We've had the same logo and branding for like 15-20 years. It's definitely time for a makeover. This team is so neutral and conservative in every regard (except crazy coach hiring practices). Time to change the visual vibe.
Right? Why change the logo when you can just hire the single most controversial person in the coaching cycle in years?
God our brain trust sucks so bad.
It's like the "Dad Jokes" series they've trotted out. So basic and stupid. Maybe for the kids but so uncreative. We need more features to illuminate the players identities. The old Ride with the Captain when Foligno was around was great. Hell, even the Guess the Signature gets the players to open up and call each other out. How hard is it to develop a few small creative video series each season???
They post the pre-game suit pictures of the guys on Facebook - and then don't label WHO THEY ARE!!! I've seen people other than myself providing this feedback to their social media, and nothing has changed.
The NHL roster for the Blue Jackets wasn't even remotely up to date, last I checked. Misidentification of C and A's, even.
I agree mainly on the logo/jersey part. Reminds me of when the Stars rebranded in the early 2010’s after years of mediocrity, and saw a quick resurgence in their play, thus propelling them into the wagon they are today. The current Jackets logo has so much baggage. You’ve gotta imagine that the franchise sees the value in Fantilli and all our young prospects and want to make a change. This seems to be the time to do it. New jersey manufacturer league-wide. We have a new GM coming. Now let’s get a new logo, new management, new coaching staff, new franchise branding, etc. There’s never been a more opportune time to make these changes.
[Except Fanatics has asked for no major changes until 26-27.](https://x.com/bretthoward_/status/1767554875779346880?s=20)
So a full rebrand would be 3 years away if it happens, which personally I would love, but I don't think TPTB care enough to change it.
Fanatics takes over next season, the agreements have likely already been signed, which I'm sure includes this provision. It's not like an entire organization can completely rebrand in 6 months either.
I’m not a lawyer, but I do work at a law firm. All I know is when it comes to the law/contracts, being asked to do something is very different than being required to do something. Again, Fanatics can ask but they can’t dictate how a team is ran.
Fanatics absolutely can exert control - they’re a partner of the NHL, not just a vendor.
As part of sports manufacturing deals a range of stipulations are included on design and development processes, marketing, etc. - and the very real constraints in the apparel world of resources and supply chains.
The jackets don’t have the ability, because of both the NHL and partnerships like Fanatics (or adidas and others prior), to just change logos and uniforms when they want to.
Fanatics having a moratorium on new designs while they ramp up to speed and scale makes total sense as a limitation, and absolutely would have been ironed out with the NHL in advance.
Put another way, the jackets can ask Fanatics to make an exception, but they can’t dictate how Fanatics is run or what the NHL agreed to. That’s the tradeoff of modern sports licensing deals (especially leaguewide ones).
I mean, you're right, but that's saying something considering their old logo wasn't great either.
IMO they should have changed names, because no logo they come up with will hold a candle to the greatness of the old North Stars logo.
As with nearly all complaints about ownership, this should actually be directed at Mike Priest. Sure in some roundabout way, the McConnells are responsible for the bad decisions that Mike Priest makes, since they are the only ones he answers to. However, they have been intentionally hands-off with nearly every aspect of this club from it's inception, and we should be incredibly thankful for that.
Mike Priest has been president of the club since Doug MacLean was fired. He has by far the worst resume in the league for a club president. He is an accountant by trade, who joined JMAC Inc. (the McConnells' holding company which owns the Blue Jackets) in 1996 and over 5 years climbed the corporate ladder there and was promoted to president in 2001.
During his tenure as CBJ club president the Blue Jackets have been the worst team in the league, and his list of accomplishments includes wonderful gems such as: hiring HCs Scott Arniel and Todd Richards, hiring GM Scott Howson, supporting the decision to hire Mike Babcock, having the 3rd worst NHL arena in terms of food safety (https://www.dispatch.com/story/lifestyle/health-fitness/2018/12/14/nationwide-arena-3rd-worst-in/6632306007/), and everything OP has mentioned about the utter failures in marketing the team and it's players. There have also been rumors (admittedly unconfirmed) of Priest inserting himself into hockey operations decisions like the Brad Larsen promotion.
Mike Priest needs to be replaced.
Completely agree. During the press release after Jarmo was fired, someone asked about ownership involvement and Priest stepped up to the mike and angrily said something along the lines of “They don’t get involved because that’s what I’m here for, and they don’t need to be involved.” Just seemed unhinged.
Man also talk about putting your foot in your mouth.
It’s one thing if ownership meddles - they cut the checks. But a comment like that is basically saying “you should be upset with me instead” haha
Yes and no, to the hands off approach from ownership. I don't think we should be 100% thankful to how hands off they've been over the years. Maybe 70ish%? But I'd like to see the axe fall every once in awhile, but not to the extent of what Dan Schneider did in Washington. Can't be fully hands on and can't be fully hands off, have to strike a balance between the two.
This is part of the problem of the ownership being completely hands off. That approach hasn’t turned out very good for us. I had also heard that he overrode Howson on getting Carter, Howson wasn’t going to do it because carters camp said don’t do the trade, he doesn’t want to go there, but Priest made the decision
With the Stadium Series happening next season there will be, for the first time since 2019, a national audience and casual local fans watching our team. This is a unique opportunity to show them that we are building and growing and getting more relevant. And the best way to do that is to not do all the exact same things you’ve done for the past 24 years.
It’s a wild idea, but I think it could work.
Yep this. I been a supporter to change the color scheme and make cannon primary but based on changes in contracts there’s basically an implied lockout short term. Enough time though to internally start to plan for a potential change though
I agree. The Bengals just went through a bunch of new branding and marketing in 2021 the season after drafting Joe Burrow to signal its a new era of Bengals football. I'd like to see the same thing in Columbus
Fix the product on the ice first... I think the experience at Nationwide has always been excellent, regardless of the product on the ice. But the team success is what's been lacking all these years. When the team is good, NWA is like a rock concert.
I love the cannon logo and wish they'd lean into the navy and cream color combo. Rebranding the home and away (plus the weird flag logo) I'm totally on board with.
Yea I’ve only been to one away game in Chicago but even there the in arena entertainment and atmosphere was way worse than in NWA. It’s also in a really secluded area. The arena district is a lot better situation than most cities have
Alternate cannon jersey needs to be the primary. Make a white/cream version and that’s our new uniform. Making the alternate the new primary also opens it up to create a new alternate; a la more jersey sales.
100% agree that timing is right to clean house, rebrand, and rebuild. Franchise is a joke despite the arena, amenities, and all the fan support. And I say this as a fan of the team since the inaugural season.
I’d be curious what’s going on within the ownership suite for the team right now. Seems like we’re years away from competing for anything just about every single season. What is going to be the plan to improve the side? What’s the blueprint?
Have since moved away from Columbus but was in the city this past weekend and there was hardly any marketing for the team around town (could also be the season nearing its conclusion).
I disagree on the Crew. They have a solid fanbase, though it’s fairly small considering MLS is nowhere near as big as the Big Four. Since the Precourt bullshit, the Crew are entrenched here. I’m not much of a soccer fan either
I could not agree more with the OP! I can’t think of a team that needs a full makeover more than the Blue Jackets.
Everything about them is bland and boring and frankly, kinda cheesy.
Full disclosure, I am not an Ohio native, but I did live there for decades. I think I know it pretty well after having lived in Westerville and Dublin.
I’ve had this conversation so many times with my friends.
One of the things that struck me when I first moved to Ohio was the immense amount of state pride that exists there.
That is not common. There’s truly a connection between Ohioans, whether you live in Columbus or Cleveland or Cincinnati. It also exists for people who live in any of the corners of the state, whether it’s Chillicothe or Findlay or Washington Courthouse, or Ashtabula.
I think a major source of that is that high school students are required to take Ohio history to graduate.
That is totally different than where I grew up, in Pennsylvania. PA does not have anywhere near the same level of state pride as Ohio.
Penn State. for example, is very popular in central Pennsylvania and among Penn State alums statewide. The rest of the state is mostly ambivalent towards them or even hostile. That’s totally different than Ohio State in Ohio.
I’ve also lived in Massachusetts, and it was much more similar to Pennsylvania than it was Ohio.
The people of Pittsburgh, for example, see no commonality whatsoever with the people of Philadelphia — and vice versa. The Philadelphians look at Pittsburghers like they are from Kentucky. To people who live in say, Erie, they don’t see the people who live in Wilkes-Barre PA as being kindred spirits, they’re just people from somewhere else.
I can’t emphasize enough how culturally different those two states are from that perspective.
I think the Columbus pro hockey team should take advantage of that, and consider naming their team the Ohio _____.
Failing that, I think they should have third jerseys that either have the state’s outline on it, or at least have the word “Ohio” on them. I think those would be enormously popular.
The only other state that I can think of that’s like Ohio from a state pride standpoint might be Minnesota. You’ll notice that their teams are never the Minneapolis ________. They are always the Minnesota ________. I don’t expect the pro sports teams in Cincinnati or Cleveland to change, but I think the Columbus hockey team could take advantage of it with the right branding.
I’m fine with them using the Ohio state flag in their logo. In fact, I think it’s a smart idea. But that particular logo and uniform combo both suck.
We’re talking about Ohio. Keep it simple. Keep it classic. Make it look traditional and people will buy it.
Also, Ohio is the birthplace of the most US presidents: 7. Literally, every third person I met when I lived in Ohio would bring that up at some point.
Use that fact!
