Into the 414-Verse (Milwaukee Does- WNBA)

[Wildcomet]

Allow me to do my best Obi-Wan and say "Hello There!" This will be a series exploring various "What ifs" in Milwaukee Sports history. They range from some being closer to true near possibilities (like 'what if the White Sox moved to Milwaukee') to some being a bit less realistic (like 'what if the Milwaukee Bucks decided to start a bunch of teams in other leagues'), and there's a few 'what if [insert team here] managed to survive/remain in the city' ones as well, all in all I have current plans for 20 entries in this series, which will be listed below the timeline map (I'll also link to concepts there for easy looking). To give everyone a bit of a preview of what to expect, alongside my list of 'What ifs' I'll be exploring, the map below includes small glimpses of the primary logos for each of the concepts (secondarys, uniforms, etc. are in varying stages of development).

 

This is definitely the biggest concept series I've done with multiple logos and uniforms for each team, and will include multiple cases of doing my first ever uniform for a team in a specific sport. C & C is always welcome and will be appreciated, but I hope people like what is to come. Uniforms will have the team name on the back, and the number will always come from the year the timeline branched off. Generally, the uniforms are done with a sense of them existing in the modern day unless specifically noted otherwise. Some of them have led to fairly extensive lore being developed around them... I'm not sure how much of that people would want, so feel free to comment on that. 

 

 

Here are the questions I will be exploring with this series:

 

What if...

• ... the Grays made it in the National League? (1878)
• ... the NFL's Badgers were more successful? (1927) - Take 2 (Coming Soon)
• ... the Hawks kept their nest in Milwaukee? (1955)
• ... the NFL forced the Packers out of Green Bay? (1956)
• ... the Braves never left the Brew City? (1966)
• ... Democracy prevailed in Milwaukee's "Name the Team" contest? (1968)
• ... the White Sox beat the Pilots to Milwaukee? (1970)
•  ... the Panthers kept their football team on the field? (1974)
•  ... the Bradley Center lured the NHL to Milwaukee in the 1990s? (1994)
• ... the Milwaukee Does were revived in 1999? (1999)
• ... Miller Park was delayed for too long? (2006)
• ... the Milwaukee Bucks expanded into other sports? (named the "Deer Sports Timeline" - 2017)
  • Part 1 - The initial teams (3 concepts together)
  • Part 2 - Expanding the portfolio (2 concepts together)
• ... the Coyotes went somewhere other than Salt Lake City? (2024)
• ... the AFL 3.0 revival brought back the Milwaukee Mustangs? (2024)
• ... Milwaukee Pro Soccer picked (or picks) one of my Name the Team entries? (2026 - 2 concepts together)

 

Generally, I plan to go in chronological order, but there may be an exception or two as we go along. I'm also willing to take suggestions on other ideas for 'What ifs' as we go also - they may not make the first run of 20, but if there's enough ideas there could be a Phase 2 to this series.  Thanks for taking the time to check this out! I'll be back before long with my first 'What if' concept.

[BlueMoon18]

We got a third one ladies and gentlemen! I like your idea with the "What-ifs," and some of them are interesting. I didn't even know the Milwaukee Does existed until I saw this!

[Wildcomet]

On 5/26/2024 at 5:59 PM, BlueMoon18 said:

We got a third one ladies and gentlemen! I like your idea with the "What-ifs," and some of them are interesting. I didn't even know the Milwaukee Does existed until I saw this!

 

Haha, yes we do. I've been a follower of those threads and they helped inspire me to try my hand with this one (go check out the DFW-verse and 816-Verse threads if you havent yet; a lot of great material to be seen in them). Thanks! I learned some interesting things about a few teams researching for this, including the first team on my list.

 

Let's take a look at what if... the Milwaukee Grays were able to make it in the National League?

 

 

Lore: 

Spoiler

In real life, the Grays played a single season in the National League in 1878 after one season in the loosely affiliated League Alliance, the same National League that today is part of Major League Baseball. The team placed last in the league and folded after that single season, and the city hosted a variety of major and minor league franchises (including multiple prior iterations of the Brewers) before the Brewers of today came to town.

 

This timeline imagines if the Grays had more committed and stable management, and managed to build a franchise that lasted to the modern day. It’s hard to say just what would change in this timeline, but its safe to say that the Boston Braves would not have moved to Milwaukee in the 1950’s, nor the Seattle Pilots in 1970. Here, I surmise the Braves moved down the coast to Baltimore in 1953 (which in turn caused the St. Louis Browns to instead relocate to Kansas City in 1955), while the Pilots moved to Toronto in 1970.

