Rome Braves To Adopt New Name, Logo
Image credit: The Rome Braves are looking for fan input as they get ready to change their name for the 2024 season. (Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
The High-A Rome Braves have announced that they are taking fan input as the first step in their efforts to develop and announce a new name, logo and brand for the team after 20 years as the Rome Braves.
So why would a Braves’ affiliate dump the Braves’ brand it has used since its founding to adopt a new name and logo? The simple answer, as usual in rebrands, is a financial one.
For decades, many around the minors have believed that the Braves were leaving revenue on the table by opting to keep their MiLB teams tied to the big league club’s name and branding. Eventually the Gwinnett Braves, the team’s Triple-A team, did rebrand as the Gwinnett Stripers, but the Double-A Mississippi Braves and the High-A Rome Braves have remained tied to the big league club’s name, logo and coloring.
While the Braves’ brand is quite strong, Braves fans are more likely to purchase Atlanta Braves gear rather than Braves’ gear of an MiLB affiliate. And the MiLB teams that sell the most merchandise have consistently been ones with unique names, logos and colors.
When the Braves owned these MiLB affiliates, the decision on whether to rebrand or remain with the Braves’ identity was a decision for the Braves ownership to make. But the Braves no longer own their MiLB affiliates. Diamond Baseball Holdings, the largest owners of MiLB teams, purchased all four of the Braves’ full-season affiliates in December 2021.
Under the new Diamond Baseball Holdings ownership, it is likely a rebrand will drive larger revenue with increased sales of hats, shirts and other merchandise both locally around Rome and also nationally. So that’s the logical reason why we’d see DBH looking to change the brand of a team that has held that identity for the past 20 years.
