What’s in a name? When it comes to the Dolphins, everything

In a nation of sprawling metropolises, the population of Green Bay is little more than a rounding error.

About 107,000 call the chilly Wisconsin city, in the far-north of the United States and not that far from the Canadian border, their home.

It’s a fraction the size of Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s largest city almost two hours down Interstate 43, and most of its population could fit into Lambeau Field.

Lambeau Field.

If you didn’t already know, that’s the 80,000-capacity home of the Green Bay Packers – one of the most popular, storied, and successful teams in the NFL.

They’re the reason Green Bay is known the world over, and the reason the city also goes by another name – Titletown USA.

The Dolphins of Redcliffe should take note.

Since being confirmed as the NRL’s 17th club earlier this month, there has been conjecture about what they will be called when they take to the field in 2023.

The Dolphins name is a certainty, given their much-publicised, porpoiseful fight to prevent the NRL’s new Gold Coast club to claim the moniker in 2005.

But what of the geographical anchor? Would they keep their historical Redcliffe name? Would they be the Moreton Bay Dolphins, in recognition of both the growing council area, of which Redcliffe is the heart, and the large body of water off the Brisbane coast?

The North Brisbane Dolphins?

Moreton Daily Stadium, the Dolphins’ base at Redcliffe.Credit: Brad Kanaris/Getty Images

No, fans were told. They would simply be “The Dolphins”, turning their back on the community that made them what they are in the process.

“The Dolphins is a national brand,” Dolphins CEO Tony Murphy said on Thursday as he unveiled Wayne Bennett as coach.

“That’s the name we’re going to stay with.”

Like it or lump it. Earlier talk of fan consultation was forgotten. The “marketing experts” had spoken.

It raised the ire of the Moreton Bay Regional Council, the third-largest in the country, which had poured millions into the development of Dolphin Oval into what is now the Moreton Daily Stadium.

“It’s all about trying to build a new supporter base across Australia and if you just have the name The Dolphins, nobody knows where they’re from,” Moreton Bay mayor Peter Flannery told Melbourne radio station SEN this week.

“They could be Darwin, West Australia or Tasmania. It doesn’t build that brand they’re trying to build. You’re going to dilute the supporter base dramatically.”

And he’s right.

Green Bay has not held the Packers back. Green Bay has given the Packers something that’s so lacking in much of the NFL – a sense of real history and tradition. And, down a much longer road than the one that links Redcliffe and Brisbane, most Milwaukeeans consider the Packers their own.

Green Bay can pack them in, despite of (or perhaps becuse of) their name.Credit: Stacy Revere/Getty Images

And the Packers are not the only example.

English Premier League clubs Chelsea, Tottenham and Everton, named after hyperlocal districts in their respective cities, are truly global brands.

This writer counts himself as a proud member of West Ham United’s Australian fan base, despite the small London district being some 16,500 kilometres away.

It is perhaps difficult for people outside the Redcliffe peninsula to understand how ubiquitous the Dolphins are in the community.

Growing up in Redcliffe is to grow up in Dolphins country. They are everywhere, intertwined with the social fabric.

The Redcliffe Leagues Club is the biggest show in town and the centre of social and political power on the peninsula.

When News Corp, in its wisdom, decided to shut down the Redcliffe & Bayside Herald along with other community newspapers, a new locally owned publication took its place.

Its name? Dolphins News.

What the club has to realise now is that loyalty is a two-way street.

The Dolphins must remain loyal to the parochial community that made them what they are. Whether that means keeping the Redcliffe, or expanding it to the Moreton Bay Dolphins, it must happen if the club is to retain its soul.

Appeal to as many fans as you like, but every club needs a soul. And the Dolphins’ soul is Redcliffe.

Cameron Atfield is a Brisbane Times journalist who grew up in Redcliffe.