Brian in Boston

From the West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx to the Clearwater Threshers to this over the course of their history? Seriously?The tale of Plan B. Branding/Brandiose is the Flowers for Algernon of sports branding.

I'd rank them: 1) Lake Flies 2) Dock Spiders 3) Barn Owls 4) Shantymen (BIG drop-off) 5) Pipsqueaks

It was discussed back in July... page 77 in the thread's history. The prospective team names were also listed. Florida Dragonflies Florida Fire Frogs Florida Mud Kickers Florida Rodeo Clowns Florida Sorcerers Florida Toucans

Clearly, the list of finalists in Kinston was heavily influenced by the Brandiose brain trust. Frankly, I'm pulling for Down East HamHawks, if only to see the primary logo that will undoubtedly depict a pig wearing a vintage leather aviator's helmet, goggles, and a flight jacket, while swinging a ham hock like a baseball bat.

If the team really wants to get specific, it should adopt a color scheme of Concord Grape, Catawba Grape, and Chardonnay. On second thought, that may be too "refined a palette" for an independent minor-pro baseball team.

The Aiken Foxhounds played in the independent minor-pro South Coast League's lone season.

I'd go with Fond du Lac Lake Flies, Fond du Lac Trappers, or Fond du Lac Voyageurs.

The Lynchburg Hillcats have launched an online "Name the Team" contest as part of a rebranding effort that will see the franchise take the field with a new identity in time for the 2017 Carolina League season. The team will be working with San Diego-based Brandiose on the project.

A couple of bits of minor league baseball branding news to discuss: First, the finalist identities in the Binghamton Mets' rebranding campaign have been announced, with the majority drawing upon Binghamton's position as "The Carousel Capital of the World". In addition to Bullheads (a nod to the bullhead catfish in the Susquehanna River) and Gobblers (recognizing the abundance of wild turkeys in the area, as well as the importance of the hunting culture to the region), B-Mets fans can choose from the carousel-inspired Rocking Horses, Rumble Ponies, Stud Muffins, and Timber Jockeys. Meanwhile, the Brooklyn Cyclones will rebrand as the Coney Island Franks for a single night - Sunday, July 3rd - to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the establishment of the Nathan's Famous hot dog stand, as well as to mark the Nathan's Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest on July 4th.

The American Hockey League's Board of Governors has granted conditional approval to the Arizona Coyotes acquiring ownership of the AHL's Springfield Falcons and relocating the franchise to Tucson, Arizona in time for the 2016-2017 AHL season. http://theahl.com/bog-conditionally-approves-coyotes-purchase-p202491 With the Rio Nuevo Multipurpose Facilities District Board of Directors having unanimously approved the expenditure of $3.2 million in TIF funds towards the upgrading of the Tucson Convention Center Arena for AHL hockey, it would seem that the primary condition which remains to be met is the negotiation of an arena lease with the City of Tucson. Reportedly, the Tucson City Council and Arizona Coyotes' management are currently in the process of negotiating the terms of said lease, with completion of the deal expected sometime next month. http://www.vavel.com/en-us/nhl/639823-city-of-tucson-approves-funding-for-arena-upgrades-for-ahl-team.html The sale of the Portland Pirates and their relocation to Springfield, Massachusetts are expected to be voted upon by the AHL Board of Governors within the next two weeks.

Sadly, the identity change in New Orleans comes after the city's NBA franchise has adopted the traditional minor-pro baseball sobriquet Pelicans.

The Binghamton Mets have announced that they will be rebranding in time for the 2017 New York-Penn League season. A "Name the Team" campaign launches on April 7, 2016, with submissions being accepted through April 25th. On the latter date, six finalist identities will be unveiled for two weeks of fan voting. The team's new name will be officially revealed in October of this year.

I can't say that I'm a huge fan of the name, but Dan Simon and his cohorts at Studio Simon have - as is their wont - designed a phenomenal family of marks. The primary logo is terrific and bound to appeal to fans.