 

Design Notes: 

Spoiler

It was hard to find references or clear pics to guide me on this one, but it appeared their logo was an M in a font similar to the Detroit Tigers, so I imagined that evolving into a slightly simpler font style, and my modern day logo incorporates the M into a roundel with multiple shades of gray, a baseball seam pattern around the M and the year established, as this team would be all about its history. The M on its own is used as a secondary logo, and I also imagined at some point there would be a gray G logo, which I put a baseball bat into the end of the G. The wordmark loosely incorporates the design of a Milwaukee drawbridge; the uniting of towns to form Milwaukee with that bridge had occurred only about 30 years prior to this team forming and was still a fairly big deal at the time, so the bridge represents Milwaukee’s coming together as a community.

 

I tried to keep the main uniforms pretty consistent with what I think the original team’s uniforms were, but did give them some more modern touches with outlines, a more unique number font, etc. I decided to make the Alternate uniform the one that embraces modern day. Since the color pallette is pretty lacking (from what I could find I think white, gray and black was truly their colors, even a heritage team that plays in a recreation of their uniforms used those colors) I decided to let the alternate design get a bit out there with the embrace of gradients on the pants, sleeves and torso.

 

Edited May 28 by Wildcomet
tried out the spoiler tag on the lore and design notes to shorten the post.

[Wildcomet]

I appreciate the reactions for the first design! Lets move along the timeline to the next nexus event in 1927, and examine what if the NFL's Milwaukee Badgers had been more successful on the field in their early years...

 

 

Lore:

Spoiler

The Milwaukee Badgers were among the NFL’s earliest teams, playing from 1922-1926. In their four years, they had mixed results, and struggled to draw fans as well as other teams, notably the in-state rival Packers. Even in their best years the Badgers struggled on the field against the Packers, who became the state’s top team in the eyes of local fans. A scandal about fielding a team with high school players for a game in 1925 that led to financial troubles doomed the team.

 

In this timeline the Badgers do better on the field, notably splitting their games with the Packers over the first several seasons. Improved on-field success led to scheduling more games seeking an NFL Championship. This avoided the high school player scandal (it happened in part due to taking on a late-season game against the Chicago Cardinals on short notice). It also led to the state developing a more even following of the two teams. Wisconsin football fandom split; the northern parts of the state strongly supporting the Packers while the southern areas supported the Badgers (the team and the Univ. of Wisconsin eventually formalized an agreement about the continued use of the Badger name in the 1930s) The Packers survive to the present day alongside the Badgers, though the existence of the 2nd team hurts the Packers bottom line and forces the earlier construction of what becomes Lambeau Field. Lacking access to the Milwaukee market, that stadium is built closer to nearby Appleton allowing the team to more easily pull in fans from around the Fox Valley region (roughly covering a stretch from Green Bay to Oshkosh) and justify a bigger initial stadium. The Packers retain the Green Bay name, but Appleton ends up becoming the state’s 3rd biggest city as a result.

 

Design:

Spoiler

The Badgers had more modern branding than most 1920s teams, so I see it largely surviving to the modern day. The primary logo is just a minorly altered iteration of the original logo. A couple notable changes are a stylized version of the Wisconsin state outline in the ear and an updated wordmark font. Elements of the logo such as the badger's clawed paws, became the basis for the secondary logos which developed. The agreement with Univ. of Wisconsin about the use of the Badger name led to the Badgers switching their black color to brown (this happened before the forming of the Cleveland Browns franchise, but likely does impact them and the Bengals further down the road) to help separate the brands. White also became more of an eggshell color. 

 

The primary home and away uniforms are envisioned as a modern evolution of their original uniforms, with the chest stripes from the 1920s era being adapted as sleeve stripes while the shoulder yoke is reduced in size to an accent feature. The throwback recreates the 1920s uniforms in a more literal manner. I could not find any clear or definitive reference to what their original helmets looked like, so I took a liberty and gave them a Michigan-like throwback helmet with a white stripe down the middle similar to their logo, which evolved to a triple stripe in the modern day, which is also on the pant legs. The modern-day alternate embraces Wisconsin’s hunting and outdoor culture featuring camo patterns in the team colors (which are similar to what is worn by hunters during Deer hunting season) on the shoulders, sleeves, pants and helmet, and a gradient version in the chest and back numbers.