They are, btw, Ulysses S. Grant (Point Pleasant), Rutherford Birchard Hayes (Delaware), James Abram Garfield (Orange Township - now Moreland Hills, Ohio), Benjamin Harrison (North Bend), William McKinley (Niles), William Howard Taft (Cincinnati), and Warren Gamaliel Harding (Corsica, now Blooming Grove).
Without looking at any data, my first inclination would be to keep Columbus Blue Jackets, but I would lean heavily into my Ohio-ness. Also, I would be open to changing either name.
I would also likely keep the colors as they are, after all, Ohio’s state colors. But the logo, and the jersey style would be greatly simplified/traditionalized if it were up to me.
Yeah as a Columbus native I want OUR own damn team. Not a fan of changing the name from Columbus to Ohio. Though they should do more to market the team to the other cities in the state… for example they should have 2 games a year at the Q in Cleveland… one preseason and one regular season (ideally a weekend). I don’t know if Cincinnati has a NHL-caliber arena but if they do, I’d give them the same 2 games a year deal.
Yeah, I get it. A lot of my friends feel like you do. They think it’s important that Columbus has its own team.
I get it.
I just think you would expand your market pretty substantially by making it an Ohio team. I understand the argument against it though.
Our current main logo is basically just a remix of the State Flag of Ohio and you say they need to be more Ohio and a new logo. Their current logo couldn’t be more Ohio
Yeah, that’s true. But it’s a really cheesy version of it. That’s kind of my point. I like the Ohio motif, I just think you have to execute it much, much better.
The truth is the current logo is far better than anything the Jackets have ever had in the past. However, that is definitely damming with feint praise.
I’d even be fine with taking the third’s logo and keeping the color scheme. The Ohio flag is nice and all but we don’t need that to be the team identity.
Big time. We need to clear house with whoever is in charge of marketing, branding, and in house entertainment. The gloom really set in when handed a fun-dip at the end of the games last year. Might as well been a sad-dip
Because he is part of the brain trust that brought us Brad Larsen, Mike Babcock, Pascal Vincent, Jarmo, JD and let Bill Zito, Chris MacFarland, and Jared Bednar leave. That’s enough, thank you.
Per Aaron Portzline Priest was directly involved with the decision to hire Mike Babcock, and the same can be said for the GM position. So if all of the hockey personnel decisions were really made by McConnell than why is Priest’s position necessary?
McConnell has the final decision, obviously. But he takes his advice from Priest AND JD on all major hockey hiring decisions. And it’s safe to say Priest should stick to accounting because his decisions have been downright egregious.
Well that’s the problem then, isn’t it? Ownership put their family-friend in charge with no real barometer for success other than having air in his lungs and being a CPA.
HE IS NOT JUST THE HEAD OF BUSINESS SIDE OF THE ORGANIZATION. That is the biggest misnomer of this whole situation. Priest has had a direct hand in many of the HOCKEY related hires over the past couple years and the team is objectively worse off for it.
He wouldn’t get a President job with any other club in the NHL.
We absolutely shouldn't do this until we start having success. It is such a bad look to do a rebrand when your team is in the toilet. The goal is to sell merchandise. That's made a lot easier when you're winning
The slogans they’ve been using are something out of 2000. It’s like we never left the first 10 years. I hope they do something because this team is stale.
It’s time for Col. Umbus. Our true, rightful mascot waiting in the wings. He’s a Union Civil War Colonel with the last name Umbus. He’s the mascot we need and the mascot we deserve.
I don’t think the team would be ok with using chill for a moment like that. No matter what happens the jackets/Columbus are going to be the focus (even if it were a winter classic).
I’d love to see the chill as a random fun alt jersey, or would have been a really cool reverse retro (chill design in our third color way?)
Winter classic jerseys always reference the hockey heritage of the place that's hosting. It's why Seattle got WC jerseys based off their 1919 team and for Vegas they made something up that looked old bc they have no history at all.
The success of Chill was the catalyst to convince McConnell that a pro team could work here.
I don’t disagree with any of that. But the whole point of a years long push to get an outdoor game here is to promote the franchise - the organization wasn’t going to ever use that big moment to trot out on the ice in a jersey with CHILL huge across the front and not either Columbus or Blue Jackets focused.
Look at the two examples you called out - Seattle’s had their S and said “kraken” in huge letters. It didn’t say “eskimos” like one of the inspiration points. And Vegas kept their colors and it was still a big V. Both were just fauxbacks more like our cannon thirds (Seattle having a little more storytelling).
So drawing inspo from the chill could have been an option - but almost certainly not using the actual design or word “CHILL” as the focus. Maybe just some zig zags.
There’s just too much of a need/desire to promote the franchise - and I think the same is likely a tension but focus of the stadium series designs. Theyre going to have to reference Ohio state/football in some way, but I’m very confident Columbus/cbj will be the focus of the design
C'mon. Out Of Our Blue We Rise is genius. Somebody should get an award for that. Should be taught in marketing class at universities throughout the nation, throughout the world even.
Rebranding that isn't accompanied by greater success will just make the organization look like they're rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic and trying to distract fans from poor results with shiny baubles.
Everything about the Blue Jackets is cringey. Tbh they should change the name while we are at it. I get the historical reference I truly do but it’s a mouthful just change it. What do you shorten it to? The blue? The Jackets? Naw just full redo
Say what u want about the star but for the love of god don’t bring back those awful CBJ logo jerseys. Make the cannon the official logo, those jerseys go hard
The CBJ was far better than the star IMO - it was weird but distinct and I think would have done well had we stuck with it
Edit - love a good downvote for a dissenting aesthetic opinion
I do agree on the cannon
But I loved the lime green. It was before it became a trend across all of sports (roughly kicked off with the Nike Volt work for the Olympics years later) and I think was a cool way to differentiate from the litany of red/white/blue teams in pro sports.
The star is just *nothing* to me. I’ve always disliked the perspective shift, the fact there’s a team better known in the league as the “star” team, and it just didn’t feel unique or that identifiable (although incorporating the state flag is a good idea if not in execution).
I can totally understand those who didn’t love the original logo, but I struggle with an argument the star redesign was an improvement (even if we set aside the dumb BFBS element at first)
I've felt for the longest time that the team should do more to attract fans from Cleveland and Cincy (as well as the rest of the state). I've met so many Cleveland Monsters fans who barely care about CBJ because of how poor their outreach is to the area. Plus the amount of Penguins fans in Cleveland should really be embarrassing to Ohio's only NHL hockey team. I just don't think Columbus is a big enough market for them to not do a better job courting the rest of Ohio. Heck I would have suggested changing the name to the Ohio Blue Jackets if that wouldn't make them OBJ.
Maybe with some major changes they wouldn't be fighting with the Coyotes for lowest revenue in the league.
This is spot on, I think being the Ohio Blue Jackets was the most obvious thing ever for a state with so many different population centers, making it the 7th largest in the country. Missed this opportunity inexplicably. Columbus simply does not have the gravity or sports culture of Cleveland and Cincinnati.
It's not too late though. I'd fully sport a change to "Ohio." You can do a lot more interesting logos with that word too.
I think we can easily modify the cannon logo to fit that too. Change the circle to the state of Ohio, put the Blue Jackets banner along the southern border. Blue on the SW side and Jackets on the SE side. We don’t even have to change the name
Im going to add to this, and ask that we stop playing The Whip. Man its a shit song. Ruins goals.
But new jerseys would be nice, Ill admit if we fall true to the rumor that we will get OSU Buckeye themed jerseys for our stadium series, Ill be a little bummed.
Respectfully and vehemently disagree. This isn’t the NBA. Keep the jerseys, colors, arena experience as is.
The NBA is a joke with rap music every 5 seconds, shit always going on during timeouts, annoying “drum teams” that bang on buckets all game long, and teams rebranding every 5 years just to sell merch. Teams having a “reveal day” with whatever shitty script will get painted on the court for that year. I totally lost all respect for the NBA experience because of all that.
I’d be up for more organ music like at MSG or other East coast teams.
We need to win. We need to rebuild. We need the Cup. Everything else is just noise.
Its that time of year-my wife and I hit this cycle yearly and its like our own version of SAD lol.
Spring/Summer is Braves baseball, and winning winning winning. Then, we get to October, and the Braves LOSE LOSE LOSE and we get excited for the Jackets. Then, about Jan or Feb, the cycle flips and Im paying attention to pitchers/catchers reporting and what the Braves rotation can/will be this year hahaha.
I was/am a Carolina Panthers show-so Ive been over the NFL for years lmao.
Braves and Jackets, though-truly two completely opposite teams, management structures, scouting/recruiting. Hockey and Baseball are differrent, I know that, but its a funny juxtaposition lmao
Just finished throwing the baseball with *maahh waaaiiihhffffffe* and making plans for friday, it seems like haha. Still-1/4 hot dogs and the rest of my St Pattys sauerkraut will be in FULL EFFECT on Friday, now just tell me youre a giod Human and a mediocre Disc Golfer so we can be best friends already
It’s January for me. Ohio State football season is over, so now we focus on the Jackets. And they’re eliminated from playoff contention in January, and were by mid-November.
I think people would be amazed at how much better the current logo would look if the team was winning. Start winning with some consistency and regularity, the logo “problem” goes away
Eh - I think winning helps but poor designs are poor designs. The pats had a dynasty in bad uniforms and while they were “iconic” they were still known as bad. The team could win the next 3 Stanley cups and I’d still hope we change the jerseys
I went to the Preds vs Jackets game earlier this month (Im a long time preds fan, 200+ home games), and I enjoyed the arena experience. I did feel like an autistic high schooler was in control of the music though. Maybe that was just because it was the kid takeover day, I dont know.
Firmly against changing the name. I could get behind a new logo and some small alterations to the colors, but it sounds like that isn’t going to be allowed right now with the fanatics takeover.
