Brian in Boston

Outstanding update! A perfect balance has been achieved between maintaining those design elements that speak to the Hudson Valley Renegades' brand history and integrating aspects of the Yankees' storied visual identity. Typically terrific work from Dan and Studio Simon.

That's unlikely. While Spartanburg has been the home of minor league baseball teams dubbed the Spartans in the South Carolina League (1907), the Carolina Association (1908-11) and the South Atlantic League (1922-39), most people in the region now associate said identity with the athletic programs at the University of South Carolina Upstate.

You're close. The 68,000-seat stadium that was to have played host to the New England Patriots and the University of Connecticut's football team was going to be built on a site in downtown Hartford that is now the home of the Connecticut Convention Center. The UConn Huskies' current football home - 38,066-seat Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field - is located across the Connecticut River in East Hartford, a 3.5 to 4-mile drive from the proposed stadium's location.

The American Association of Professional Baseball - an independent minor league circuit that was founded in 2005 - has unveiled a new league branding package. The change marks the circuit's first rebrand since its inaugural season in 2006. Primary Mark Secondary Mark Tertiary Mark Word Mark The family of marks was created by Portland, Oregon-based Baseballism, "a premium off the field brand focusing on the class, tradition and history of baseball". The American Association had announced a formal partnership with Baseballism the day before introducing its new league brand. "A new look and feel for the American Association was long overdue, and to be able to work with a company like Baseballism to make it happen is very exciting as we move into a new era as a Major League Baseball Partner League. This logo brand signals a new vision for the league and will appeal to a younger demographic. The logos are clean, modern, and a fitting visual representation of the professionalism of our league, our players, and our organizations. It's a look we think our fans will embrace and look forward to seeing it on the field in our stadiums in 2021." - Joshua Schaub, American Association Commissioner

Independent minor league baseball's American Association has unveiled a new league branding package. Primary Mark Secondary Mark Tertiary Mark Word Mark The family of marks were created by Portland, Oregon-based Baseballism, "a premium off the field brand focusing on the class, tradition and history of baseball".

"Mr. Cameron... we have the attorneys for Rip Taylor's estate on line 1. They say that if we're going to use their late client's likeness as the inspiration for our primary mark, the panther has to be wearing a toupée. The mustache alone isn't going to cut it."

I was speaking, specifically, to the history and tradition of the Argonauts. Why should the Argos' decisions on any aspect of their branding be dictated by what the Blue Jays, Maple Leafs, Raptors, Toronto FC, or other pro sports franchises in the market elect to do? The Argonauts' history and tradition began establishing itself before that of any of the other pro sports teams that now call the market home.

The primacy of the A in Argonauts' logo history speaks to the team's roots. It was founded as a subsidiary of the Argonaut Rowing Club in 1873. In fact, the rowing club owned and operated the team until it was sold to independent operators in 1956. It was referred to as the Argonaut Rowing Club football team, the A.R.C. football team, and the Argonaut Football Club for its first decade of operation. It wasn't until the early 1880s that the place name "Toronto" was first used as an identifier for the team, and even then only informally. Argonauts or Argos was the preferred sobriquet, as there were other Toronto-based teams competing in (rugby) football competition that utilized the city's name in their identity. Hell, the only Ts that appeared in the team's logo for over a century were the pair in the "Pull Together" slogan. History & Tradition > any city vs. nickname initial debate

Provided they were to bring those sleeve stripes back as something more than a design feature on an alternate jersey. Beyond that, the aesthetics of the wave stripes in the logo are just awful. Line weights don't appear uniform and things get particularly sloppy where the stripes taper to a point at each end of the waves. I understand that there are those amongst sports logo enthusiasts who believe that the ultimate branding achievement for a professional sports franchise is to adopt a primary mark that can be easily replicated by a child on the cover of his school notebook. While that's all well and good, the actual logo the pro team uses shouldn't look as though it were created for them by a sixth grader goofing off in social studies class.

I want to love it, but I can't help but see a personalized handkerchief affixed to a whoopee pie... that's being studied by four 18th century long-handled quizzing glasses... that are emerging from a dollop of the original blue-and-white Aquafresh toothpaste. In all honesty, my primary problem is with the rendering of the oars and the waves. There's something that's always struck me as being "off" about those elements in the logo and this version doesn't solve the issue. Also, this is the CFL - that football needs stripes.

