The Atlanta Braves farm system is heavy on talent, but light on creativity. Three of their four full-season (and all of their partial season) affiliated teams have the nickname “Braves”. This makes sense, given that the organization owns those three teams and wanted to implement a uniform branding across the farm system.
But that uniform branding is going the way of the dodo. The Gwinnett Braves, Atlanta’s AAA affiliate in the International League, announced on Sunday that they would be changing the team name for the 2018 season, which would be open to fan submissions.
After years of pondering the move, general manager North Johnson and the Braves will announce a Name the Team contest to allow G-Braves fans and community members to determine what the Atlanta Braves’ Class AAA minor-league franchise will be called for the 2018 season and beyond. Fans will be able to vote beginning Monday on the team’s website (HERE), and submissions are open until 5 p.m. June 2.
Well thank goodness for that!
The Gwinnett Braves logo is very boring, as you can see below (via SportsLogos.net).
Their cap logo is also very blocky and doesn’t exactly inspire fans to buy merchandise.
If you’re going to slap a boring name on an affiliate, at least come up with a cool logo (like the Rome Braves of the South Atlantic League did).
But instead of admitting the truth (that their team name is uninspired and their logos are garbage), Gwinnett’s GM said that fans were getting confused about the Gwinnett Braves and the Atlanta Braves and were occasionally showing up to the wrong ballpark.
“Fast forward nine years later, we’re in our ninth season, and our reality is a lot of confusion in the market with which team is which. It’s moreso for us. … We’ve had folks, on multiple occasions, who had tickets for a Gwinnett Braves game and showed up at Turner Field. Folks have turned up at Turner Field for a fireworks show and it turned out it was our fireworks show night. It’s more to clean up confusion on the marketing side, mostly from our end.”
That hasn’t actually happened, right? I see no way in which a fan looks at a ticket stub and doesn’t know the difference between a minor league game and a major league game (and also, doesn’t know the difference between Turner Field in Atlanta and Coolray Field in Lawrenceville, where the Gwinnett Braves play their home games).
The G-Braves also want fans to know that this has *nothing to do with selling more merchandise* (even though it clearly does, and that’s probably a huge reason why this is happening).
The G-Braves apparel will disappear from the team store as well, replaced by hats, shirts and other items with the new team name. That change will offer a nice initial spike in sales of team gear, but Johnson stressed that had nothing to do with the name change. However, it is a nice bonus with the switch.
I really hope the winning name isn’t something like “Bravos” or “Tomahawks”. C’mon now.
After new names are submitted, fans will get a chance to vote on the finalists between June 19-July 3, with members from the major league Braves front office also there to throw water on any fun choices that sneak their way through the voting process.
To me, there’s really only one choice: the Gwinnett BraveyMcBravefaces.