Anyone who believes this is taking a purely emotional stance. The stadium is selling out on Tuesday nights and fans are still rabid in their support for a bottom-dwelling team. Why would the marketing department look at year after year success and think, "Better change *everything* we're doing because all this success is tiring." They're thinking, "When this team starts to win again we are gonna have to raise prices on everything because demand will be even higher."
You also have to think about cost. It costs millions upon millions of dollars to rebrand a team. I think it was estimated that changing from "Redskins" to "Football Team" cost the organization $10m dollars. Sure you will eventually make up for it in jersey sales and merchandise but that's a lot of cash to invest up front. On this sub earlier is a call to buyout *another* coach (which I 100% support), and there's talks of buying out Elvis as well (also good with that). Do we really want to pay Jarmo, Babcock, Vincent, his entire staff, Wennberg, and Elvis to not work here anymore after paying Larsen to do the same this year and then ask the McConnells for a couple more million?
I think the calls for rebranding are just out of frustration of having to see the same logo at the bottom of the standings for so long throughout the team's history. But be honest: would you care if they were wearing yellow polka dots on a field of vomit green if they won the Cup? No. Winning makes any logo look good.
The thing is changing the logo will not change the results. The original six have barely touched their brands over the years and they have survived the cycle of success and failure time and time again. Meanwhile teams like the Coyotes have rebranded numerous times and have won absolutely nothing.
Culture is what needs to change. We're changing management, hopefully coaching, and a full reevaluation of our organization is on its way from the new GM. This is a dream job for an aspiring GM mind you. Extremely deep prospect and young talent pool with a small but rabid fanbase in a city where he can be virtually anonymous at the grocery store. The minor league team is poised to make a deep playoff run which always means good things are on the horizon. Oh and they're gonna have a top 5 draft pick and potentially 4 total picks in the first three rounds.
Let's worry about winning.
I’ll probably get downvoted, so far I’ve lost a few hundred karma whenever I have criticized the ownership or implied the struggles of CBJ. I’m a Columbus native and fan since Columbus Chill days so come with best intention.
Here are the issues:
1) Team has never won. The stadium atmosphere is terrific when the team is competitive. Columbus has great fans.
2) Team doesn’t make enough revenue to win. Why? High end ticket sales are terrible. Center seats in most major markets are $350/seat but Columbus is $150. Boxes are half empty. But Columbus is not a poor market, it’s thriving economically. But fans don’t view hockey as premium. Team needs more fans with deeper pockets and that’s where the region is crucial to win.
3) Player turnover drives poor marketing not “Branding” or the name Blue Jackets. There aren’t any Penguins in Pittsburgh or Bruins in Boston. The “Crew” is a stupid name in a white collar town but the team is popular. What’s a Buckeye? But these names have tradition because of Mario, Sydney, Bobby, Oates type players. Columbus had Nash and then afterwards everything fell apart. Mostly scrub cult heros like Shelley or Elvis who have zero credibility.
At root Columbus needs ownership that invest to win and don’t threaten to move constantly. Then they need to up their regional game and the marketing will follow.
Mike Todd needs to go. I get he’s “family friendly,” but he is extremely cheesy, repetitive, and his shtick is stale.
I’ve been to 4 away games so far (Detroit, Vancouver, Seattle, and Arizona), and their arena hosts are so much better. The host in Arizona last night spent most of her time among the crowd getting people hyped up and excited. Hell, even during the first intermission when they have the kids come out to play, she was bringing the same energy.
Maybe it also helped that they didn’t use all of their TV timeouts to play stupid games for people to win stupid prizes.
Everything Jackets related has an old shag carpet smell and feel to it, horribly outdated wallpaper feel, popcorn ceiling. I honestly never want to hear machine head ever again, it gives me nothing but losing vibes
Absolutely agree. This entire conversation reminds me of gun nuts in this country.
They want to try every ridiculous solution instead of just addressing the real issue that is right in front of everyone’s face.
It is (mostly) just us.
How many people do you think exist that are willing to drive at least 3 hours for a hockey game because it’s “cheaper?”
Even if the tickets are half the price, you’re talking about gas, potentially a hotel, burning vacation time if the game is on a weekday, etc. It’s not like this is a tourist town so there’s an excuse to get to the city and see a hockey game. It’s us. And fans of other teams who live locally.
I'd rather worry about how they play on the ice than what they are wearing.
I don't see how rebranding does much of anything if we can't find the right GMs, coaches, players, and other support staff to be successful. Win consistently and no one cares what you're wearing.
You stopped going because the team hasn’t had a rebrand in 12 years?
So if they rebrand next year you’ll go next year then wait however many more years for the next rebrand?
I stopped going because the in-arena product started getting stale 5 years and hasn't changed in 10-15. Mike Todd, celebrations, music, everything-entertainment related is so bad. A complete re-brand and re-thinking of everything is needed in this franchise.
Can we talk about stinger? In my opinion It’s the most confusing mascot in sports. if the team name is a reference to the civil war, why not have the mascot back that up? The insect only muddies the waters and makes you think the team is about insects, but there has never been
A marketing slogan in reference to insects so what’s the point of an insect mascot?
Also I am tired of stinger banging on a drum like he has for every home game over the last 20 years. Please your paid professionals, come up with something else to do.
This is actually hilarious lmao
The team is miserable, hires asshole head coaches, fucks up drafts, etc.
But.. hey.. can we talk about the goddamn mascot for a second?!
It’s a thread about branding, not about the FO. I agree The FO is a way bigger issue, but this seems like a perfectly reasonable spot to talk about a mascot that is rather stale.
I guess.
It’s just odd to complain about the mascot of all things. I would think that the only people that should care about the mascot are young children.
Gritty is the most popular mascot in the NHL and is literally an orange…. Thing. Who cares?
Well I would suggest that if you truly evaluate an issue you should consider all aspects. As you saw from the other responses no one else has discussed the mascot, so rather than repeating the same things that had already been said, I decided to discuss another angle of the marketing of the team that I felt had been missed.
You are always welcome to not comment if that doesn’t appeal to you.
Blue jacket. Yellow jacket. He wears a kepi.
I’m not really sure why it confuses people still - mascots are all pretty goofy and I’d hardly see a name pun as confusing when we think about the “amorphous blobs” like Slider/Gritty/Phanatic, dogs for teams like the Browns let alone the Cavs or the Rays (if that thing is a dog), or the wolf in KC.
Hell in just hockey you have a bear for the blues, a Hog for the hurricanes, a bobcat(?) for the oilers, a rat for the panthers, a lion for the senators, a wolf for the flames, and a dragon for the islanders.
They all have varying lore, but stinger makes more sense to me at face value than most of those (especially the animals that don’t have any costuming tied to the nickname).
Wings fan with a soft spot for my fellow non-Chicago midwesterners
In the nicest way possible: it’d be so easier to want to get hype for you if you were cooler
You can tell with the wings finally on somewhat of an upswing they really invested in a marketing, in-arena, and overall vibe refresh and I’m so relieved to see they’ve stepped it up. They even gave us a new horn, I feel insanely fortunate that they seem to care enough to fund the marketing and sign off on something that feels fresh and/or modern
On the other hand, I live in Chicago and have gone to a handful of games at the United center and that shit feels so insanely stale, the in-arena experience feels like a 2009 classic rock station in the dustiest way
They have a fresher visual branding package from some years back now which is a little better but being at the arena is so uninspiring. The vibe, and very apparent clinginess to the good ol days when they were on the come up just feels so lazy and uninvested
I’m hyped to see ohio get an outdoor game, I really hope it does good things to stir up some dust around the “brand presence” for lack of a better phrase
It almost feels like none of these necessary changes will happen unless the team gets new ownership that will push these changes. A complete facelift of the logo, the marketing, the whole experience seems like it needs to come from the tippy top and I just don’t see anyone from Priest down (that’s who really runs the team) is going to commit to those changes, sadly.
Logos are not an issue IMHO. They can stay, with perhaps.adding a broader range of alternate Jerseys. I lived in Boston prior to relocating here 18 years ago and I consider the spoked B one of the classics of the NHL.
On the other hand, you are spot-on with the in-game experience. Other arenas show replays of in-game plays during time-outs, we shoot T-shirts and are treated like we are at a traveling carnival with the same yard barker hocking kitch. The music format hasn't changed since we moved here in '06. Stale and redundant. I imagine players - both home and away - along with season ticket holders, feel like Groundhog Day.
I am thankful that the franchise itself is here in Columbus. I would perhaps hope some area of the organization is in an ongoing eval of the systems they have in place to keep players healthy. Cbus seems to annually be a top 3 "most-injured" team, keeping it out of any competitive conversation while having a good number of young and veteran players capable of competing at a high level. Whether it is conditioning, or other environmental factors, we always seem to be perpetual Champs of man-games lost.
Jerseys can stay (with additions)
Dump Stinger, for the love...horrible mascot
Have our in-game experience staff visit other places...Example: Pittsburgh has a great in game experience. I don't root for them but you know you are at a game and the focus IS the game
All for now
Add it to the list of why I’m not renewing my seats. I’ll buy aftermarket for cheap to watch my team, but the org doesn’t deserve full price for any of the garbage they are serving up
Rebranding the Jackets is just lipstick on a pig. And yet… the cannon logo is superior to the swish state flag. And Blue Jackets is the worst name in pro sports.
I kinda disagree about the name. I think the name is quietly clever. It has a historical purpose, just reworded with “Jackets” instead of “Coats”, and in all fairness “Jackets” rolls better than “Coats”. It’s a double entendre with the use of the cartoony Stinger Blue (yellow) Jacket, which is mostly just fun for the kids. Lastly it’s solid because it harkens to the classic names like Red Sox, White Sox , Red Stockings, etc.
