I agree- it's a gay name- surely they could come up with something better that not only isn't already taken, but sounds better than an u9's team....

The name Sydney Heat is good for me..

A little bit more on the situation
http://linky.com.au/71u4k

It says that the name 'Spirit' was chosen from over 2000 different options. If that was the best of them all, I would love to see what just some of the other apparent choices were.

Why not go back to the Supersonics?

Heat would just bring you back to the old NBA problem that caused Townsville to become the Crocs back in the day. The NBA clubs pretty much argued that the name associated with the game of basketball constintuted something akin to a trademark. I believe the Magic came to an agreement with Orlando, but Townsville just changed the name. Sydney survived because I THINK they actually had the name before Sacremento( or at least long enough that it didn't matter), etc.......

Put it this way....I don't think any team would NOW deliberately pick a team name used in the NBA.

Cincinnati Royals begat Kansas City Kings begat Sacremento Kings.

The big O (Oscar Robertson) played for Royals averaged triple double in at least one season.

All off the top of my head.

It would only be a problem if the club holds the Trademark within Australia.

Skip....I don't think that's quite right.

From memory, there is a degree of expected protection if it's a well established name/brand in the same field of operation.

I'm not 100%, but there must be something to it. Otherwise the Townsville Suns would still be the Suns.

Forget about Heat, the Gold Coast already tried it. At least we had the chance to pick a name...

From the full Fox Sports story (link below):
-----
Gold Coast Heat was the most popular name in the voting competition but it was rejected following objections from American National Basketball Association management.

"We've respected the wishes of the NBA and the Miami Heat team and chosen not to use the name, but we think Blaze captures the essence of Gold Coast culture just as well," (Dave) Claxton said.
------
I think timing, or lack thereof, is the main reason for the name change push, without fan consultation. I agree with Skip and hope it gets blocked.

Actually the whole thing seems way too rushed and I really hope it doesn't come back to bite the franchise in some way this season. While I see why they've done this, would it have cost them too much to keep razorbacks for one more season?

http://linky.com.au/7f0aw

I just did a quick look to see who held the trademark of Celtics.
It has been registered to Boston in Australia with the renewal not until 2013.

Dicko - Why then would NZNBL teams be ok?

The Adelaide Advertiser should be trying to block the Bendigo Advertiser from using its name too! meh

(see link in first post)

Dicko - you are right that there is an inherent protection in a trade mark against other businesses using the trade mark on goods or services similar to those covered by the trade mark registration. The US and Australia are signatories to various international intellectual property treaties that result in each country being afforded the benefit of the other's IP protection. Not sure if NZ are a party to the treaties but I would be surprised if they were not.

Skip - it's possible that the NBA teams can't be bothered making issue with the NZNBL teams. Bigger fish to fry?