands of fans partake. While Milton was expecting the fans to vote in a name like Blue Wings Stadium or potentially Oscar Patterson or Angelo Medina (or another famous Blue Wings player) Stadium, he was surprised to learn that the fans voted to name the stadium after Milton himself. The fans recognize how much he cares about the fans and the city of Buffalo and they wanted to honour the only man to run the Blue Wings. He finally got to introduce the new stadium as Milton Charles Stadium shortly after the league meetings had passed. During the conference, he thanked the fans for the honour, but really they were thanking him for everything he has done. 

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1973 NAAF Draft

Round 1 1 - Halifax Mariners | S George Turner | Western New York - Buffalo, NY - Creator: Burmy87 The Mariners made the 1st overall pick fo...