 

[packerfan21396]

Obviously, I am a fan of the subject matter and the execution here, but to add to the Milwaukee Grays, Threads of Our Game is a fantastic resource for 19th Century baseball.  They have the 1878 Grays wearing gray uniforms with red lettering and stockings, so it's possible red could be retained, but I have no problem with your grayscale vision either.

[Wildcomet]

7 hours ago, packerfan21396 said:

Obviously, I am a fan of the subject matter and the execution here, but to add to the Milwaukee Grays, Threads of Our Game is a fantastic resource for 19th Century baseball.  They have the 1878 Grays wearing gray uniforms with red lettering and stockings, so it's possible red could be retained, but I have no problem with your grayscale vision either.

 

Thanks for the compliments and the link! I had not seen that site before and it would have been quite helpful to be honest. The only non-black and white pics I had to work with regarding the Grays' uniforms or colors were a couple pics of those worn by a heritage baseball team (from the sounds of it, basically the baseball version of Civil War re-enacters), which do not look much like what your link shows. I had kind of just hoped I could count on them to be accurate, lol.

 

I may go back and revisit this (and any others that may warrant it as I move forward) after I get through the first run of these designs to see what I can come up with  that incorporates the red into it.  Something that site is helping to reinforce for me is how, as much as I think people would currently associate blue, green and tan/cream colors with Milwaukee sports, prior to the Bucks and modern-day Brewers red was a very prominent color in the fabric of Milwaukee sports.

[packerfan21396]

12 hours ago, Wildcomet said:

 

Thanks for the compliments and the link! I had not seen that site before and it would have been quite helpful to be honest. The only non-black and white pics I had to work with regarding the Grays' uniforms or colors were a couple pics of those worn by a heritage baseball team (from the sounds of it, basically the baseball version of Civil War re-enacters), which do not look much like what your link shows. I had kind of just hoped I could count on them to be accurate, lol.

 

I may go back and revisit this (and any others that may warrant it as I move forward) after I get through the first run of these designs to see what I can come up with  that incorporates the red into it.  Something that site is helping to reinforce for me is how, as much as I think people would currently associate blue, green and tan/cream colors with Milwaukee sports, prior to the Bucks and modern-day Brewers red was a very prominent color in the fabric of Milwaukee sports.

Having perused a bit of the site, I've come to the conclusion that much like today, blue and red are prominent colors in baseball, period.  So, I wouldn't put too much stock in red being a Milwaukee color, but looking back red has seeped into Milwaukee sports as recently as Brandon Jennings Bucks.  Currently though, Harley colors (Badgers, Iron/Mustangs), city flag colors (Brewers, Admirals), and German colors seem Milwaukee to me.

[Wildcomet]

46 minutes ago, packerfan21396 said:

Having perused a bit of the site, I've come to the conclusion that much like today, blue and red are prominent colors in baseball, period.  So, I wouldn't put too much stock in red being a Milwaukee color, but looking back red has seeped into Milwaukee sports as recently as Brandon Jennings Bucks.  Currently though, Harley colors (Badgers, Iron/Mustangs), city flag colors (Brewers, Admirals), and German colors seem Milwaukee to me.

I'd agree for sure with the baseball thing, a lot of teams did (and still do, though to a lesser degree) rely on some combo of red, white and/or blue it seems. I made that comment based on the various baseball teams and the Hawks when they were in Milwaukee in the 50's featuring the color in their designs, which seems to cover most of Milwaukee's pre-Bucks history with pro-sports aside from the Badgers. But all the same, that is good point about the general trends for team colors in baseball.

[fortunat1]

I've enjoyed the first two entries to the series so far! The Milwaukee Greys look fantastic. The blackletter font and fairly traditional design choices give the jerseys a historical baseball feel while still looking good in the modern day.

 

There's a lot to like with the Badgers too. The home, road, and throwback jerseys are each great. The striping on the home and road in particular is a fantastic alternative to the typical patterns/logos that are found on current NFL uniforms. As far as logos go, I'd say that the secondary logo is my favorite. Each of the other logos are good and make for a cohesive brand, with my only suggestion being to either simplify or remove the Wisconsin shape in the badger's ear. It sticks out a lot to me because it seems more detailed than some other parts of the logo, so a less detailed approach may fit better. I'm not totally sold on the alternate uniform either. The camouflage/hunting motif is ambitious, but I think that it's not really suited for a Milwaukee team since the Badgers would cater to Wisconsin's most urban market. The home and road design is so strong that I think you could get away with an orange recolor of those jerseys as the alternate to round out a fantastic set.

 

Lots of good stuff so far though, I can't wait to see how the rest of the series goes!