Off the top of my head, I'd suggest Milwaukee Hogs or Milwaukee Iron. The first references both the Milwaukee-based Harley-Davidson, Inc. and the fact that the sport of football is played with a piece of equipment colloquially dubbed a "pigskin". The second also pays homage to Harley-Davidson's history in the city, and recognizes that American football is contested on a field dubbed the "gridiron" by players who are "armored" in protective gear including helmets and pads. I like Louisville Thunder or Kentucky Thunder for a franchise based in the Bluegrass State's most populous city. The name is a tip-of-the-hat to the sound of thoroughbred hooves thundering around the track and down the stretch at Churchill Downs, as well as the annual Thunder Over Louisville fireworks display and airshow.

While I was having a bit of fun, I wasn't really "splitting hairs". The franchise that is today's Dodgers did play in three different cities, as Brooklyn wasn't consolidated into the City of New York until 1898. Further, Bloomington and Minneapolis, Minnesota are two distinct municipalities within the Minneapolis-Saint Paul Metro Area. As for "accuracy's sake", I was going to cite Cumberland, Georgia... but it isn't a city. It's a community improvement district within Cobb County. Whatever the hell that is.

Technically, both today's Dodgers and Twins franchises could be added to the list. Brooklyn / Los Angeles City of Brooklyn (1890-1897) City of New York (1898-1955) City of Los Angeles (1956-present) Washington / Minnesota Washington, D.C. (1901-1960) City of Bloomington (1961-1981) City of Minneapolis (1982-present)

The new Butte, Montana-based team in the summer collegiate Expedition League has settled upon an identity: the Mining City Tommyknockers. Tommyknockers are gnome-like creatures that originated in the folklore of Cornwall, England. Cornish miners claimed that tommyknockers were humanoid creatures - not unlike leprechauns or brownies - who lived deep beneath the earth. Dressed in clothing that mimicked that of the garb sported by human miners, these imps were thought to manifest their existence in a couple of different ways. First, miners claimed that mischievous tommyknockers were responsible for stealing any tools, personal items, or food that might go missing in the mines. More importantly, the creatures were said to knock and hammer on the walls of mines to signal that a shaft or tunnel was about to cave in. If miners hearing the sound - actually the creaking of timbers and shifting of earth - escaped such a collapse, the tommyknockers were said to be well-meaning. However, if a particular mine saw numerous collapses that resulted in death or injury, the tommyknockers therein were thought to be in a malevolent mood, usually brought about by the presence of miners who doubted in their power or refused to believe in them at all. Garnering 72% of the votes cast, Tommyknockers bested Blasters, Powder Monkeys, Prospectors, and Ridge in the final round of the ballclub's "Name the Team" campaign. The logo was designed by Jason Stemm of Stemm Creative.

Only in a world where the Brandiose design team collaborated with the Worcester Red Sox on nine jerseys and seven ball caps can a mere five ball caps be regarded as restraint. That said, I love the place-name change, the primary and word marks, and the redesigned mascot crab. The crab with baseball stitches is solid, though it looks like it was torn from a completely different identity package and wedged into this brand. The sunglasses? Too much going on... particularly the forced 'JS' and 'BC' in the corners of the lenses.

The only other team I can remember using the name was the Manchester Millrats / Saint John Mill Rats. The franchise played three seasons in New Hampshire (2007-08 in the American Basketball Association and 2008-09 and 2009-10 in the Premier Basketball League) before relocating to Saint John, New Brunswick. After spending the 2010-11 season in the PBL, the team became a founding member of the National Basketball League of Canada in 2011. Prior to the start of the 2016-17 NBL Canada season, the Mill Rats rebranded as the Saint John Riptide.

The summer collegiate Prospect League's Johnstown, Pennsylvania-based expansion team has settled upon an identity - the Mill Rats. According to Bill Davidson, one of the team's owners, "We wanted a name that had not been used before, a name that reflected the character and the resiliency of the Greater Johnstown region. That's how we landed on the name Mill Rats. It pays homage to the history of Johnstown, obviously a strong mill town and steel industry. A rat is a notoriously tough animal. We wanted something that was tough and resilient, but also something that people could be proud of. It's a combination of history as well as resiliency." Per the team's general manager, Brennan Mihalick, 350 people submitted ideas in the initial phase of the ball club's "Name the Team" contest, with 250 people casting votes in the final stage. Apparently, more than half of those voting selected Mill Rats over the four other finalist identities.