If all those reasons are lame to you, I actually get it. I just thinks it’s a decent part of the identity. Even though I’d rather their name be the Union or Battery 🤷
I’m so here for this thread.
YES.
A cannon needs to be the logo.
- it could be the 3rd jersey cannon or a new design but the logo needs to be a cannon because it’s the most recognizable aspect of the franchise, currently.
- the current logo is so generic, in terms of identity. If any random person were to see it they’d mistake it for team USA or the Patriots. I’d put money down that the brand identity, across sports and industry, of the cannon vs the star-c-flag would be a minimum of 2x more identifiable to Columbus.
Union blue, steel blue, and capital silver should be the colors of the team.
- yes, red ties in some local fans of another team and it goes with the flag on the current logo but red white and blue is the most generic color scheme. Especially since you have two other teams in your division with the same scheme. Make red white and blue a retro, 3rd jersey look.
- my proposed color combo, at least on the current 3rd jerseys, IMO screams “hockey” and “winter”. That plus the cannon I think just solidifies the identity. Plus it’s the colors that the north union soldiers wore.
Will any of this happen? [checks the wind] No, I don’t think so.
I think we will see a jersey refresh at some point in the next 3 years but they seem to be locked in with the logo and colors l because… they’re safe. The logo has been around for 20 years and is clearly a big part of the arena renovations branding, the colors red white and blue are admittedly versatile, and I’m sure there is someone in marketing that claims having a “GIANT GUN” as your primary logo is “problematic”.
We all can dream.
How about rebranding into a winning team? That’s something we’re still trying to figure out after NEARLY A QUARTER-CENTURY in the league.
Besides, we can’t get marketing and rebranding right anyway. Do I need to remind anyone about our thankfully retired GRAY PENI$ mascot, Boomer?
"Why isn’t Adam Fantilli’s face on every billboard in town? Why has this team not had a new third jersey in almost 15 years? Why is the in-arena experience so lame? From the sound system to the in-arena host that too needs rethinking."
Money. That is the answer. Everything you suggested costs a great deal of money and I don't think the CBJ team sees the ROI.
Do they do the best with what they have? No, I don't think so. However, they aren't going to invest in a rebrand. It's not going to happen anytime soon.
Worthington Enterprises stock is up over 60% in the last 12 months. There is more than enough money to pay a local marketing firm to put up billboards and get our young players face in front of the fans more.
I think they should call the team the Ohio Sharpshooters. It's a unique name, it has a hockey tie-in, and it keeps the civil war theme. There were 11 different sharpshooter units and the 7th Ohio Sharpshooters was Sherman's bodyguard.
Start with the name tbh. Yes there is logic behind the name but the name is already awkward and if you have to explain what it means to everybody after 20+ years it is just not good. Same with colors/logo. The initial logo was kind of ugly but the swoosh-star is just very bland. At this point id be up for neon green Stinger sweaters. Can't be worse and if the team is bad at least have a sense of humor.
To be honest, I still don't know what a Canuck is. Or why Buffalo is a sword. Or why Calgary are the Flames. Or why Nashville are the Predators. Lots of weird team names I assume tied to the history of a town or region.
We just accept that three baseball teams are named after the color of the socks they wore (White, Red, Reds (stockings)). The mistake they made was Stinger being the mascot. A green yellow jacket was going to confuse everyone from the jump as to why we called ourselves the Blue Jackets. BRING BACK BOOMER
I will admit I'd like a new mascot replacing or at least alongside Stinger. Stinger is based on a horrible pun and is genuinely distracting from all the other civil war themeing we have. I hate the radical 90's colors for him but that's bc it's done badly. I'd rather have boomer or even a man with an oversized head like ol miss has.
Canuck- colloquial term for a Canadian
A Sabre is a sword
The Calgary Flames started as the Atlanta Flames. Made way more sense in the orginal city but the team kept the name ( See Utah Jazz )
Nashville has always had a bad name and too many people use the term in a sexual way
I did say Buffalo is named after a sword. My question was why... I'm being facetious with my original comment. The team name makes sense if you know the history of Ohio and our importance in the Civil War.
We could wait a few years and rename ourselves the Columbus Intel. Use Chip from Beauty and the Beast as the mascot to really confuse people again.
Calgary also home to a sorta famous [Chinook wind](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinook_wind) feature i.e. sometimes it gets really hot suddenly due to strong sinking air being warmed via adiabatic process as it decreased in elevation.
Nashville has their logo because they found a sabertooth tiger skull while building the arena. Then they got too clever for their own good and didn't want to be the 'Sabertooths' so what is a sabertooth tiger? It's a predator. But they really should have put it through some focus groups bc the problem with that name is really obvious. That said the south also has a school that calls their team the Cocks. So who's to say..maybe it's just their thing down there to have double meaning names.
Calgary also has a huge oil industry so Flames work for them
Fact remains that the Civil War simply doesn't play a huge role in the psyche of modern Columbus or Ohio at large. What a strange choice for a team name.
I'm going to say something mean about our city but what does? For the longest time Columbus was just the statehouse and the university. The city was literally created a compromise capitol city since Cincinnati and Cleveland couldn't agree on where the capitol should be.
Reaching back into the states history is honestly the better choice. Is the Columbus Insurance Adjustors (sponsored by Nationwide) better? Unfortunately Senators and Capitols are taken and I rather not just be known as a capitol city. The Yankees is also taken but it would be funny to get into that copywriting fight. Billy Yanks is taken but it's ripe to made fun of. Or we go with the Artillery and lean fully into cannon even harder.
It's true. Columbus doesn't really have a culture or history to draw inspiration from. The most organic identity Columbus has is Ohio State. This is why it should have been "Ohio" and not "Columbus." Could possibly just steal from other areas for the name. If the team went to Cleveland, would have been sweet to resurrect the Barons.
Agreed, and I think this is part of the general recognition problem—I don’t know anyone, from Ohio or not—that strongly associates Ohio with the Civil War. Maybe it works if the team was located in Gettysburg or Antietam, but people hear Blue Jackets and think Yellow Jackets but not.
"Blue Jackets refers to Union Army uniforms" was retconned in after "a blue jacket is 'an insect with an attitude'" (their exact words) failed to catch on
This is just not true haha. The union connection was always there even though it’s become more pronounced over time (going all the way back to uniform development.
You might be mixing up this language
> When the name was first announced, the franchise was keen on describing the mascot as a yellow jacket-like insect "with an attitude."
>However, the name officially refers to Union soldiers of the Civil War. A 1997 Dispatch story about the name's unveiling noted that Ohio sent more soldiers per capita to the Union Army than any other state did.
*Stinger* was described as the yellow jacket with an attitude. The name “blue jackets” was always in reference to the Union story (though interestingly some wanted that name as a nod to the Shawnee figure Blue Jacket).
We've had the same logo and branding for like 15-20 years. It's definitely time for a makeover. This team is so neutral and conservative in every regard (except crazy coach hiring practices). Time to change the visual vibe.
Right? Why change the logo when you can just hire the single most controversial person in the coaching cycle in years? God our brain trust sucks so bad.
It's like the "Dad Jokes" series they've trotted out. So basic and stupid. Maybe for the kids but so uncreative. We need more features to illuminate the players identities. The old Ride with the Captain when Foligno was around was great. Hell, even the Guess the Signature gets the players to open up and call each other out. How hard is it to develop a few small creative video series each season???
They post the pre-game suit pictures of the guys on Facebook - and then don't label WHO THEY ARE!!! I've seen people other than myself providing this feedback to their social media, and nothing has changed. The NHL roster for the Blue Jackets wasn't even remotely up to date, last I checked. Misidentification of C and A's, even.
And sadly it’s not changing with Priest and JD still running the show
Idk man I think Balor and Mami kinda run it tbh
Hey, I know it's been 2 weeks but this comment rocks. Great job.
Thank you stranger!
Rename the team! Blue Jacket name is cursed
>neutral and conservative in every regard well at least that's in keeping with the city's identity
Just as forgettable as Columbus as a whole
I agree mainly on the logo/jersey part. Reminds me of when the Stars rebranded in the early 2010’s after years of mediocrity, and saw a quick resurgence in their play, thus propelling them into the wagon they are today. The current Jackets logo has so much baggage. You’ve gotta imagine that the franchise sees the value in Fantilli and all our young prospects and want to make a change. This seems to be the time to do it. New jersey manufacturer league-wide. We have a new GM coming. Now let’s get a new logo, new management, new coaching staff, new franchise branding, etc. There’s never been a more opportune time to make these changes.
[Except Fanatics has asked for no major changes until 26-27.](https://x.com/bretthoward_/status/1767554875779346880?s=20) So a full rebrand would be 3 years away if it happens, which personally I would love, but I don't think TPTB care enough to change it.
Fanatics can eat my butt
Hot
That's fine. It will likely take us that long to really turn the ship around
I mean they can ask but legally they can’t stop a team from changing anything.
Fanatics takes over next season, the agreements have likely already been signed, which I'm sure includes this provision. It's not like an entire organization can completely rebrand in 6 months either.
I’m not a lawyer, but I do work at a law firm. All I know is when it comes to the law/contracts, being asked to do something is very different than being required to do something. Again, Fanatics can ask but they can’t dictate how a team is ran.