[The_Admiral]

I think it's interesting that you used a slashed 7 on the numbers. I have nothing to back this up, but I feel that if you did a soda/pop map of the United States but with slashed and unslashed 7s, Wisconsin would be one of the most slashed-7 parts of the country.

[Wildcomet]

15 hours ago, fortunat1 said:

I've enjoyed the first two entries to the series so far! The Milwaukee Greys look fantastic. The blackletter font and fairly traditional design choices give the jerseys a historical baseball feel while still looking good in the modern day.

 

There's a lot to like with the Badgers too. The home, road, and throwback jerseys are each great. The striping on the home and road in particular is a fantastic alternative to the typical patterns/logos that are found on current NFL uniforms. As far as logos go, I'd say that the secondary logo is my favorite. Each of the other logos are good and make for a cohesive brand, with my only suggestion being to either simplify or remove the Wisconsin shape in the badger's ear. It sticks out a lot to me because it seems more detailed than some other parts of the logo, so a less detailed approach may fit better. I'm not totally sold on the alternate uniform either. The camouflage/hunting motif is ambitious, but I think that it's not really suited for a Milwaukee team since the Badgers would cater to Wisconsin's most urban market. The home and road design is so strong that I think you could get away with an orange recolor of those jerseys as the alternate to round out a fantastic set.

 

Lots of good stuff so far though, I can't wait to see how the rest of the series goes!

 

 

Thank you! I appreciate the compliments and the feedback is insightful! You raise a good point about the alternate hunter-camo uniform. In my head I envisioned it as them doing it because I really think there'd be a demand for that type of jersey among WI fans and the Packers are notorious for not changing up their uniform much beyond the norm, so it'd be them trying to take advantage. I will give that and tweaking the ear in my primary logo some thought for the future. The ear was the one part I was not feeling great about in the primary but could not put a finger on exactly what to do to make it better. It could well be something I circle back to once the main run of uniforms is done.

 

On that note, I have the next concept to share. This one shifts to basketball in 1955 to consider what if... the modern day Atlanta Hawks never left Milwaukee?

 

 

Lore:

Spoiler

In our timeline, the Hawks were in Milwaukee from 1951-1955, but struggled quite a bit with getting fans in the stands (about 1,000 per game) and didn't do great on the court either (last place finishes every year).  At that time, Milwaukee was a baseball town and had the Braves to cheer on. So in 1955 the team stopped for a couple years long cup of coffee in St. Louis before settling eventually in Atlanta.

 

The only realistic way to make this timeline work is to say that the Hawks did better assembling their roster in the 50s and put a much better team on the court, earning themselves some attention from the locals to get by as basketball's popularity grew across the country. If they could make it to the late 60's when the Braves left town then I think they could make it long-term. The team played in what was the MECCA (now UW-Panther Arena) and would continue to do so until the Bradley Center is built in the late 80s, like in our time. Being a major city, I don't doubt that Atlanta would have at some point gotten its own expansion team or see another team relocate there in this timeline.  I do think a successful Hawks sharing the scene with the Braves for a decade  plus could have solidified a tradition of later teams in the Milwaukee area (including smaller ones like Bavarian United, Milwaukee Wave, etc) being a bit more red-forward in their branding and colors.

 

Design Notes:

Spoiler

I didn't include it on the sheet this time, but the 1950's era logo was red & white and featured a hawk holding a basketball in its talons over a basketball hoop. The silver was an addition on my part to their color scheme, as opposed to the yellow added later in the real life team's history. The 50's logo was too busy I felt to directly translate into a more modern logo so I envision the team transitioning to a more simple design. I took some inspiration from the Atlanta Falcons and crafted a logo inspired by a flying hawk in a straight dive so that its body forms an M shape (like how the Falcons logo forms an F). I went with a font that reminded me of a bird of prey, being sharp yet smooth in ways at the same time. The font's M shape naturally lent itself to adding the feather in as one of the diagonal lines in the middle of the letter.

 

The home and away uniforms were kept fairly minimalist to fit the logo, while the alt is also a kind of throwback to what I imagine their 80s/90s era uniforms would have looked like with the wide stripe tracing the hawk's flight path around the uniform.  The throwback uniform was an attempt to match well with what the team wore in the 50s. 

 

Hope you all enjoy this one. The next one I am planning to put out moves forward just a short time to examine what if... the NFL forced the Packers to leave Green Bay!

[fortunat1]

Good work again! I think the secondary logo would benefit from a thicker stroke, but that's about it. I really like how the red and silver color scheme gives them a distinct look from other NBA teams.