Most likely a porcine mascot depicted as a boxer. After all, the promotional copy accompanying the Uppercuts identity suggestion includes lines such as, "destined for the slaughterhouse", "this underhog", "we wouldn't suggest betting against us - just ask the butcher", and "we're fed up of that old, tired underhog label". In fact, based upon the marketing speak accompanying each identity, it can be surmised that a Fire Ants identity would feature depictions of the namesake insect; the Hogzillas brand would revolve around a monstrous wild boar/pig; the Honey Hunters name would be paired with images of a small, scrappy, and aggressive burrowing creature; and the Hotshots' logo package would see axe-wielding cottontail rabbits garbed as smoke-jumping firefighters.

Should Honey Hunters be chosen as the name, Brandiose is more likely to give us an identity package revolving around this mascot...

Well, if nothing else, Saanich's old logo answered the question, "What if Sir Cedric Hardwicke had been cast in the 1970s 'Keep America Beautiful' television public service announcement over Iron Eyes Cody?"

If you're going to name-check "Gaston County's first freed slave and African American land owner" as part of the justification for the Honey Hunters identity, you ought to take the trouble to cite said individual's name correctly in your promotional copy. The gentleman in question was Ransom Hunter, not Hunter Ransom. UPDATE: The Gastonia Pro Baseball website has corrected its initial mistaken listing of "Hunter Ransom" as the name of Gaston County's first freed slave and African American land owner. That said, as of 2:00 PM (PST), some outlets - the Gastonia Gazette for example - are still running the original erroneous information.

The 2020/21 UEFA Champions League group stage draw has taken place. GROUP A GROUP B FC Bayern München Real Madrid CF Club Atlético de Madrid FC Shakhtar Donetsk FC Salzburg FC Internazionale Milano FC Lokomotiv Moskva Vfl Borussia Mönchengladbach GROUP C GROUP D FC Porto Liverpool FC Manchester City FC AFC Ajax Olympiacos FC Atalanta BC Olympique de Marseille FC Midtjylland GROUP E GROUP F Sevilla FC FC Zenit Chelsea FC Borussia Dortmund FC Krasnodar SS Lazio Stade Rennais FC Club Brugge GROUP G GROUP H Juventus Paris Saint-Germain FC Barcelona Manchester United FC FC Dynamo Kyiv RB Leipzig Ferencvárosi TC Istanbul Başakşehir

Cheeseballs? Moo? Polka Pike? Sky Carp? Supper Clubbers? Given decisions like these, Rob Manfred-and-Company doing their damnedest to off affiliated minor league baseball could end up being regarded as a "mercy killing". Seriously though, my gut tells me that unless team ownership is engaging in this as a charade meant to galvanize support for - and generate enthusiasm in - the Snappers brand of baseball, the team is going to wind up either the Beloit Cheeseballs or Beloit Polka Pike.

I try to judge singular nicknames on a case-by-case basis. Given that Gastonia was the hometown of the real-life ballplayer who lent his name to Kevin Costner's character in the quintessential minor league baseball film Bull Durham, I'd be willing to see such a moniker employed here. I say you dub the new Atlantic League team the Gastonia Crash after local hero Lawrence "Crash" Davis. Center the team's logo package around depictions of a retro-styled ballplayer mascot meant to be Davis: Crash at bat... Crash taking a swing... Crash running the bases... Crash sliding into home plate... Crash turning a play at second base (his primary position over three MLB and seven MiLB seasons). For the team's inaugural Opening Day, see if you can't get Costner and Bull Durham writer-director Ron Shelton out to the new ballpark to participate in pre-game ceremonies.

