No, stay as is. Better to build on what they have than take any risks now.

They floated the idea already, got punctured.

No. Bad idea.

For die hard Taipans fans, it'd be horrible. I've spent the last 2.5 years trying to get on board with United and I've found I simply can't do it. I hope they do it for the city, I enjoy watching NBL so still attend matches. But I'd be sky high for days if the Tigers won the title. United? I'm honestly not that fussed.

And don't forget there's the small issue of home games. Townsville has proven unable to bring the crowds. And how can you rebrand to "Far North Queensland" or whatever, unless you play games in multiple locations? If you play every game in Cairns, just call yourselves Cairns.

True die hard NBL fans from Townsville (If there were any left) might travel to enjoy a Taipans game here or there anyway, now. The branding won't make a difference.

Keep building the Taipans brand.

In other words, there's not much to be gained from such a move, I would've thought. And it could risk hurting the connection they've spent 20 years building with the Cairns Taipans name.

Yeah, worst idea ever and would echo the Razorbacks > Spirit mess... Has been shot down by Cairns adn Townsville fans alike... The diehard Crocs fans that were actually turning up wouldn't support a FNQ team and the casual fans who wouldn't suffer from any such allegiances, weren't going to the games when they actually had a team in town...

#Disastrous

there's 4+ hours between the towns firstly, so we're not geography 'close'. Say you split the games between Cairns and Townsville, you'd effectively be adding to your away game schedule and alienating your core base - you're not getting any Cairns fans to a Thursday night game..... Not even i'm keen on an 8hr round trip to support....

The cowboys are a great example, they're called the 'North Queensland Cowboys' but many locals consider them the Townsville Cowboys. They are based in T'ville, they play in t'ville and they rarely visit Cairns during the season. It's anecdotal, but i'd suspect there would be as many Broncos fans in town, with a few Storm and Titans bandwagoners as well.

Bottom line is: If there was enough corp $$ and community support Townsville would still have a team. There's going to be no chance of any NBL team getting back into T'ville unless the $$ is there.

The Taipans brand is identifiable and relevant to the region, there's absolutely no need to scrap it and start again. I like the fact they're growing the brand up the Cape, and while they may not put many bums on seats it fulfils and expands on the clubs commitment to the community.

"Secondly, and this is more of an aside, I have always wondered how Cairns folk and fans feel about being "represented" by a snake?"

Not sure what your point is here.

Beat me to it Wookie. The Razorbacks rebranding as Spirit to capture the Kings fans fell flat.

Rebranding is always hard unless there is a real reason to get rid of a really bad image. In this case Cairns doesn't stink as a brand, so they could tweek a little bit, but in marketing that's call the JND (just noticeable difference). If you move a brand image, sometimes it's good to do it very subtlety (e.g. the new Qantas logo) if there's no problems, but if there's a real problem and you want to organisation to be heading 180 degrees the other way, rebrand.

Absolutely no question about it. The Taipans are a one-town team, and any attempt to spread the team over two cities would be incredibly stupid.

It didn't work for the "Hunter Pirates" or the "Sydney Spirit", and it didn't really work for Victoria Titans as a blend of the Giants, Spectres and Saints, either.

Admittedly, South East Melbourne Magic, as a blend of Nunnawading Spectres and St Kilda (Southern Melbourne) Saints worked pretty well. That's one city, though. As my Row E neighbour says, though, it's a long way between Cairns and Townsville (347.3km, according to my co-pilot, Google.)

NO!

Worry about your own team chump!

The Taipans brand is identifiable and relevant to the region, there's absolutely no need to scrap it and start again. I like the fact they're growing the brand up the Cape,

Ok, so they're already doing that.

Sorry, I realise now people immediately spring to the "Townsville Assumption" but that wasn't what I was asking.

More just whether there is the potential for them to broaden their appeal? And I guess realistically (apart from those in the immediate vicinity) we're talking about TV & online viewers.

You could maybe host pre-season or demonstration games elsewhere, but your home games have to remain at home.

I don't know much about FNQ geo-politics, but is Cairns seen as the "Regional Capital"?

Maybe I should have said "re-position" but yeah I did say "Re-Brand".

Good point about the Cowboys. I'm not from the region, so I wasn't aware of the perceptions.

I'm not sure how much of the Cats community work is done regionally. But that's more the sort of thing I'm talking about, grass-roots type stuff.

I guess the problem is that anything that doesn't directly impact ticket sales is hard to quantify. If Foxtel (or NBL) subscriptions increase in FNQ, The Taipans won't get the credit or the money.

Cairns already plays a lot of pre-season games in Mackay, as that is where CQU is based. There's not a lot of population elsewhere in the Far North, so there's not really any point in taking the team further afield, as they would not get many people to the games and it would only serve to weaken the local appetite.

Thanks for trying, Dazz. There's probably nothing left in this one.

Cairns have a great small community model, excellent fan base and no other national team to compete against. Townsville has nothing to offer them. I dont blame Cairns not wanting to change to a NQ team.

PLUS, if Townsville ever wants a team again, a NQ team would most likely count that out.

We'll take Rod, but we don't want anything to do with the rest of them!

#RowGForLife #EvenThoughIThinkIWasRowFLastYearIAmVeryConfused

#RowGForLife #EvenThoughIThinkIWasRowFLastYearIAmVeryConfused

I loved being in Row DD and was even better when I got upgraded to EE, my favourite... Now I'm row H and just find it too much to handle...

E36, isn't it, @Kingpodge?

nah i'm around the 200's i think - i can't remember, i've sat in this spot for so long i never look at my ticket haha

No, but that's dangerously close to me though :-)

I've always thought it was kinda sad that we couldn't have Cairns Crocodiles and Townsville Taipans to join the Brisbane Bullets but other than that there is nothing that I'd change Cairns have a model that is profitable and their fans see lots of wins so what more can you ask for except a championship

"I loved being in Row DD..."

Would you say you were a fan of it?

maybe we should just get a hoops.com.au box next year so we can all argue face to face!

Should OP rebrand himself as someone who has a clue?

haha in all fairness I think it's not a dumb question to ask if you're not familiar with the region or the colloquial nature of the place .

Boston is very colloquial however they have the New England Patriots and represent the region (NH,Conn,VT,Maine,Mass,RI)they don't play in multiple areas just outside of Boston.