The summer collegiate Prospect League's new Lafayette, Indiana-based team has settled upon a name. The club will be called the Lafayette Aviators. Three possible primary logos are under consideration. Personally, I'd go with the first logo as the primary mark and utilize the pilot from the third as a secondary logo.

The New York Collegiate Baseball League has added an expansion team in Rome, New York. The team will be dubbed the Rome Generals.

I suspect the decision to go with the alternative spelling was made so as to allow for both the team's place name and nickname to begin with the same three letters - GRE. It results in a measure of visual symmetry.

The New England Collegiate Baseball League's Hartford, Vermont-based expansion franchise has settled upon a team identity. The club will be known as the Upper Valley Nighthawks. The logo was created by Boston-based graphic designer Stephanie Sohn.

Sacramento's entry in the collegiate summer Great West League has been dubbed the Sacramento Stealth.

The New Britain Bees of the independent minor-pro Atlantic League have unveiled their initial logo. The mark was designed by Skye Dillon - aka, the CCSLC's cward - of Skye Design Studios. Additional marks are set to be released over the next few weeks. Skye Design Studios is no stranger to creating brand identity packages for baseball teams, having previously designed logos for the Edenton Steamers (Coastal Plain League), Holyoke Blue Sox (New England Collegiate League), Springfield Sliders (Prospect League), and Wisconsin Woodchucks (Northwoods League).

The Southern League has unveiled new logos. They were designed by Todd Radom.

Very nice, but that "H" monogram is a mess. The crawdad obscures the letterform, and it doesn't read clearly as a letter. The set could lose the H logo because it is kind of confusing to make out at first glance, but I'm guessing they needed something as the cap logo. "We wanted to update the look of the Crawdads without abandoning our classic logos." - Mark Seaman, General Manager of the Hickory Crawdads As one can see, the designers at Studio Simon simply followed the instructions given to them by the Crawdads ownership/management team: "update... without abandoning". The only place where the crawdad in the new cap logo obscures the letterform any more than it did in the old cap logo is where the creature's antenna falls in front of the serif on the 'H', as opposed to behind it. That's the only change - and a slight one, at that - made to the relationship between the crawdad and the 'H'. Otherwise, the only changes made to the letterform are the stylization of the serifs and a slight tweak to the angle at which the crossbar meets the righthand stem.

The folks at Studio Simon turned in a typically outstanding job on the update to the Charleston RiverDogs logo package.

Which may be why, per the Seattle Times and ProHockeyTalk, Ray Bartoszek was invited to the NHL's offices "for a chat" yesterday. Bartoszek - co-founder and managing general partner of investment firm RLB Holdings - is the man behind efforts to build a privately-financed arena in the Seattle suburb of Tukwila and secure an NHL franchise to play in the facility.

Whirlybirds would have enjoyed a tenuous connection to Hartford, at best. Despite United Technologies being headquartered in Hartford, Sikorsky's primary base of operations has always been in Fairfield County, Connecticut. Stratford, Bridgeport, Shelton... all have played host to significant aspects of Sikorsky's Connecticut operations and, by extension, the development of the helicopter. All are located in Fairfield County, which is more aligned with New York City than it is with Hartford. The bottom line is that Brandiose "screwed the pooch" when it came to generating potential names for Hartford's Double-A baseball team. They were so intent on coming up with something fun, crazy, and outside-the-box different... so caught-up in the idea of creating a logo package that would revolve around images of a unique and/or goofy mascot - a goat, whirlybird, river-hog, praying mantis, or hedgehog - that they sacrificed adopting an identity truly relevant to Hartford. Frankly, Brandiose has become a victim of their own success. They've become SO known as the guys who are ready, willing, and able to "push the envelope", few clients seem to want anything else from them. While it undoubtedly pays the bills, I can't help but wonder if going to the same aesthetic "well" doesn't get creatively frustrating for them?

A press release issued by the New Britain Rock Cats in the wake of the Yard Goats' name unveiling stated: "A Minor League Baseball player is like that humble Yard Goat. Not a glamorous job but working day in and day out away from the big city lights to assure that the Major League affiliate is kept on track." Ahhhhhhh... let the painfully-contrived justifications for the ridiculous team name begin!