Team Names - Pioneers, Our First Attempt

You want something simple, to the point, and can stand the test of time. They recently did a survey of best helmet logos of the NFL. The Packers, Steelers, and Colts were up near the top and they haven't changed in decades and probably never will for good reason. Yet you have teams that are trying to capitalize on current trends and try to make it too creative that they end up having to re-design it every few years. The Brewers have been around since 1970 and have changed their logo 5-6 times depending on who you ask even when the fans love the ball and glove.

Next to location, this is another top variable that needs a solid thought out process. It's a lot like naming your children, you have to plan every step of their future as a reflection of their names. It's hard to imagine someone actually approved the name Marquette Gold.

I remember awhile back SI for Kids had a contest where you would design the expansion team's logos for the NFL along with picking their names. Being in 3rd grade I was so jacked for this project, I must have done 30 different designs over the weekend. I thought at least one of mine would get looked at. They ended up going with the Jaguars and Panthers. I'm not sure if they even considered using the SI submissions, or if it was just a way to boost subscriptions and readership with kids. Naming a team after a jungle cat anymore just means you're not trying, and they did it twice to the same expansion set. Fast forward a few years later and a during a project where we wrote out what we wanted to be when we grow up, I dreamt of running a sports franchise. It was a baseball team that I aptly named the New Orleans Hurricanes. Cheap lesson learned, it's also probably not a good idea to name a team something that could potentially devastate that region down the line.

I liked the term Pioneers because it is rarely seen in sports. There are several colleges that use it though (UW Platteville). It also fits Wisconsin as it embodies the nature with which our state was settled along with our independent spirit.

A Pioneer can be anything, it doesn't have to be a guy in a covered wagon. Pioneers are innovators, tenacious, and risk takers which I think fits our state pretty well when thinking of our settlers and Native American heritage. Wisconsin had always been great about naming teams based off state institutions and I was trying to think of others. Miners was a possibility, but it didn't roll off the tongue nicely. Another was related to how great the fishing is up north, so maybe the Wausau Muskies (ode to another legendary team of Wisconsin), or Bullheads. If you like the alliteration there is always Wausau Warhawks or Warriors.

by Erika While I do like the Pioneers name, I don't see a team forming in Wausau. I really think it has to be Milwaukee or Madison, regardless of what everyone else seems to think about places being a college hockey town. I don't think Milwaukee is a college hockey town, I think at the time we were voted down before, they looked at us as not bringing enough money and fans compared to other cities. That however, is another rant, for another topic!

Let's just say Milwaukee, for travel purposes. (You know you'd get chicago/IL visitors coming up here to watch NHL games because it would be much less expensive to see a game here than it would be there! Plus it's easy from all freeways) What is Milwaukee? I don't even know our slogan anymore, but it used to be "A great Place by a great Lake". We can't be called the Milwaukee Lakes, although maybe the goalie of the other team would be trying to figure that one out and we could score a few. I thought about the history of Milwaukee and while there is German, Polish, and Beer history in Milwaukee, I find other teams easily making fun of us for names like Milwaukee Brats & Milwaukee Ice-Poles. I did think Milwaukee Millers had a nice ring to it, but I imagine the gold and red jerseys to look terrible, like the beer cans. If we went with the Milwaukee Bocks, I imagined waves of mass confusion when trying to order tickets to games over the phone.. when someone on the other line thinks you're ordering Bucks tickets. Bocks and Bucks are just too close. "Hey did you see the Bocks game last night?" "The Bucks were on? I didn't know they were playing" "Yeah, they won, 3 - 2" "wait..... what?"

I guess we'll have to go with the last resort. The Milwaukee Braves.

Erika

Postby admin I think you bring up a lot of great points, and I love the idea of calling them the Milwaukee Braves. I started to work on a logo for that even. I like how some teams do that now a days where they name it after a historical team that has already dissipated. Even the Milwaukee Brewers technically fall under that.

It definitely would increase traveling between the cities bringing in more people from Chicago to see games and vice versa. Let's face it you probably don't get many people traveling to Minnesota from Chicago to games, but if there was a closer option it would boost it.

There may be some confusion between the Bocks and the Bucks especially if games are around the same dates and sharing the Bradley Center. What if we used the full term Einbocks, does that sound good? What about putting a color in front of them like the Gold Bocks, Green Bocks, Brown Bocks. Maybe if they were located in Green Bay or Madison it could work.