[Wildcomet]

Happy weekend everyone! Time for the next concept in the series: What if... the NFL forced the Packers to leave Green Bay?

 

 

Lore:

Spoiler

Back in the 1950's, the Green Bay Packers already were (by far) the league's smallest market. They had survived up to that point on the back of on-field success in the prior decades and their unique status of public ownership. By this point however, the Packers' playing facilities were bordering on unacceptable by the rest of the NFL, and after the 1953 completion of Milwaukee County Stadium 120 miles to the south, rumblings of a forced move by the NFL began. In our timeline, the Packers and the Green Bay community countered with plans for what would become Lambeau Field, which local voters overwhelmingly approved.

 

In this timeline, a smear campaign (unknown to the locals at the time) led by some NFL owners and supported by some Milwaukee business owners turned public opinion against the idea of funding a stadium at such cost and scale solely for the use of a single football team. After the 1956 bond vote failed, the Green Bay Packers Board of Directors approved a move to Milwaukee under threat of expulsion from the NFL to play in Milwaukee County Stadium. The Packers organization announced what they called the Gold Package to season ticket holders in the Green Bay area for them to get tickets to one pre-season and two regular season games each year.

 

On-field events in this timeline remained largely unchanged, as ownership remained the same and geographically the move changed little for the organization. Off the field, the team did it's best to maintain its connection to Green Bay while also embracing its new community. They kept their training camp facilities and the Packer Hall of Fame in Green Bay, and eventually helped secure an Amtrak extension from Milwaukee to Green Bay to make travel easier for fans.

 

In Milwaukee, the Packers were a major part of the sports culture, but still shared the city with the Braves, then the Bucks and Brewers (not to mention several college and minor league teams in various sports) so they did not develop quite the same aura around them as in our timeline. With a shared stadium, "Lambeau Field" doesn't happen; this timeline's version of Miller Park comes along a few years earlier due to the increased use over time and is designed in a way that better suits a dual-use stadium. But make no mistake, the team still values its history.

Design: 

Spoiler

The Packers' branding largely remained the same, mostly just adjusting to the move. IRL historical logos which featured the  state of WI and a mark for Green Bay's location were adjusted to highlight the new Milwaukee home (I included a modernized take on the 1961 logo I had done in the past as a secondary here, tweaked for this timeline of course). The signature G was also changed to a design featuring an M. It's based on the stencil font from their wordmark. White lines on the tips of the oval create lines similar to the stripes on some footballs in the negative space. Something I didn't put on the concept sheet for lack of space is that on the Gold Package games, the Packers would revert to the G logo on the helmet.

 

The primary uniforms remain basically the same as our timeline aside from the M logo replacing the G following the move.  The 50's throwback uniforms of our timeline would still be in use here I reckon, representing the time when the team made the move to Milwaukee. That said, the team is a bit more willing to embrace other looks in this timeline alongside the Brewers and Bucks, and in the 2020s develops the alternate 'People's Team' uniform based off Milwaukee's unofficial flag design which gained popularity and the team's public-owned status. It has a modified version of the flag symbol stretched into an oval similar to their primary logo, which is featured on the helmet, sleeves and pants. I really think in this timeline that would be a good marriage of team and local branding.

 

I know messing with the Packers logo or uniforms in this forum can be a dangerous move, lol, but I'm hoping I largely did the team justice given the circumstances forced by the 'what if' question at hand. Thanks for checking this out, hope you all enjoy!

[Wildcomet]

Well let's jump forward a decade to take a look at the next variant timeline and the last entry from what I consider to be Milwaukee's old era of sports (before the modern Brewers and Bucks started), where we can see what if... the Braves never left the Brew City?

 

 

Lore:

Spoiler

In real life, the Braves played in Milwaukee from 1953 - 1965. The 50’s were very good for the Milwaukee Braves, but on the field they had a few struggles moving into the 60s. This coincided with the team’s owner selling the team in 1962. The new owner quickly made moves to shop the team around to larger TV markets, which led to a move to Atlanta being announced in 1965. The move became official with the team first playing in Atlanta in 1966.

 

In this timeline, the team’s owner doesn’t sell the team, and keeps them in Milwaukee to continue to build on the overall success of their first decade. This would have some definite impacts on other team relocations and expansions, since the Pilots would not be able to move to Milwaukee in 1970. The simple solution would be for the Pilots to end up in Atlanta; they could possibly keep the Pilots names as (IIRC) there is an Air Force base and Lockheed Martin’s headquarters not too far from the city.

