Brian in Boston

Rome Around-the-Bases Rome Adowneys Rome Ants Baseball… For Love of the Game.

Maureen O’Hara’s final theatrical release. And, man… how I miss John Candy. Terrific cast overall, really: Ally Sheedy, Anthony Quinn, Kevin Dunn, Jim Belushi, Milo O’Shea, Bert Remsen.

“Heeeeey… batta, batta, batta, batta, sssss-wing batta! He can’t hit, he can’t hit, he can’t hit, he can’t hit, he can’t hit… sssss-wing batta!”

Rome Ants would appeal to baseball lovers. (I’ll show myself out.)

I’d go with Rome Emperors or Rome Caesars. It not only ties into the city’s name, but plays off of one of the State of Georgia’s nicknames, “Empire State of the South”.

Union College has dropped the Dutchmen and Dutchwomen athletic identities and rebranded as the Garnet Chargers. Garnet has long been Union’s official school color, while the Chargers portion of the new identity references Schenectady, New York’s “legacy as a hub of electrical innovation and invention”, as well as being “an apt metaphor for the high-energy, forward-looking Union College experience”. Garnet Chargers beat out Garnet Griffins, Garnet Hawks, and Garnet Storm amongst four finalist identities. A Garnet Chargers mascot will be unveiled in the fall. https://www.union.edu/news/stories/202308/welcome-garnet-chargers-era#

1846 Milwaukee Cream City Milwaukee Brigade Milwaukee Iron Milwaukee Brigade would be my preference It honors King’s Wisconsin Brigade/the Iron Brigade of the United States Civil War, a Union Army infantry unit primarily comprised of soldiers from three Wisconsin.regiments. The name would also tie into the Iron District stadium location. I could see the brigade’s distinctive black wool Hardee hats being incorporated into the soccer club’s visual branding, with “Black Hats” being a nickname for the team. After Milwaukee Brigade, I’d probably rank my remaining candidates Milwaukee Iron, 1846 Milwaukee, and Cream City.

And "Fighting Illini" and "Fighting Leathernecks".

Isn't the Toronto Argonauts organization the oldest extant North American professional sports organization to still be using some version of its original name? Sorry, but a team with that branding legacy shouldn't be embracing this type of sartorial trendiness. At the very least, there should be - as others have noted - a more equitable balance of Oxford Blue and Cambridge Blue by the "Double Blue".

Armada San Diego Armada San Diego FC San Diego Armada FC San Diego Armada AFC San Diego San Diego AFC Atlético San Diego

Fußballverein Wal Vagina

There's really no need to do so. When the Sunshine State Conference was launched in 1975, the athletic programs at just two of its member schools - Eckerd College and Rollins College - had marine-themed identities. The teams at Biscayne College (now St. Thomas University), Florida Southern College, Florida Technological University (now the University of Central Florida), and Saint Leo College (now Saint Leo University) did not. The situation is similar today. The Sunshine State Conference is comprised of eleven member institutions. While the five schools B-Rich highlighted have marine-themed athletic identities, the other six do not: Barry University Buccaneers Eckerd College Tritons Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Eagles Florida Southern College Moccasins Florida Institute of Technology Panthers Lynn University Fighting Knights Nova Southeastern University Sharks Palm Beach Atlantic University Sailfish Rollins College Tars Saint Leo University Lions University of Tampa Spartans

Now all I can think of is barbecue pork.

It wouldn't shock me to see the Oakland Invaders relocate to San Jose. San Jose is the third most populous city in California, the most populous city in the Bay Area, and is home to more than twice as many residents as Oakland. It is located nearly exactly equidistant between Oakland and San Francisco, thereby making it perfectly situated to draw fans from both of those municipalities. As such, the argument could be made that a San Jose-based USFL franchise would tap into support within both the #13 San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA MSA and the #36 San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA MSA, while drawing viewers from throughout the #6 San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose television DMA. Further, the financing of a stadium project in San Jose might be far easier to pull together given the burgeoning Silicon Valley economy. Finally, should USFL leadership ever seek to pursue placing a team in Sacramento, a San Jose-based USFL team would that much farther away from the catchment area of said franchise than an Oakland team would. I could see either the Jacksonville Bulls or the Orlando Renegades - likely, the former - relocating to Miami. The Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area is the most populous in the state and the Miami-Fort Lauderdale Nielsen Designated Market Area (#18 in the country) is the third-largest in the state behind the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Sarasota (#13) and Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne (#17) DMAs. Jacksonville, as the 39th-largest MSA and 41st-largest DMA, significantly trails the other Florida markets in population and TV viewership metrics. In the Lone Star State, I could envision the Texas Outlaws relocating to the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX MSA, only to have an ownership group step up and secure a new team for San Antonio just as soon as possible. On the other hand, I could also see the Dallas market entering the USFL via expansion, with Outlaws team management subsequently stepping up there game in order to compete with not just one, but two Texas-based competitors. Either way, might a Central Texas-based USFL team opt to divide its scheduled allotment of home games between both San Antonio and Austin? Also, as both the USFL and the professional sports industry grow, how long will smaller markets such as Memphis (#43 MSA; #52 Nielsen DMA), New Orleans (#47 MSA; #50 Nielsen DMA), and Birmingham (#50 MSA; #45 Nielsen DMA) be able to hold onto their United States Football League teams? Interesting scenarios and questions. It will be interesting to see what your fervid imagination comes up with in the seasons ahead. * Note: All MSA and DMA rankings are from 2020 through the present.