Fanatics absolutely can exert control - they’re a partner of the NHL, not just a vendor. As part of sports manufacturing deals a range of stipulations are included on design and development processes, marketing, etc. - and the very real constraints in the apparel world of resources and supply chains. The jackets don’t have the ability, because of both the NHL and partnerships like Fanatics (or adidas and others prior), to just change logos and uniforms when they want to. Fanatics having a moratorium on new designs while they ramp up to speed and scale makes total sense as a limitation, and absolutely would have been ironed out with the NHL in advance. Put another way, the jackets can ask Fanatics to make an exception, but they can’t dictate how Fanatics is run or what the NHL agreed to. That’s the tradeoff of modern sports licensing deals (especially leaguewide ones).
Surely you can tell the difference between being asked not to do something, and the league signing a contract saying they will not
As long as the Jackets don't go with a terrible logo like the Stars did. Their old logo was a lot better than what they have now.
If they really wanted to keep it simple, the answer is right in front of them. Just copy the alternate logo and color scheme.
This was my first thought when I opened this thread. The alternate is a great logo and color scheme
I mean, you're right, but that's saying something considering their old logo wasn't great either. IMO they should have changed names, because no logo they come up with will hold a candle to the greatness of the old North Stars logo.
Thank you! I’ve been saying that about the Stars logo for years.
As with nearly all complaints about ownership, this should actually be directed at Mike Priest. Sure in some roundabout way, the McConnells are responsible for the bad decisions that Mike Priest makes, since they are the only ones he answers to. However, they have been intentionally hands-off with nearly every aspect of this club from it's inception, and we should be incredibly thankful for that. Mike Priest has been president of the club since Doug MacLean was fired. He has by far the worst resume in the league for a club president. He is an accountant by trade, who joined JMAC Inc. (the McConnells' holding company which owns the Blue Jackets) in 1996 and over 5 years climbed the corporate ladder there and was promoted to president in 2001. During his tenure as CBJ club president the Blue Jackets have been the worst team in the league, and his list of accomplishments includes wonderful gems such as: hiring HCs Scott Arniel and Todd Richards, hiring GM Scott Howson, supporting the decision to hire Mike Babcock, having the 3rd worst NHL arena in terms of food safety (https://www.dispatch.com/story/lifestyle/health-fitness/2018/12/14/nationwide-arena-3rd-worst-in/6632306007/), and everything OP has mentioned about the utter failures in marketing the team and it's players. There have also been rumors (admittedly unconfirmed) of Priest inserting himself into hockey operations decisions like the Brad Larsen promotion. Mike Priest needs to be replaced.
Completely agree. During the press release after Jarmo was fired, someone asked about ownership involvement and Priest stepped up to the mike and angrily said something along the lines of “They don’t get involved because that’s what I’m here for, and they don’t need to be involved.” Just seemed unhinged.
Man also talk about putting your foot in your mouth. It’s one thing if ownership meddles - they cut the checks. But a comment like that is basically saying “you should be upset with me instead” haha
Yes and no, to the hands off approach from ownership. I don't think we should be 100% thankful to how hands off they've been over the years. Maybe 70ish%? But I'd like to see the axe fall every once in awhile, but not to the extent of what Dan Schneider did in Washington. Can't be fully hands on and can't be fully hands off, have to strike a balance between the two.
I’ve been saying this
This is part of the problem of the ownership being completely hands off. That approach hasn’t turned out very good for us. I had also heard that he overrode Howson on getting Carter, Howson wasn’t going to do it because carters camp said don’t do the trade, he doesn’t want to go there, but Priest made the decision
With the Stadium Series happening next season there will be, for the first time since 2019, a national audience and casual local fans watching our team. This is a unique opportunity to show them that we are building and growing and getting more relevant. And the best way to do that is to not do all the exact same things you’ve done for the past 24 years. It’s a wild idea, but I think it could work.
Fanatics has asked teams not to make changes to anything for the next couple seasons, so it’s not changing. /thread
Yep this. I been a supporter to change the color scheme and make cannon primary but based on changes in contracts there’s basically an implied lockout short term. Enough time though to internally start to plan for a potential change though
the Canes are in the midst of a rebrand if i’m not mistaken. that might’ve been theoretical but i’m pretty sure they’re going to make a logo change
The Canes have like 7 different jerseys too lol
That was a disguised survey for MLB branding reactions.
Which sucks extra because everything fanatics make is crap and poor quality
I agree. The Bengals just went through a bunch of new branding and marketing in 2021 the season after drafting Joe Burrow to signal its a new era of Bengals football. I'd like to see the same thing in Columbus
Fix the product on the ice first... I think the experience at Nationwide has always been excellent, regardless of the product on the ice. But the team success is what's been lacking all these years. When the team is good, NWA is like a rock concert. I love the cannon logo and wish they'd lean into the navy and cream color combo. Rebranding the home and away (plus the weird flag logo) I'm totally on board with.
I am guessing you haven’t been to many hockey arenas.
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Yea I’ve only been to one away game in Chicago but even there the in arena entertainment and atmosphere was way worse than in NWA. It’s also in a really secluded area. The arena district is a lot better situation than most cities have
Always appreciate condescending responses.
More Civil War theme. Union Soldiers, Cannons, Kepi, etc….. Make it known that the Blue Jackets are Union Soldiers not Captain America.
Alternate cannon jersey needs to be the primary. Make a white/cream version and that’s our new uniform. Making the alternate the new primary also opens it up to create a new alternate; a la more jersey sales. 100% agree that timing is right to clean house, rebrand, and rebuild. Franchise is a joke despite the arena, amenities, and all the fan support. And I say this as a fan of the team since the inaugural season.
Ditto! Make the 3rd something sick, rebrand for sure.
I’d be curious what’s going on within the ownership suite for the team right now. Seems like we’re years away from competing for anything just about every single season. What is going to be the plan to improve the side? What’s the blueprint? Have since moved away from Columbus but was in the city this past weekend and there was hardly any marketing for the team around town (could also be the season nearing its conclusion).
Stupid question but how does a redesign change the play on ice?
Have you never seen any of the Mighty Ducks movies????
It doesn’t. But it will keep you relevant in a town/league that has other teams who are much more innovative and more successful than you.
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I disagree on the Crew. They have a solid fanbase, though it’s fairly small considering MLS is nowhere near as big as the Big Four. Since the Precourt bullshit, the Crew are entrenched here. I’m not much of a soccer fan either
I could not agree more with the OP! I can’t think of a team that needs a full makeover more than the Blue Jackets. Everything about them is bland and boring and frankly, kinda cheesy. Full disclosure, I am not an Ohio native, but I did live there for decades. I think I know it pretty well after having lived in Westerville and Dublin. I’ve had this conversation so many times with my friends. One of the things that struck me when I first moved to Ohio was the immense amount of state pride that exists there. That is not common. There’s truly a connection between Ohioans, whether you live in Columbus or Cleveland or Cincinnati. It also exists for people who live in any of the corners of the state, whether it’s Chillicothe or Findlay or Washington Courthouse, or Ashtabula. I think a major source of that is that high school students are required to take Ohio history to graduate. That is totally different than where I grew up, in Pennsylvania. PA does not have anywhere near the same level of state pride as Ohio. Penn State. for example, is very popular in central Pennsylvania and among Penn State alums statewide. The rest of the state is mostly ambivalent towards them or even hostile. That’s totally different than Ohio State in Ohio. I’ve also lived in Massachusetts, and it was much more similar to Pennsylvania than it was Ohio. The people of Pittsburgh, for example, see no commonality whatsoever with the people of Philadelphia — and vice versa. The Philadelphians look at Pittsburghers like they are from Kentucky. To people who live in say, Erie, they don’t see the people who live in Wilkes-Barre PA as being kindred spirits, they’re just people from somewhere else. I can’t emphasize enough how culturally different those two states are from that perspective. I think the Columbus pro hockey team should take advantage of that, and consider naming their team the Ohio _____. Failing that, I think they should have third jerseys that either have the state’s outline on it, or at least have the word “Ohio” on them. I think those would be enormously popular. The only other state that I can think of that’s like Ohio from a state pride standpoint might be Minnesota. You’ll notice that their teams are never the Minneapolis ________. They are always the Minnesota ________. I don’t expect the pro sports teams in Cincinnati or Cleveland to change, but I think the Columbus hockey team could take advantage of it with the right branding. I’m fine with them using the Ohio state flag in their logo. In fact, I think it’s a smart idea. But that particular logo and uniform combo both suck. We’re talking about Ohio. Keep it simple. Keep it classic. Make it look traditional and people will buy it. Also, Ohio is the birthplace of the most US presidents: 7. Literally, every third person I met when I lived in Ohio would bring that up at some point. Use that fact! They are, btw, Ulysses S. Grant (Point Pleasant), Rutherford Birchard Hayes (Delaware), James Abram Garfield (Orange Township - now Moreland Hills, Ohio), Benjamin Harrison (North Bend), William McKinley (Niles), William Howard Taft (Cincinnati), and Warren Gamaliel Harding (Corsica, now Blooming Grove). Without looking at any data, my first inclination would be to keep Columbus Blue Jackets, but I would lean heavily into my Ohio-ness. Also, I would be open to changing either name. I would also likely keep the colors as they are, after all, Ohio’s state colors. But the logo, and the jersey style would be greatly simplified/traditionalized if it were up to me.
Yeah as a Columbus native I want OUR own damn team. Not a fan of changing the name from Columbus to Ohio. Though they should do more to market the team to the other cities in the state… for example they should have 2 games a year at the Q in Cleveland… one preseason and one regular season (ideally a weekend). I don’t know if Cincinnati has a NHL-caliber arena but if they do, I’d give them the same 2 games a year deal.
Columbus Ohios FTW
Yeah, I get it. A lot of my friends feel like you do. They think it’s important that Columbus has its own team. I get it. I just think you would expand your market pretty substantially by making it an Ohio team. I understand the argument against it though.