Design:

Spoiler

I think a branding change would take place in the 1990’s in this timeline. In real-life 1994, Milwaukee’s Marquette University changed its mascot from the Warriors to the Golden Eagles due to pressure around the issue of Native American team names, so I could see the Milwaukee Braves making a change as well. I think they keep the name, but change the context. There’s an Air National Guard Base not far from Milwaukee; I think they’d rebrand to give the name a military context. 

 

My logo replaces the Tomahawk with an F-16 in flight. I made the plane’s exhaust take a baseball bat shape. I also kept the Braves with colors used in the 50’s according to the logo on this forum's website; I don’t think they’d switch to a red/white/blue combo if they stayed next door to the Cubs. While different shades, the colors would just be too close, and with the new Fighter Jet brand the yellow fits well with the exhaust flames. It also gives a fairly unique look among modern teams. I did also include among the other logos some versions of logos they’d have used pre-rebrand or actually did use in real life before the move. The uniforms are kept pretty similar to the real-life Braves uniforms aside from the color and logo changes.

 

Well I hope people enjoy. This gave the challenge of how to handle the potentially sensitive issue around using a Native American team name with history behind it, so I took the route I thought would work best here to keep the name and recontextualize it. I ended up really liking how the alternate uniform pops personally. C & C is always appreciated, and thanks for the feedback up to this point.

 

From here I will move to what ifs based on Milwaukee's modern era, where the Bucks and Brewers call the city. The next one will look at a different path for the Bucks franchise.

 

Question for everyone, would there be an interest in me revisiting some of these scenarios after the main series is done to consider what other some teams could look like as a result of the changes? For instance, a domino effect of keeping the Braves in Milwaukee here could be that the Seattle Pilots become the Atlanta Pilots. Please let me know if that type of work is something anyone would like to see. Thanks!

[Wildcomet]

Time for one of the ones I am more excited to share because it gave me a chance to do something more of an original concept; aside from the name I had no major constraints on the brand to work around. It's also one of my first ever ventures into doing logos and uniforms for a basketball team. Let's see what if... the Milwaukee Bucks' original owners honored the results of their Name the Team contest?

 

 

Lore:

Spoiler

When Milwaukee was awarded an NBA expansion team in 1968, the owners of the time held a Name the Team contest that drew over 40,000 submissions from would-be fans of the new team. While the Bucks ended up being the chosen name, it was not the top vote-getter in that contest… that honor goes to the name Robins, the state bird of Wisconsin. The nickname Bucks was the second-place winner in the contest, but was chosen because they felt the attributes of the whitetail deer (the state’s official wild animal) better represented what they wanted the team to be…”spirited, good jumpers, fast and agile.”

 

In this alternate timeline, the contest judges simply decide to go with the top vote-getter, so the team becomes known as the Milwaukee Robins. Honestly very little is changed about the timeline due to this that I can figure… I don’t see any major changes on or off the court just because of the name; the Deer District becomes the Birds Nest, the Wisconsin Herd becomes the Wisconsin Flock. That’s probably about it.

 

Design:

Spoiler

The design for this modern-day brand was inspired quite a bit by the Toronto Raptors, but I also took some inspiration from various eras of the Bucks. What is now listed as the secondary logo would have been the primary logo in the 90s, but was demoted in the 21st century for the roundel-style logo that is now the primary. The retro logo is strongly inspired by the Bucks’ original logo. The colors evolved over time from the dark-orange in the retro to the shades of red in the modern logos. You’ll see a modified version of my Hawks secondary logo re-appearing here; I took some suggestions from this forum on thickening the line work and recolored it to take advantage of the wider color palette for this brand.

 

A pattern used by the Bucks in one of their City Connect jerseys is applied here; I really like how it’s almost feather-like in its shape so it fits well here I feel. The throwback is based off another Bucks City Connect jersey, which in turn was inspired by the court floor in the MECCA, where the Bucks played originally in real life and the Robins would have in this timeline. The alternate combines some aspects with the home/away jerseys with features of past Raptors uniforms, like the different colors on the front and back of the jersey.

 

Hope you all enjoy! The next one will move into the 70's and return the series to baseball.

[Wildcomet]

Happy weekend everyone! Figured now is as good of time as any to put out the next entry in this series. Let's see what happens if the White Sox beat the Pilots to Milwaukee?

 

 

Lore:

Spoiler

In the late 1960s, the Chicago White Sox had flirted with the idea of moving north to take advantage of the Braves' move, holding 15 of their home games in Milwaukee from 1968-1969 and were considering a larger move... until the Seattle Pilots swooped in and took the market for themselves. The White Sox’s effort before the announcement was hampered by other American League teams who thought it would financially hurt the league to trade the Chicago market for the Milwaukee one. While Chicago would still have the Cubs, they were in the National League.