To the best of my knowledge, there are only four schools west of the Mississippi River that play host to NCAA D1 men's lacrosse programs: Lindenwood University, the United States Air Force Academy, the University of Denver, and the University of Utah. As for the number of member institutions necessary to launch a western D1 lacrosse conference sanctioned by the NCAA, I'm at a loss. I don't know of the existence of any lacrosse-only conferences operating at the NCAA D1 and D2 levels. That said, the Midwest Lacrosse Conference (6 members) and the Coastal Lacrosse Conference (6 members) both operate as D3, NCAA-sanctioned, lacrosse-only circuits.

By all that is holy, please don’t allow the USFL’s Los Angeles Express to be influenced by the World Football League’s Jacksonville Express and the United Football League’s Las Vegas Locomotives. AAF’s Memphis Express (who they already share design elements with) and the UFL’s Omaha Nighthawks? Sure. But the WFL’s Express and UFL’s Locos? Oh, dear God… no.

I really like this update of the Charlotte Monarchs’ secondary logo. Nicely done, sir. Realistically, I believe the best candidate for 2008 expansion is that of the Charlotte Monarchs. Though they’d be sharing the market and stadium with the NFL’s Carolina Panthers, the Monarchs would be going into a first class facility in a fast-growing city that is poised to grow from a regional financial power into a national economic player. I’ve also warmed to a color palette that accompanies an outstanding logo package. In fact, while I’ll still give the edge to the Virginia Destroyers’ colors of Burgundy, Navy, and Battleship Grey, the Monarchs’ logos are at least the equal of their Tidewater-based counterparts With regard to the other bids, the Tidewater Region’s economic/corporate question marks give me pause about casting a vote for the Destroyers. As for the Carolina Surge, I feel that they’re the secondary bid - by a good margin - within their own state… and the less said about their identity package the better. The latter was comprised of a mediocre logo, an insipid name, and a garish palette when it was unveiled by the WLAF in the early ‘90s and it doesn’t strike me as having aged well since. I wasn’t a fan of the Surge in the California Delta of 1991 and I’m not pulling for them in the Research Triangle of 2008.

I prefer Version 1. I don’t think the teal turret roof adds anything to the design. In fact, I prefer the stylization of the C into a tower better in the first version of the mark.

I’d personally rank the identity packages… 1st - Virginia Destroyers 2nd - Charlotte Monarchs 3rd - Carolina Surge … with the Destroyers’ brand striking me as being clearly preferable to that of the Monarchs (I’m not a huge fan of the Teal as the primary color in the latter), and both the Destroyers’ and Monarchs’ identities absolutely outclassing that of the Surge. I’ll be interested in seeing whether a secondary logo for the Monarchs can close the gap that I perceive between the top two packages, but it would have to be one hell of an ancillary mark.

Monochrome? Guess again. Bird Gang plumage... courtesy of Nike Meh-Nah-Chrome ™.

Less a uniform unveiling than a uniTARD unveiling. Leave it to the Cardinals: so focused on preventing a leak that they ended up s**tting themselves. "Meh" at best.

Frankly, it would strike me as being definitively Arizona Cardinals-like for the leadership of this franchise to be so focused on preventing a “leak” that they wound up blissfully unaware of the fact that the new uniforms they’d produced looked like “s**t”.

Gamboge? Xanthous? Fulvous? AZ Cardinals Football: Game-boge ON!

I'd love it if the third of the identity system candidates unveiled by the PDX Football Group paid tribute to the sign that has adorned Portland's White Stag Building since 1940. Beginning in 1957, the sign was altered to feature an outline of the State of Oregon and the silhouette of a leaping white stag. This was part of an advertisement that touted the building as "Home of White Stag Sportswear". While the White Stag company has since left Oregon and the lettering on the sign now reads, "Made in Oregon" and "Oldtown", the illuminated outline of the state and the stag remain on the city-designated historic landmark. I could see a Portland Stags USFL team adopting imagery and design flourishes inspired by Dane Storrusten's identity system for the Chicago Staggs of the proposed A11FL (oh, how I loved that helmet), or the family of marks unveiled by the Edmonton Elks in 2021.

Prost!!!