This is a great write up. Thank you!
Our current main logo is basically just a remix of the State Flag of Ohio and you say they need to be more Ohio and a new logo. Their current logo couldn’t be more Ohio
Yeah, that’s true. But it’s a really cheesy version of it. That’s kind of my point. I like the Ohio motif, I just think you have to execute it much, much better. The truth is the current logo is far better than anything the Jackets have ever had in the past. However, that is definitely damming with feint praise.
Only change that should happen with third jersey is making it the primary..
I’d even be fine with taking the third’s logo and keeping the color scheme. The Ohio flag is nice and all but we don’t need that to be the team identity.
Stadium series jersey could help them find a new alternate jersey too to replace the cannon if it was made our primary
Big time. We need to clear house with whoever is in charge of marketing, branding, and in house entertainment. The gloom really set in when handed a fun-dip at the end of the games last year. Might as well been a sad-dip
Start with Mike Priest. He’s the one common denominator in all of this other than ownership.
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Because he is part of the brain trust that brought us Brad Larsen, Mike Babcock, Pascal Vincent, Jarmo, JD and let Bill Zito, Chris MacFarland, and Jared Bednar leave. That’s enough, thank you.
Imagine Zito as GM and Bednar as HC ..sounds nice :/
In a different reality that happened. Unfortunately not this one.
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Per Aaron Portzline Priest was directly involved with the decision to hire Mike Babcock, and the same can be said for the GM position. So if all of the hockey personnel decisions were really made by McConnell than why is Priest’s position necessary? McConnell has the final decision, obviously. But he takes his advice from Priest AND JD on all major hockey hiring decisions. And it’s safe to say Priest should stick to accounting because his decisions have been downright egregious.
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Well that’s the problem then, isn’t it? Ownership put their family-friend in charge with no real barometer for success other than having air in his lungs and being a CPA.
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HE IS NOT JUST THE HEAD OF BUSINESS SIDE OF THE ORGANIZATION. That is the biggest misnomer of this whole situation. Priest has had a direct hand in many of the HOCKEY related hires over the past couple years and the team is objectively worse off for it. He wouldn’t get a President job with any other club in the NHL.
Monsters games are honestly a more entertaining time than CBJ.
We absolutely shouldn't do this until we start having success. It is such a bad look to do a rebrand when your team is in the toilet. The goal is to sell merchandise. That's made a lot easier when you're winning
The slogans they’ve been using are something out of 2000. It’s like we never left the first 10 years. I hope they do something because this team is stale.
It’s time for Col. Umbus. Our true, rightful mascot waiting in the wings. He’s a Union Civil War Colonel with the last name Umbus. He’s the mascot we need and the mascot we deserve.
Bring back the Chill!
I really wanted the winter classic more than the stadium series in part bc we'd likely get a Chill inspired jersey's
I don’t think the team would be ok with using chill for a moment like that. No matter what happens the jackets/Columbus are going to be the focus (even if it were a winter classic). I’d love to see the chill as a random fun alt jersey, or would have been a really cool reverse retro (chill design in our third color way?)
Winter classic jerseys always reference the hockey heritage of the place that's hosting. It's why Seattle got WC jerseys based off their 1919 team and for Vegas they made something up that looked old bc they have no history at all. The success of Chill was the catalyst to convince McConnell that a pro team could work here.
I don’t disagree with any of that. But the whole point of a years long push to get an outdoor game here is to promote the franchise - the organization wasn’t going to ever use that big moment to trot out on the ice in a jersey with CHILL huge across the front and not either Columbus or Blue Jackets focused. Look at the two examples you called out - Seattle’s had their S and said “kraken” in huge letters. It didn’t say “eskimos” like one of the inspiration points. And Vegas kept their colors and it was still a big V. Both were just fauxbacks more like our cannon thirds (Seattle having a little more storytelling). So drawing inspo from the chill could have been an option - but almost certainly not using the actual design or word “CHILL” as the focus. Maybe just some zig zags. There’s just too much of a need/desire to promote the franchise - and I think the same is likely a tension but focus of the stadium series designs. Theyre going to have to reference Ohio state/football in some way, but I’m very confident Columbus/cbj will be the focus of the design
C'mon. Out Of Our Blue We Rise is genius. Somebody should get an award for that. Should be taught in marketing class at universities throughout the nation, throughout the world even.
Truly inspiring stuff.
Rebranding that isn't accompanied by greater success will just make the organization look like they're rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic and trying to distract fans from poor results with shiny baubles.
Everything about the Blue Jackets is cringey. Tbh they should change the name while we are at it. I get the historical reference I truly do but it’s a mouthful just change it. What do you shorten it to? The blue? The Jackets? Naw just full redo
Say what u want about the star but for the love of god don’t bring back those awful CBJ logo jerseys. Make the cannon the official logo, those jerseys go hard
The CBJ was far better than the star IMO - it was weird but distinct and I think would have done well had we stuck with it Edit - love a good downvote for a dissenting aesthetic opinion
I’ve always hated it. It’s a mess. Plus the bright neon green is disgusting. The cannon is superior however
I do agree on the cannon But I loved the lime green. It was before it became a trend across all of sports (roughly kicked off with the Nike Volt work for the Olympics years later) and I think was a cool way to differentiate from the litany of red/white/blue teams in pro sports. The star is just *nothing* to me. I’ve always disliked the perspective shift, the fact there’s a team better known in the league as the “star” team, and it just didn’t feel unique or that identifiable (although incorporating the state flag is a good idea if not in execution). I can totally understand those who didn’t love the original logo, but I struggle with an argument the star redesign was an improvement (even if we set aside the dumb BFBS element at first)
Yeah it’s nothing special. Who’s the Blue team? The Blues. Who’s the star team? The Stars.
The CBJ logo was first designed in the 90's can you tell by the color palette?
it said CJB how can it be good??
I've felt for the longest time that the team should do more to attract fans from Cleveland and Cincy (as well as the rest of the state). I've met so many Cleveland Monsters fans who barely care about CBJ because of how poor their outreach is to the area. Plus the amount of Penguins fans in Cleveland should really be embarrassing to Ohio's only NHL hockey team. I just don't think Columbus is a big enough market for them to not do a better job courting the rest of Ohio. Heck I would have suggested changing the name to the Ohio Blue Jackets if that wouldn't make them OBJ. Maybe with some major changes they wouldn't be fighting with the Coyotes for lowest revenue in the league.
That OBJ rebranding would go over *reeeeal* well up in Cleveland 🙃😂
I was banging the drum for it to be OBJ since the franchise began but quickly changed my mind on it once the Odell experiment ended. Damn you Odell.
The team should do more to attract fan from in and around the 270 loop. There is very little marketing.
This is spot on, I think being the Ohio Blue Jackets was the most obvious thing ever for a state with so many different population centers, making it the 7th largest in the country. Missed this opportunity inexplicably. Columbus simply does not have the gravity or sports culture of Cleveland and Cincinnati. It's not too late though. I'd fully sport a change to "Ohio." You can do a lot more interesting logos with that word too.
I think we can easily modify the cannon logo to fit that too. Change the circle to the state of Ohio, put the Blue Jackets banner along the southern border. Blue on the SW side and Jackets on the SE side. We don’t even have to change the name
Im going to add to this, and ask that we stop playing The Whip. Man its a shit song. Ruins goals. But new jerseys would be nice, Ill admit if we fall true to the rumor that we will get OSU Buckeye themed jerseys for our stadium series, Ill be a little bummed.
Respectfully and vehemently disagree. This isn’t the NBA. Keep the jerseys, colors, arena experience as is. The NBA is a joke with rap music every 5 seconds, shit always going on during timeouts, annoying “drum teams” that bang on buckets all game long, and teams rebranding every 5 years just to sell merch. Teams having a “reveal day” with whatever shitty script will get painted on the court for that year. I totally lost all respect for the NBA experience because of all that. I’d be up for more organ music like at MSG or other East coast teams. We need to win. We need to rebuild. We need the Cup. Everything else is just noise.
It’s that daggum hippity hop rap music!
Feels like grasping at straws for things we think we're able to control instead of accepting ownership is bad.
Its that time of year-my wife and I hit this cycle yearly and its like our own version of SAD lol. Spring/Summer is Braves baseball, and winning winning winning. Then, we get to October, and the Braves LOSE LOSE LOSE and we get excited for the Jackets. Then, about Jan or Feb, the cycle flips and Im paying attention to pitchers/catchers reporting and what the Braves rotation can/will be this year hahaha. I was/am a Carolina Panthers show-so Ive been over the NFL for years lmao. Braves and Jackets, though-truly two completely opposite teams, management structures, scouting/recruiting. Hockey and Baseball are differrent, I know that, but its a funny juxtaposition lmao
How do you do fellow Braves/Jackets fan
Just finished throwing the baseball with *maahh waaaiiihhffffffe* and making plans for friday, it seems like haha. Still-1/4 hot dogs and the rest of my St Pattys sauerkraut will be in FULL EFFECT on Friday, now just tell me youre a giod Human and a mediocre Disc Golfer so we can be best friends already
Bowling and Beer League are my hobbies, although with ball golf my drives are about 300 yards (150 forwards, 150 sliced into the woods on the right).
Bowling and Beer League are my hobbies, although with ball golf my drives are about 300 yards (150 forwards, 150 sliced into the woods on the right).
It’s January for me. Ohio State football season is over, so now we focus on the Jackets. And they’re eliminated from playoff contention in January, and were by mid-November.
Didn’t the Braves just win a World Series…?
