What's Their Line? by Tom McConville

“The Magic is Back”

-       New York Mets marketing slogan, start of 1980 season

“The Magic is Back….23 games back”.

-       Slightly altered New York Mets marketing slogan, late July 1980

Sometimes it’s known as a marketing slogan. Other times an advertising tagline. Call it what you will, every sports team has one. During good times and bad, teams come up different ways to pump up their fan base. Nine times out of ten these slogan are created by marketing departments and/or ad agencies before the season begins. In rare instances, they just evolve during the course of a season, like  Tug McGraw’s “Ya Gotta Believe” for the Mets in ’73.

So here’s your chance to play marketer for your team. What do you think their tagline should be for their upcoming season?

There’s no right or wrong way to come up with a line. If your team is good, you can go the safe route and give a fact based account of their dominance. For example, the Boston Celtics slogan at the start of the 2008-09 season simply said, “17 Time World Champions”.

Or, you can always take the alliteration route, coming up with something like, “Pride=Passion=Power (2011 LA Kings) or “All Out. All Season” (2008 SF Giants).

Need to use an exclamation point? Go for it! You would be in good company, thanks to the 2006 Anaheim Angels (also known as “The A Team!”) 

Remember - if you need any more reason to ratchet up the energy, nothing says excitement than three of those punctuation marks in a row.

Of course, if your team has fallen on hard times, you can also go cynical for good measure. After the games resumed during the strike shortened ’81 season, the Mets held an inter-squad game at Shea, free of admission. A fan held up a sign that said succinctly captured what all Mets fans were thinking to themselves at that point. "The tragic is back!”.

Not to be outdone, the Phillies marketing department in the late 80’s provided one of the most painfully truthful slogans for their – at the time - down-and-out franchise. “You're in the stands, you're a fan."

So give it a shot. Go to the comments sections and tell us what your team’s tagline should be. Or, share your favorite bad slogans from years gone by. Either way, here’s hoping you all continue to “Be Coyotes Cool”.