Las Vegas Name Thoughts

I’ve been letting Las Vegas owner Bill Foley’s interview with NHL.com’s Nick Cotsonika roll around in my head for the last 24 hours or so but my initial thought is still the one I think is most valid.

There is something hilarious about “I’m being sneaky about the team name & trying to hide it. But trust me, it’s totally not Sand Knights.”

— DetroitHockey.Net (@detroithockey96) September 2, 2016

Either Foley is diabolically sneaky or he just thinks he’s smarter than he actually is.  Right now I lean towards the latter.

He also admitted he had included fakes as a misdirection ploy.

“I have,” he said with a laugh over the phone. “I think it’s irritating a few people.”

Was there anyone who didn’t think some of these names were intended as misdirection?  I mean, they trademarked three names and registered domains for more.  They can’t be using all of them.

I don’t think anyone is reporting on this and saying “this is the name.”  So far it’s simply been a matter of finding more pieces of the puzzle and trying to put it together.

What I question at this point is how much we can believe what Foley himself says.  On one hand, he’s trying to keep the name secret.  On the other hand, he wouldn’t outright lie to the media that is going to be covering his team in the near future, would he?

For now, here are the pieces of the puzzle as we know them.

Nighthawks, Red Hawks, Desert Hawks, Sand Knights
Black Knight IP Holdings owns domains for these.  Various denials have been made about whether or not they’ll be used.

Golden Knights
Black Knight has the trademark for this but no domains.

Silver Knights, Desert Knights
Black Knight has the trademark for these and the domains are held privately.  Foley confirmed that he registered Desert Knights and Murray Craven said that the group registered Silver Knights.  That said, I’ve since confirmed independently that the privately-registered Silver Knights domains are not held by Black Knight.

While this would seem to mean that Desert Knights is the only name that Foley both owns the trademark and the domains for, there could be another name (or multiple names) out there we haven’t found yet.  Or more filings could be coming.  Or some other information could be revealed.

Those of us interested in such things will keep digging into it.  Maybe we’ll find misdirection, maybe we’ll find truth.  We’ll see.