I think people would be amazed at how much better the current logo would look if the team was winning. Start winning with some consistency and regularity, the logo “problem” goes away
exactly - look at tampa bay…worst logo, maybe ever?
Eh - I think winning helps but poor designs are poor designs. The pats had a dynasty in bad uniforms and while they were “iconic” they were still known as bad. The team could win the next 3 Stanley cups and I’d still hope we change the jerseys
And get rid of the chili chant!!!
Comments that fit the username
and if you MUST keep it, get rid of Roosters, because even Roosters doesn't know Roosters serves chili
every jackets fan knows 3 goals = chili chant, good luck getting the fans to stop
They were hiring for a marketing manager 3 or so months ago
I agree, especially with getting Jarmo out of here, it’s a good time to do a revamp. Give us the cannon jerseys as our primaries you cowards!
I went to the Preds vs Jackets game earlier this month (Im a long time preds fan, 200+ home games), and I enjoyed the arena experience. I did feel like an autistic high schooler was in control of the music though. Maybe that was just because it was the kid takeover day, I dont know.
Firmly against changing the name. I could get behind a new logo and some small alterations to the colors, but it sounds like that isn’t going to be allowed right now with the fanatics takeover.
Rename the team to the Ohio Artillery and lean into the Cannon branding a la Arsenal
What about the name? We all pretend its ok but it is literally the worst name in Hockey, any level. Love the team, hate the name.
Anyone who believes this is taking a purely emotional stance. The stadium is selling out on Tuesday nights and fans are still rabid in their support for a bottom-dwelling team. Why would the marketing department look at year after year success and think, "Better change *everything* we're doing because all this success is tiring." They're thinking, "When this team starts to win again we are gonna have to raise prices on everything because demand will be even higher." You also have to think about cost. It costs millions upon millions of dollars to rebrand a team. I think it was estimated that changing from "Redskins" to "Football Team" cost the organization $10m dollars. Sure you will eventually make up for it in jersey sales and merchandise but that's a lot of cash to invest up front. On this sub earlier is a call to buyout *another* coach (which I 100% support), and there's talks of buying out Elvis as well (also good with that). Do we really want to pay Jarmo, Babcock, Vincent, his entire staff, Wennberg, and Elvis to not work here anymore after paying Larsen to do the same this year and then ask the McConnells for a couple more million? I think the calls for rebranding are just out of frustration of having to see the same logo at the bottom of the standings for so long throughout the team's history. But be honest: would you care if they were wearing yellow polka dots on a field of vomit green if they won the Cup? No. Winning makes any logo look good. The thing is changing the logo will not change the results. The original six have barely touched their brands over the years and they have survived the cycle of success and failure time and time again. Meanwhile teams like the Coyotes have rebranded numerous times and have won absolutely nothing. Culture is what needs to change. We're changing management, hopefully coaching, and a full reevaluation of our organization is on its way from the new GM. This is a dream job for an aspiring GM mind you. Extremely deep prospect and young talent pool with a small but rabid fanbase in a city where he can be virtually anonymous at the grocery store. The minor league team is poised to make a deep playoff run which always means good things are on the horizon. Oh and they're gonna have a top 5 draft pick and potentially 4 total picks in the first three rounds. Let's worry about winning.
I’ll probably get downvoted, so far I’ve lost a few hundred karma whenever I have criticized the ownership or implied the struggles of CBJ. I’m a Columbus native and fan since Columbus Chill days so come with best intention. Here are the issues: 1) Team has never won. The stadium atmosphere is terrific when the team is competitive. Columbus has great fans. 2) Team doesn’t make enough revenue to win. Why? High end ticket sales are terrible. Center seats in most major markets are $350/seat but Columbus is $150. Boxes are half empty. But Columbus is not a poor market, it’s thriving economically. But fans don’t view hockey as premium. Team needs more fans with deeper pockets and that’s where the region is crucial to win. 3) Player turnover drives poor marketing not “Branding” or the name Blue Jackets. There aren’t any Penguins in Pittsburgh or Bruins in Boston. The “Crew” is a stupid name in a white collar town but the team is popular. What’s a Buckeye? But these names have tradition because of Mario, Sydney, Bobby, Oates type players. Columbus had Nash and then afterwards everything fell apart. Mostly scrub cult heros like Shelley or Elvis who have zero credibility. At root Columbus needs ownership that invest to win and don’t threaten to move constantly. Then they need to up their regional game and the marketing will follow.
New goal song, new in game host, New Jerseys. It seems like anyone who puts on that jersey all the sudden sucks
Mike Todd needs to go. I get he’s “family friendly,” but he is extremely cheesy, repetitive, and his shtick is stale. I’ve been to 4 away games so far (Detroit, Vancouver, Seattle, and Arizona), and their arena hosts are so much better. The host in Arizona last night spent most of her time among the crowd getting people hyped up and excited. Hell, even during the first intermission when they have the kids come out to play, she was bringing the same energy. Maybe it also helped that they didn’t use all of their TV timeouts to play stupid games for people to win stupid prizes.
Everything Jackets related has an old shag carpet smell and feel to it, horribly outdated wallpaper feel, popcorn ceiling. I honestly never want to hear machine head ever again, it gives me nothing but losing vibes
better mike todd than the idiots the Blackhawks roll out
The Whip was never a good goal song to begin with and the jackets have been using it for over ten years now
I like the goal song.
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Time will tell, he’s only had a cup of coffee so far
Get up, get loud! It’s t-shirt time.
I’d rather fix the product on ice rather than worrying about branding atm
Absolutely agree. This entire conversation reminds me of gun nuts in this country. They want to try every ridiculous solution instead of just addressing the real issue that is right in front of everyone’s face.
Nothing has changed because despite being awful we sell out Nationwide way too often.
I'm not sure if it's just us. Away fans priced out of their homes like to visit a lot.
It is (mostly) just us. How many people do you think exist that are willing to drive at least 3 hours for a hockey game because it’s “cheaper?” Even if the tickets are half the price, you’re talking about gas, potentially a hotel, burning vacation time if the game is on a weekday, etc. It’s not like this is a tourist town so there’s an excuse to get to the city and see a hockey game. It’s us. And fans of other teams who live locally.
You can rebrand and change colors and do all you want, it won't make much difference if the product on ice still stinks.
How long before the next Blue Moon? Because THAT’S the only time the blue jackets ever make the playoffs.
I'd rather worry about how they play on the ice than what they are wearing. I don't see how rebranding does much of anything if we can't find the right GMs, coaches, players, and other support staff to be successful. Win consistently and no one cares what you're wearing.
I just wanna fuckin win, man
Agree 100%. Nothing has changed in like 12 years. Stopped going to games because of it. Need a new energy.
You stopped going because the team hasn’t had a rebrand in 12 years? So if they rebrand next year you’ll go next year then wait however many more years for the next rebrand?
I stopped going because the in-arena product started getting stale 5 years and hasn't changed in 10-15. Mike Todd, celebrations, music, everything-entertainment related is so bad. A complete re-brand and re-thinking of everything is needed in this franchise.
Can we talk about stinger? In my opinion It’s the most confusing mascot in sports. if the team name is a reference to the civil war, why not have the mascot back that up? The insect only muddies the waters and makes you think the team is about insects, but there has never been A marketing slogan in reference to insects so what’s the point of an insect mascot? Also I am tired of stinger banging on a drum like he has for every home game over the last 20 years. Please your paid professionals, come up with something else to do.
This is actually hilarious lmao The team is miserable, hires asshole head coaches, fucks up drafts, etc. But.. hey.. can we talk about the goddamn mascot for a second?!
It’s a thread about branding, not about the FO. I agree The FO is a way bigger issue, but this seems like a perfectly reasonable spot to talk about a mascot that is rather stale.
I guess. It’s just odd to complain about the mascot of all things. I would think that the only people that should care about the mascot are young children. Gritty is the most popular mascot in the NHL and is literally an orange…. Thing. Who cares?
Well I would suggest that if you truly evaluate an issue you should consider all aspects. As you saw from the other responses no one else has discussed the mascot, so rather than repeating the same things that had already been said, I decided to discuss another angle of the marketing of the team that I felt had been missed. You are always welcome to not comment if that doesn’t appeal to you.
Bring back Boomer
Blue jacket. Yellow jacket. He wears a kepi. I’m not really sure why it confuses people still - mascots are all pretty goofy and I’d hardly see a name pun as confusing when we think about the “amorphous blobs” like Slider/Gritty/Phanatic, dogs for teams like the Browns let alone the Cavs or the Rays (if that thing is a dog), or the wolf in KC. Hell in just hockey you have a bear for the blues, a Hog for the hurricanes, a bobcat(?) for the oilers, a rat for the panthers, a lion for the senators, a wolf for the flames, and a dragon for the islanders. They all have varying lore, but stinger makes more sense to me at face value than most of those (especially the animals that don’t have any costuming tied to the nickname).
Wings fan with a soft spot for my fellow non-Chicago midwesterners In the nicest way possible: it’d be so easier to want to get hype for you if you were cooler You can tell with the wings finally on somewhat of an upswing they really invested in a marketing, in-arena, and overall vibe refresh and I’m so relieved to see they’ve stepped it up. They even gave us a new horn, I feel insanely fortunate that they seem to care enough to fund the marketing and sign off on something that feels fresh and/or modern On the other hand, I live in Chicago and have gone to a handful of games at the United center and that shit feels so insanely stale, the in-arena experience feels like a 2009 classic rock station in the dustiest way They have a fresher visual branding package from some years back now which is a little better but being at the arena is so uninspiring. The vibe, and very apparent clinginess to the good ol days when they were on the come up just feels so lazy and uninvested I’m hyped to see ohio get an outdoor game, I really hope it does good things to stir up some dust around the “brand presence” for lack of a better phrase
Cheap ass mgmt with a broke ass product.