 

In this timeline, those efforts are overcome and seeing growing struggles out in Seattle, the White Sox announce the permanent move to Milwaukee in 1969, where they will play their first full season in 1970. My Grays and Braves posts largely covered the domino effect that we could see from Milwaukee having another team take hold in the city. Seattle would definitely not stay put, there were just too many issues. Toronto could be a solid landing place for the Pilots I think in this timeframe. I could see the team attempting to play a couple games each year in Chicago, but this would probably end after a couple years as Chicago fans elect eventually to support the team that still plays in the city.

Design:

Spoiler

White Sox branding was pretty consistent in our actual timeline so I don't see this changing too much due to this move. The biggest change (aside from logos switching from "Chicago" to "Milwaukee" in them) is that the team never switches to black as a primary color.  Since they're now both in a different city and league from the Chicago Cubs, who are also primarily blue and white, they won't have the same pressure to change to stand out.

 

The uniforms also largely stay about the same as they were before the move and in our real life timeline. They seemed to be pretty consistent from what I saw in my research so I don't see that changing because of this move. The home and away uniforms are white and gray respectively, while both feature blue pinstripes. The alternate is based on the template of the home uniform, but switches the use of blue and white. This was one of my first ever attempts at pinstripes on a uniform; I feel pretty good about it but am not sure if I handled it as well I could have in the areas where the different sides of stripes meet each other. 

 

Thanks as always for taking the time to check this thread out! C & C is of course appreciated, as are the reactions. My next one should continue the march forward in time to the mid-70's, with what will be the first and only planned college team in this thread. Have a good one!

[Wildcomet]

Time for another concept to share! Let's move along the timeline to 1974, and consider what might have happened if the UW-Milwaukee Football team hadn't been disbanded?

 

 

Lore:

Spoiler

Back in 1974 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, a Division-1 School, disbanded its varsity football squad due to a lack of success with a 7-6 vote by the school's Athletic Board. Ironically, they did so in the midst of an upswing on the field following a rebrand to the UW-Milwaukee Panthers a few years prior with a .525 record combined their last four years.

 

In this timeline, the Athletic Board vote goes in the other direction, with the swing vote deciding to give the coach more time to build up the program. While progress is slow-going, especially as the University bounced between NCAA divisions and even a couple years in NAIA, they carried their respectable performance from the early to late 70's and into the 80's.

 

When UWM made the move back to the NCAA Division 1 in 1990, they started out Independent in Football and remained so until 1997, when they and some other Independent teams joined the Mid-American Conference (MAC). The increased money from D-1 conference play led to more success, and more money and support to further build the program. Amidst the conference realignment craze of the early 2010's, the Panthers joined the Big Ten Conference in all sports alongside Rutgers, Maryland, and Missouri to bring the conference to 16 teams.

Design:

Spoiler

The logos here are largely maintaining (or expanding on) the real life logos developed in a 2002 rebrand. At that time in this timeline, the football team adopted a helmet design inspired by the former-USFL's Michigan Panthers. Prior to this, they had either the plain yellow helmet (what was used in real life before the team disbanded) or a fairly simple M on the helmet.

 

Aside from the Michigan Panther inspired helmets, the main home and away uniforms feature sleeve and pant legs with the striping taken from the neck of the Panther logo. Claw marks are added to the front and back numbers, as well as the socks. The modern day alternates embrace the blackout trend, with a grayscale version of the home uniforms and a black helmet with a wrap-around panther face graphic inspired by these Washington Wolfpack helmets (definitely the best thing to come out of the modern Arena Football League revival). The throwbacks are a modern interpretation of what the team appeared to wear in the 1970s prior to the team’s real-life disbanding.

 

[Sec19Row53]

On 6/2/2024 at 4:40 PM, Wildcomet said:

Happy weekend everyone! Time for the next concept in the series: What if... the NFL forced the Packers to leave Green Bay?

 

 

Lore:

  Reveal hidden contents

Back in the 1950's, the Green Bay Packers already were (by far) the league's smallest market. They had survived up to that point on the back of on-field success in the prior decades and their unique status of public ownership. By this point however, the Packers' playing facilities were bordering on unacceptable by the rest of the NFL, and after the 1953 completion of Milwaukee County Stadium 120 miles to the south, rumblings of a forced move by the NFL began. In our timeline, the Packers and the Green Bay community countered with plans for what would become Lambeau Field, which local voters overwhelmingly approved.

