Falcons flying from the nests of Fort Erie?

With a conference finals loss this year, it was inevitable changes would be made for the Fort Erie Falcons.  

As with every playoff disappointment, teams around the CCHL make moves to change their fortunes the following season and this offseason was to be no different in Fort Erie.  

We've heard players like Gavrikov, Zuccarello and maybe even mainstay Debrincat or Marner may not be back as Falcons but what we didn't anticipate is that potentially nobody will return as a member of the Falcons.  

How's that possible you ask?  

Well, rumor started circulating this week that the team would be changing names for the 24-25 season as a result of a dispute with a local elementary school.  

It turns out a local school has also been using the moniker of "Falcons" and has taken action to ensure that they are the only Falcons in town.  

It turns out that may not necessarily be something that has upset the team, as they had already been looking at a name change having realized that the name was not unique to the border city.  

The possible new names range from Border Cats to 24's to the Riverhawks, with a blue and gold themed uniform to follow from the light blue and navy the team has worn for years.  

Let's examine the potential names and their meanings:

The Border Cats name represents the fact that Fort Erie is located right on the US border of NY state and they'd be able to leap across like a cat would with relative ease.  While it's a creative name, I think it likely finishes third in the grand scheme of things.  

The Riverhawks name is a name that carries tradition around the Fort Erie and Niagara region, while still maintaining the "bird" theme the organization has had for years.  It also looks awesome in the new colour scheme so this possibility is great!  

Now for the one that has most people scratching their heads.  The Fort Erie 24's????  It's a lot like the Ottawa 67's of the OHL where the name took place because they were created in 1967.  While that's true, there's also a lot of deeper potential meaning to the 24's name. 

Yes, it would be 2024 that the team would adopt the name so that does follow consistent with the Ottawa 67's rationale.  The 24 name is also one to celebrate the fact there are indeed 24 bottles of beer inside a case of beer - most notably known as the two-four.  

One other fact is that there is history to the 24 number in Fort Erie as well.  It was on the 24th day of the month that the Americans left Fort Erie; ending the War of 1812.  A lot of significance in the number 24 in Fort Erie.  

In any event, nothing has been finalized yet but with name changes due to the league very soon - you can bet we'll be hearing about an announcement in the coming two weeks.