![]() ![]() He grew up rooting for the New York Rangers during his childhood in Manhattan and was a regular attendee of Kings games while working in Los Angeles. Michael Eisner had always been a hockey fan. Modernizing Disney: Michael Eisner’s Mighty Ducks So what did Disney do? They named their team after a G-rated kids’ movie. This being the sport in which brutal fights are commonplace, teams have nicknames like the Broadstreet Bullies, and most of the loyal fan base is Canadian. Disney, the family-friendly all-American media titan with no history of sports management, had formed a professional sports team. Looking back, it’s difficult to fully grasp just how bizarre the creation of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim was. In this case, it was Disney’s successful hockey movie franchise The Mighty Ducks. The Mighty Ducks are the only team in the history of major North American professional sports leagues to be named after a brand. The story of the Mighty Ducks is one of radical experimentation, an unparalleled business move that combined the movie industry, brand marketing, and professional sports. In 1993, the NHL’s newest expansion team, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, took to the ice after an excessive 15-minute opening ceremony that featured such gems as an electric guitar rendition of Disney’s latest soundtrack hit, “Be Our Guest,” and the call for fans to blow into their plastic “ duck calls.” Hockey history was being made. Bolstered by Wayne Gretzky’s 1988 move to Los Angeles-known in the hockey world as “The Trade”-and the NHL’s expansion to new American markets such as San Jose and Tampa Bay, hockey had suddenly found legitimacy after years of relative cult status among American fans. In the early 1990s, hockey was booming in the United States. ![]()
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