OOF! The only thing more underwhelming than introducing your new professional soccer team's brand identity in the midst of a pandemic to an empty auditorium filled with cardboard cutouts of people is introducing THIS brand identity under such circumstances.Name / Wordmark The team name - particularly the emphasis on CITY - is tone deaf given the acrimony that has historically existed between the municipality and surrounding St. Louis County since the 1840s. Team ownership can trumpet all it likes about how "the name celebrates the area's diverse, iconic neighborhoods"... blah, blah, blah... "region's recent growth"... blah, blah, blah... "cultural renaissance"... blah, blah, blah. All of those niceties aside, the fact remains that following the official split of the City of St. Louis and St. Louis County in the 1870s, the invisible political barrier that separates the two entities has been a continual source of friction with very real socioeconomic impact visited upon residents of both the city and surrounding, independent communities. Anger, mutual misunderstanding, and resentment has been a very real part of the relationship between those who call the city home and those who reside in municipalities within the county. A chorus of "Kumbayah" under the St. Louis City SC - pardon, St. Louis CITY SC - name isn't going to suddenly make that disconnect disappear, no matter how much Carolyn Kindle Betz and Company might want it to. You want your Major League Soccer franchise to serve as a rallying point for the entirety of the St. Louis Metro Area, both city and county residents? Here's a tip - don't play up one half of the region's historic city/county divide in the team's name. Instead, try leaning into "the city's rich soccer tradition as America's First Soccer Capital" and go with a name like St. Louis Legacy SC. Or, if you truly want your club "to be bigger than soccer... and a symbol of [the region's] future", adopt a name like Gateway St. Louis SC. There's just no upside in even remotely running the risk of antagonizing either side of the traditional city/county schism. Colors I'm a fan of the City (Not) Red and River Blue. They complement one another nicely, with the Raspberry/Magenta shade of red particularly unique upon the North American pro sports landscape. With the iconic Gateway Arch destined to play such a significant role in team branding, Arch Steel Gray also strikes me as a welcome part of the club's palette. All of that said, the Energy Yellow gives me pause. I get that the team is trying to come up with its take on the Red, Blue, and Yellow of the St. Louis municipal flag, but I fear that the Energy Yellow is going to be overkill, particularly when paired with the City Red. I found the combination over-the-top when used in the teaser videos leading up to the identity unveiling and I'm not at all convinced it's going to prove any more pleasing when utilized in logo or uniform applications. If it were me, and I wanted to include a nod to the flag's Yellow, I'd have taken a page from Cerezo Osaka's book and gone with more of a Gold. Crest When I learned that "[a] diverse group of over 20 local designers created" the St. Louis City SC crest, I couldn't help but think "design-by-committee" and "too many cooks spoil the broth". I can't say for certain that the number of designers led to what I consider to be a misfire, but I don't believe the scenario helped matters. It strikes me as being a very disjointed mark, with little thought given to how the various components of the logo might most effectively integrate. For instance, the description of the crest says that the top of the shield "[f]ollows the shape of the Gateway Arch". Except it doesn't, really. Not quite. Given that the top of the shield and the top of the depiction of the Gateway Arch within the shield are rendered at two different sizes, they follow one another's shape for what amounts to a very short length of space. If anything, the curve at the top of the shield and the depiction of the Gateway Arch within the crest serve to inspire one to wonder why the designers didn't elect to enlarge the Gateway Arch and shift it upward within the logo so that it's curve would define the curved portion of the top of the shield. It seems a lost opportunity, aesthetically, not to do so. Then there's the logo's depiction of the Gateway Arch itself. It really doesn't reflect the actual structure very well. The angle at which the legs descend and the curve of the upper section are all wrong. While I understand that this is an "abstract representation of the iconic landmark", given that it is arguably the centerpiece image within the crest's design, it just seems to me that more care should have been taken to render its depiction a bit more accurately. And speaking of accuracy, I can't help but think that I'd like to see how the badge might have looked with the Gateway Arch rendered in Arch Steel Gray, as opposed to City Red. Similarly, I wonder how the depictions of the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers would look if the outer lines of said waterways were rendered in White, with the center lines remaining River Blue? I'll concede that it might be a bit busy, but it would be interesting to see the contrast compared to the current color way that leaves the Arch and Rivers resembling - at least to my mind - an abstract depiction of a highway interchange. The righthand third of the crest is, to put it bluntly, abysmal. The band of City Red cutting off nearly half of the depiction of the Gateway Arch, as well as the rotated word mark descending down said strip of color, come across as design decisions made solely for the sake of trying something "new" and "outside the box", with little thought given to how they might have been better incorporated into the crest's overall design. Overall, St. Louis City SC's logo strikes me as looking like an early draft within the conceptualization and design of a major professional sports franchise's logo. I don't consider it a successful finished product. I'd say it's a missed opportunity that ranks in the bottom half of MLS club marks and, off the top of my head, may well slot in amongst the bottom third of the league's team logos.