 

In this timeline, a smear campaign (unknown to the locals at the time) led by some NFL owners and supported by some Milwaukee business owners turned public opinion against the idea of funding a stadium at such cost and scale solely for the use of a single football team. After the 1956 bond vote failed, the Green Bay Packers Board of Directors approved a move to Milwaukee under threat of expulsion from the NFL to play in Milwaukee County Stadium. The Packers organization announced what they called the Gold Package to season ticket holders in the Green Bay area for them to get tickets to one pre-season and two regular season games each year.

 

On-field events in this timeline remained largely unchanged, as ownership remained the same and geographically the move changed little for the organization. Off the field, the team did it's best to maintain its connection to Green Bay while also embracing its new community. They kept their training camp facilities and the Packer Hall of Fame in Green Bay, and eventually helped secure an Amtrak extension from Milwaukee to Green Bay to make travel easier for fans.

 

In Milwaukee, the Packers were a major part of the sports culture, but still shared the city with the Braves, then the Bucks and Brewers (not to mention several college and minor league teams in various sports) so they did not develop quite the same aura around them as in our timeline. With a shared stadium, "Lambeau Field" doesn't happen; this timeline's version of Miller Park comes along a few years earlier due to the increased use over time and is designed in a way that better suits a dual-use stadium. But make no mistake, the team still values its history.

Design: 

  Reveal hidden contents

The Packers' branding largely remained the same, mostly just adjusting to the move. IRL historical logos which featured the  state of WI and a mark for Green Bay's location were adjusted to highlight the new Milwaukee home (I included a modernized take on the 1961 logo I had done in the past as a secondary here, tweaked for this timeline of course). The signature G was also changed to a design featuring an M. It's based on the stencil font from their wordmark. White lines on the tips of the oval create lines similar to the stripes on some footballs in the negative space. Something I didn't put on the concept sheet for lack of space is that on the Gold Package games, the Packers would revert to the G logo on the helmet.

 

The primary uniforms remain basically the same as our timeline aside from the M logo replacing the G following the move.  The 50's throwback uniforms of our timeline would still be in use here I reckon, representing the time when the team made the move to Milwaukee. That said, the team is a bit more willing to embrace other looks in this timeline alongside the Brewers and Bucks, and in the 2020s develops the alternate 'People's Team' uniform based off Milwaukee's unofficial flag design which gained popularity and the team's public-owned status. It has a modified version of the flag symbol stretched into an oval similar to their primary logo, which is featured on the helmet, sleeves and pants. I really think in this timeline that would be a good marriage of team and local branding.

 

I know messing with the Packers logo or uniforms in this forum can be a dangerous move, lol, but I'm hoping I largely did the team justice given the circumstances forced by the 'what if' question at hand. Thanks for checking this out, hope you all enjoy!

Something about the M is not sitting right with me. I like where you're trying to go, but...

The odd stencil line in the middle of the M is throwing me off. And while I applaud the stripes in your football, it was the college ball that used stripes, and not the NFL.

[Wildcomet]

On 6/11/2024 at 8:16 AM, Sec19Row53 said:

Something about the M is not sitting right with me. I like where you're trying to go, but...

The odd stencil line in the middle of the M is throwing me off. And while I applaud the stripes in your football, it was the college ball that used stripes, and not the NFL.

 

That's fair, and thanks for the feedback. This was a slightly different version of the M logo I had worked on. I went with the other one because it felt less busy to me and better for smaller applications.

 

I'll ask the group here, would this one be better to use than the one I used in my concept? I could switch that easily enough if there's a consensus on this being the better one.

 

I did know the stripes are more a college football thing, but honestly without the white ends it just feels like some weird blocks of negative space, so I was willing to deal with a bit of inaccuracy over that.

[Sec19Row53]

34 minutes ago, Wildcomet said:

 

That's fair, and thanks for the feedback. This was a slightly different version of the M logo I had worked on. I went with the other one because it felt less busy to me and better for smaller applications.

 

I'll ask the group here, would this one be better to use than the one I used in my concept? I could switch that easily enough if there's a consensus on this being the better one.

 

I did know the stripes are more a college football thing, but honestly without the white ends it just feels like some weird blocks of negative space, so I was willing to deal with a bit of inaccuracy over that.

I get it. You sorta did what I was asking g for with this and ... I don't know if I like it. This version looks more like a stencil M, but all is see is the V in the middle.

 

I got nothing