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Renaming the Cleveland baseball team (NOT FOR DEFENDING "INDIANS")

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Select a name for the Cleveland baseball team

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sportscoach said:
I don't like the C block, probably cause Cincinnati also has a C.. I want something thats not a letter lol
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Cincinnati and the Cubs have a "C" design that has looked the same forever and has become distinctive for their franchises. Cleveland has changed the "C" constantly. Far and away, Chief Wahoo was the most popular logo. With the new name, they need to settle on a new logo that can stand the test of time.
 
What the hell do you do for a logo for Foresters? Outside of a C for Cleveland, I genuinely have no idea what a secondary logo would be.
 
33Y0 said:
cleveland_indians_retro_logo_house_flag_100821sma.jpg


Bring back this C.
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Never understood why they abandoned that version. It is the one hat I have purchased recently. It had the arrowhead feel and seemed to support the nickname. Doing something similar for the new name should happen.
 
buzzdog said:
Chameleons. It's alliterative.
And, you could change the colors as often as you want.
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The colors would actually be a rainbow . Along with the name Foresters, would be a big hit with the local LGBTQ+ community.
 
Steve_424 said:
Guardians is for old people but you want to use a team name from the late 1800's? (Which, again, wasn't used by this franchise...it's not part of our history)

I think there are two camps here.

1) People who want to keep the colors, look, and feel of the current team that have been around for over 100 years

2) People who want to throw that out and start completely over.

I'm firmly in camp #1 and will be incredibly disappointed if they go with #2.
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The historical basis isn't particularly important for Spiders. My bigger point is I see it working a lot better outside of the history.

What matters is fan engagement, and if we don't want the Indians' popularity to continue to wane, we need something that doesn't look like branding for old white people.

That's also why my vision for Spiders includes minimal historical throwback stuff. Sure, maybe the name itself comes from the 1800s but it's easy to make people soon forget that with a modern approach to marketing. Guardians seems very limited on possibilities. What would the logo look like? An old statue?

But yeah I'm definitely in Camp #2.
 
Out of the Rafters at the Q said:
I'm a millennial and I've always liked the bridge guardians.

I also think calling them "statues" is incorrect. Monuments is closer.

I still think it's going to be something like Captains or Foresters.


I genuinely don't give a shit about either 1 or 2. I think it's irrelevant. I'm still good with Guardians.
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I don't think it matters what you call them. They have the appearance of statues and if anything I get a sort of gargoyle feel out of them. I like them fine for what they are, but how about the present and future of the city?

By the way there's a New York WNBA team called the New York Liberty. They ditched their Statue of Liberty logo which I actually liked, for just a hand holding a torch. And it is the most iconic statue in America by far.

Snip20200414_115.png

How many people can actually pick a bridge guardian out of a lineup?
 
33Y0 said:
What the hell do you do for a logo for Foresters? Outside of a C for Cleveland, I genuinely have no idea what a secondary logo would be.
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nhkendall.com

Forest City – Or: Breaking Comfort Zones

So this post has been a long-time coming, originally meant to be posted way back in November, I was dealing with some other issues that I glossed over briefly in a twitter thread in the context of …
nhkendall.com nhkendall.com
 
KluberSociety said:
The historical basis isn't particularly important for Spiders. My bigger point is I see it working a lot better outside of the history.

What matters is fan engagement, and if we don't want the Indians' popularity to continue to wane, we need something that doesn't look like branding for old white people.

That's also why my vision for Spiders includes minimal historical throwback stuff. Sure, maybe the name itself comes from the 1800s but it's easy to make people soon forget that with a modern approach to marketing. Guardians seems very limited on possibilities. What would the logo look like? An old statue?

But yeah I'm definitely in Camp #2.
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The team listed 3 key themes for choosing a new name:

1) Connect with the city of Cleveland
2) Preserve our rich baseball history
3) Unite the community

So with any possible team name, I run it through those 3 items.

#3 is going to be debatable with any name, so let's focus on 1 and 2.

1 - Spiders doesn't have any unique connection to the city of Cleveland aside from the failed franchise 100+ years ago. Guardians has a very unique connection.

2 - Starting over with new colors, logos, branding, etc doesn't fit this at all. Guardians makes for an easy transition that can maintain the look and feel of what we currently have.

I just don't see Spiders happening.

As an aside, I don't think the Indians' popularity is waning, despite attendance. If people weren't paying attention the TV ratings wouldn't be what they are. But I think starting over aith look, feel, branding would be a huge risk in alienating a large section of people, many of whom don't want any change at all.
 
eChameleon said:
nhkendall.com

Forest City – Or: Breaking Comfort Zones

So this post has been a long-time coming, originally meant to be posted way back in November, I was dealing with some other issues that I glossed over briefly in a twitter thread in the context of …
nhkendall.com nhkendall.com
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Don’t love the logo… but everything else is very well done. Really like the colors and unis.
 
Steve_424 said:
The team listed 3 key themes for choosing a new name:

1) Connect with the city of Cleveland
2) Preserve our rich baseball history
3) Unite the community

So with any possible team name, I run it through those 3 items.

#3 is going to be debatable with any name, so let's focus on 1 and 2.

1 - Spiders doesn't have any unique connection to the city of Cleveland aside from the failed franchise 100+ years ago. Guardians has a very unique connection.

2 - Starting over with new colors, logos, branding, etc doesn't fit this at all. Guardians makes for an easy transition that can maintain the look and feel of what we currently have.

I just don't see Spiders happening.

As an aside, I don't think the Indians' popularity is waning, despite attendance. If people weren't paying attention the TV ratings wouldn't be what they are. But I think starting over aith look, feel, branding would be a huge risk in alienating a large section of people, many of whom don't want any change at all.
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Sadly for the people they are "alienating" they don't really matter that much for the success of the franchise in the future. And people in the area who already like baseball will still probably continue to like it even if they grumble and groan about a logo change.

By the way I don't really like the "3 key themes" very much but if we really want to go there:
1) Connect with the city of Cleveland - I think you'd be inflating the significance of bridge guardians to think that people think of them when they think of Cleveland today. I'm not from Cleveland but I asked people about them and they were kind of like huh.

2) Preserve our rich baseball history - I don't even get this one. It's not going anywhere but I don't know why we need to go full cryogenics on our current branding especially when the FO has taken the position that it's a mistake. I think those that don't believe it's a mistake will appreciate something similar to Guardians but:
a) They have little to do with baseball history per se, apart from proximity to stadium
b) Failed franchise or not, Spiders were one of the first baseball teams. Not what I'd be emphasizing at all but it's kind of cool.

3) Unite the community - Spiders are kind of universal. Baseball has a problem with young and black people (look at NFL/NBA in contrast) and Guardians would be furthering that trend. I think more in this demographic are interested in looking forward rather than backward at that old, white part of the past. The flexibility and possibilities with Spiders makes the historical origin kind of irrelevant.
 
Is Baseball a sport that attracts young people or black people? Honest question..... If not, is it wasted marketing to attempt to do so to demographics that won't be interested no matter how much they are courted?

It's a slow game, comparatively speaking. It's hyper stats driven, which loses a fair number of people's interest by itself. I loved box scores and stats, I loved playing even if I wasn't that good, I love a summer evening in the upper deck even if there is no scoring for 3 or 4 innings. That doesn't appeal to everyone.
 
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