By Ed Kopek
Buffalo, NY – Considering the uproar over the Seneca Casino and the fumbling of the Bass Pro deal, it should come as no surprise that the change of team colors and logos by the Buffalo Sabres would also be cloaked in controversy. After an unexpectedly successful season, the switch back to the original team colors of blue and gold should have been a cause for rejoicing by long-time Sabre fans who never fully embraced the black and red scheme used since 1996.
Instead of extending the on-ice success of the team into and through the summer, the mishandling and miscalculation of the Sabres marketing department has resulted in a public embarrassment. Sabres' managing partner Larry Quinn was forced to call a press conference to try to diffuse some of the controversy that has swirled around the alleged new Sabres logo (which has derisively called everything from a banana slug to a bad hairpiece for Barney Rubble).
Let's pause for a moment to head west. The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim had a season very similar to the Sabres. They had unexpected success in the regular season and went on to the Western Conference Finals, only to lose to the Edmonton Oilers. The team faced a unique challenge after their season ended, as the ownership of the team had transferred from the Disney organization to a private owner and resident of Orange County. For this reason, the team could no longer call themselves the Mighty Ducks, nor use the Disney-designed logo.
What Anaheim did was to come up with a brand new and unique color scheme, a dynamic and visually distinctive logo and change their name to "The Anaheim Ducks." The team logo and colors were "...a collaborative effort, mixing opinions of fans as well as Ducks players, ownership and management," according to a press release from the team.
The Ducks also decided to extend the interest generated by their playoff success by revealing their new uniforms at a press conference on June 22, just days after the last Stanley Cup Final game was played. As soon as the press conference was over, the fans in attendance were invited to shop for new Ducks merchandise in the team store.
Back in Buffalo, several weeks passed by after the last NHL game of the season with fans wondering if the switch back to blue and gold was really going to happen. Finally, pictures of the purported new Sabres logo appeared in a news article. Fan reaction was immediate and almost uniformly (pun intended) negative. One disappointed fan even set up a web site dedicated to ridding the city of the "slug" logo.
It occurs to me that the Sabres marketing department really dropped the ball on this one. The Sabres have a tradition of fan involvement in team affairs - the name Sabres was chosen in a contest when Buffalo was originally awarded the NHL franchise. It would have been great if a group of long-time season ticket holders had been brought in as unofficial "onsultants"when picking a new logo, as happened in Anaheim. Several designs and color schemes could have been commissioned and the best one chosen.
Instead, the team decided to shroud the whole process in mystery. No one knew what the new logos would look like, or even if indeed the team would return to the blue and gold color scheme. Once the new logo was leaked to the public, the reaction was so immediate and so negative that I believe that Sabres management went into panic mode. It took them weeks to respond to the premature unveiling of the new logo, culminating in Quinn's hastily called press conference. I also fully believe that the decision to use the original jersey and logo as the "third" jersey was made only after the team perceived just how much negative reaction there was to the "slug" logo.
So, rather than having a smooth transition to a new, yet familiar team identity, we have "Logo-gate" instead. The team lost a tremendous marketing opportunity (and potential sales) by choosing to wait until September to reveal their new identity. They also lost the chance to bond with their loyal fans rather than anger them. What else would you expect in Buffalo?
Listener-Commentator Ed Kopek is a technical support specialist and platelet donor at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute.
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