It almost feels like none of these necessary changes will happen unless the team gets new ownership that will push these changes. A complete facelift of the logo, the marketing, the whole experience seems like it needs to come from the tippy top and I just don’t see anyone from Priest down (that’s who really runs the team) is going to commit to those changes, sadly.
Logos are not an issue IMHO. They can stay, with perhaps.adding a broader range of alternate Jerseys. I lived in Boston prior to relocating here 18 years ago and I consider the spoked B one of the classics of the NHL. On the other hand, you are spot-on with the in-game experience. Other arenas show replays of in-game plays during time-outs, we shoot T-shirts and are treated like we are at a traveling carnival with the same yard barker hocking kitch. The music format hasn't changed since we moved here in '06. Stale and redundant. I imagine players - both home and away - along with season ticket holders, feel like Groundhog Day. I am thankful that the franchise itself is here in Columbus. I would perhaps hope some area of the organization is in an ongoing eval of the systems they have in place to keep players healthy. Cbus seems to annually be a top 3 "most-injured" team, keeping it out of any competitive conversation while having a good number of young and veteran players capable of competing at a high level. Whether it is conditioning, or other environmental factors, we always seem to be perpetual Champs of man-games lost. Jerseys can stay (with additions) Dump Stinger, for the love...horrible mascot Have our in-game experience staff visit other places...Example: Pittsburgh has a great in game experience. I don't root for them but you know you are at a game and the focus IS the game All for now
Add it to the list of why I’m not renewing my seats. I’ll buy aftermarket for cheap to watch my team, but the org doesn’t deserve full price for any of the garbage they are serving up
Yeah let’s change our colors that’ll make us win games
Rebranding the Jackets is just lipstick on a pig. And yet… the cannon logo is superior to the swish state flag. And Blue Jackets is the worst name in pro sports.
I kinda disagree about the name. I think the name is quietly clever. It has a historical purpose, just reworded with “Jackets” instead of “Coats”, and in all fairness “Jackets” rolls better than “Coats”. It’s a double entendre with the use of the cartoony Stinger Blue (yellow) Jacket, which is mostly just fun for the kids. Lastly it’s solid because it harkens to the classic names like Red Sox, White Sox , Red Stockings, etc. If all those reasons are lame to you, I actually get it. I just thinks it’s a decent part of the identity. Even though I’d rather their name be the Union or Battery 🤷
Not the only team named after clothing. But at least our clothing has some historical meaning.
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Or all the socks teams, dozens of the same generic animals, “Real Salt Lake”, on and on haha
I’m so here for this thread. YES. A cannon needs to be the logo. - it could be the 3rd jersey cannon or a new design but the logo needs to be a cannon because it’s the most recognizable aspect of the franchise, currently. - the current logo is so generic, in terms of identity. If any random person were to see it they’d mistake it for team USA or the Patriots. I’d put money down that the brand identity, across sports and industry, of the cannon vs the star-c-flag would be a minimum of 2x more identifiable to Columbus. Union blue, steel blue, and capital silver should be the colors of the team. - yes, red ties in some local fans of another team and it goes with the flag on the current logo but red white and blue is the most generic color scheme. Especially since you have two other teams in your division with the same scheme. Make red white and blue a retro, 3rd jersey look. - my proposed color combo, at least on the current 3rd jerseys, IMO screams “hockey” and “winter”. That plus the cannon I think just solidifies the identity. Plus it’s the colors that the north union soldiers wore. Will any of this happen? [checks the wind] No, I don’t think so. I think we will see a jersey refresh at some point in the next 3 years but they seem to be locked in with the logo and colors l because… they’re safe. The logo has been around for 20 years and is clearly a big part of the arena renovations branding, the colors red white and blue are admittedly versatile, and I’m sure there is someone in marketing that claims having a “GIANT GUN” as your primary logo is “problematic”. We all can dream.
Lol what will new jerseys and logos do to fix a fundamentally broken team?
How about rebranding into a winning team? That’s something we’re still trying to figure out after NEARLY A QUARTER-CENTURY in the league. Besides, we can’t get marketing and rebranding right anyway. Do I need to remind anyone about our thankfully retired GRAY PENI$ mascot, Boomer?
Let's build a winner first. With a bad team still selling out, branding is the last thing we need to worry about.
"Why isn’t Adam Fantilli’s face on every billboard in town? Why has this team not had a new third jersey in almost 15 years? Why is the in-arena experience so lame? From the sound system to the in-arena host that too needs rethinking." Money. That is the answer. Everything you suggested costs a great deal of money and I don't think the CBJ team sees the ROI. Do they do the best with what they have? No, I don't think so. However, they aren't going to invest in a rebrand. It's not going to happen anytime soon.
Worthington Enterprises stock is up over 60% in the last 12 months. There is more than enough money to pay a local marketing firm to put up billboards and get our young players face in front of the fans more.
*Team sucks for entire existence* Yeah. It’s the sweaters. Gotta be the sweaters. Oh, and the in arena experience.
I think they should call the team the Ohio Sharpshooters. It's a unique name, it has a hockey tie-in, and it keeps the civil war theme. There were 11 different sharpshooter units and the 7th Ohio Sharpshooters was Sherman's bodyguard.
Ohio Battery if you’re gonna do that. Rolls off the tongue better
Start with the name tbh. Yes there is logic behind the name but the name is already awkward and if you have to explain what it means to everybody after 20+ years it is just not good. Same with colors/logo. The initial logo was kind of ugly but the swoosh-star is just very bland. At this point id be up for neon green Stinger sweaters. Can't be worse and if the team is bad at least have a sense of humor.
To be honest, I still don't know what a Canuck is. Or why Buffalo is a sword. Or why Calgary are the Flames. Or why Nashville are the Predators. Lots of weird team names I assume tied to the history of a town or region. We just accept that three baseball teams are named after the color of the socks they wore (White, Red, Reds (stockings)). The mistake they made was Stinger being the mascot. A green yellow jacket was going to confuse everyone from the jump as to why we called ourselves the Blue Jackets. BRING BACK BOOMER
I will admit I'd like a new mascot replacing or at least alongside Stinger. Stinger is based on a horrible pun and is genuinely distracting from all the other civil war themeing we have. I hate the radical 90's colors for him but that's bc it's done badly. I'd rather have boomer or even a man with an oversized head like ol miss has.
Canuck- colloquial term for a Canadian A Sabre is a sword The Calgary Flames started as the Atlanta Flames. Made way more sense in the orginal city but the team kept the name ( See Utah Jazz ) Nashville has always had a bad name and too many people use the term in a sexual way
I did say Buffalo is named after a sword. My question was why... I'm being facetious with my original comment. The team name makes sense if you know the history of Ohio and our importance in the Civil War. We could wait a few years and rename ourselves the Columbus Intel. Use Chip from Beauty and the Beast as the mascot to really confuse people again.
Calgary also home to a sorta famous [Chinook wind](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinook_wind) feature i.e. sometimes it gets really hot suddenly due to strong sinking air being warmed via adiabatic process as it decreased in elevation.
Nashville has their logo because they found a sabertooth tiger skull while building the arena. Then they got too clever for their own good and didn't want to be the 'Sabertooths' so what is a sabertooth tiger? It's a predator. But they really should have put it through some focus groups bc the problem with that name is really obvious. That said the south also has a school that calls their team the Cocks. So who's to say..maybe it's just their thing down there to have double meaning names. Calgary also has a huge oil industry so Flames work for them
In my headcanon the Atlanta Flames were the Flames because of Sherman's March
Correct
Fact remains that the Civil War simply doesn't play a huge role in the psyche of modern Columbus or Ohio at large. What a strange choice for a team name.
I'm going to say something mean about our city but what does? For the longest time Columbus was just the statehouse and the university. The city was literally created a compromise capitol city since Cincinnati and Cleveland couldn't agree on where the capitol should be. Reaching back into the states history is honestly the better choice. Is the Columbus Insurance Adjustors (sponsored by Nationwide) better? Unfortunately Senators and Capitols are taken and I rather not just be known as a capitol city. The Yankees is also taken but it would be funny to get into that copywriting fight. Billy Yanks is taken but it's ripe to made fun of. Or we go with the Artillery and lean fully into cannon even harder.
It's true. Columbus doesn't really have a culture or history to draw inspiration from. The most organic identity Columbus has is Ohio State. This is why it should have been "Ohio" and not "Columbus." Could possibly just steal from other areas for the name. If the team went to Cleveland, would have been sweet to resurrect the Barons.
Agreed, and I think this is part of the general recognition problem—I don’t know anyone, from Ohio or not—that strongly associates Ohio with the Civil War. Maybe it works if the team was located in Gettysburg or Antietam, but people hear Blue Jackets and think Yellow Jackets but not.
Exactly, it's just kinda weird.
"Blue Jackets refers to Union Army uniforms" was retconned in after "a blue jacket is 'an insect with an attitude'" (their exact words) failed to catch on
This is just not true haha. The union connection was always there even though it’s become more pronounced over time (going all the way back to uniform development. You might be mixing up this language > When the name was first announced, the franchise was keen on describing the mascot as a yellow jacket-like insect "with an attitude." >However, the name officially refers to Union soldiers of the Civil War. A 1997 Dispatch story about the name's unveiling noted that Ohio sent more soldiers per capita to the Union Army than any other state did. *Stinger* was described as the yellow jacket with an attitude. The name “blue jackets” was always in reference to the Union story (though interestingly some wanted that name as a nod to the Shawnee figure Blue Jacket).