While we are still eagerly awaiting the Beloit Snappers rebrand announcement on November 15th, the next-biggest rebrand news this offseason came on Wednesday-- when the Northwoods League's Green Bay Booyah announced they were changing their name to the Green Bay Rockers. Overall the new look is pretty good: the main logo might have been a little better with an animal mascot like our Punk Rock Snappy, but like the baseball shaped guitar and the glove making devil's horns. And while we are disappointed Green Bay didn't collaborate with us on the change or give us credit for the idea, we are happy they chose the name and wish them nothing but success. At the end of the day this is just a fun hobby for us-- if our legacy is coming up with the name of a college summer league team we're cool with that.

And although we had long given up hope the Beloit Snappers would rebrand to "River Rockers", we do believe this news highlights what could go down as a missed opportunity for the organization. In many ways, Wednesday's press release from the Green Bay Rockers reads a lot like our pitch to the Snappers ownership last year: "The new name allows us to exude a new energy and attitude to entertain the crowd at each and every game" writes Green Bay General Manager John Fanta, "We plan to have live music at every game and hit different genres to completely enhance the experience at Capital Credit Union Park." Bringing a rock concert atmosphere to the Snappers' new ABC Supply Stadium with loud music and live bands was one of our favorite aspects of the River Rockers idea. And then there's this from Green Bay Owner Mark Skogen: "There is so much synergy between the two venues, EPIC Event Center and Capital Credit Union Park, that it makes a lot of sense... We are providing live entertainment down the street and hoping to bring the same level of excitement to the stadium for our community to enjoy." The Snappers are also committed to using ABC Supply Stadium as a venue for concerts and other events, and as we have suggested a team name that would have cross-promoted those efforts would have been almost too perfect.

All that said, we still remain hopeful at least some of our River Rockers ideas will make it into the finished product when Beloit's rebrand is announced later this month. The Snappers are lucky to have some of the best minds in minor league baseball working on this project (led by Owner Quint Studer, President Jeff Jurgella, as well as Brandiose's Casey White and Jason Klein), and we're confident the new stadium's location along the Rock River will be too good of an opportunity for them to pass up. It's worth mentioning that our idea has always been about more than just the name "River Rockers"-- it's about bringing energy and excitement to the ballpark, using music and rockstar cool to help fire up the fans. And even after their rebrand, the Green Bay Rockers certainly don't have a monopoly on that.

Another key takeaway of Green Bay's name change is it serves as an important reminder that despite their best intentions, rebrands unfortunately don't always work. Green Bay was known as the Bullfrogs until Brandiose rebranded them to the Booyah in late 2018. Many fans ridiculed the new name... which we're guessing (the team hasn't admitted to this) likely helped lead to the change to "Rockers" only three years later. Perhaps a more famous example involves the Snappers Midwest League rival, the Quad Cities River Bandits. The team was known as the River Bandits from 1992-2003, changed its name to "The Swing of the Quad Cities" the following year... before switching back to the River Bandits just four seasons later as a result of fan criticism. With the help of an updated logo, Quad Cities' merchandise sales are said to have performed very well in the time since.

Supporters of Minor League Baseball's recent wave of rebrands would argue these are rare exceptions: that name changes almost always result in a boost in merchandise sales. And they're absolutely right-- for every Green Bay Booyah or Swing of the Quad Cities failure there are countless other examples where a rebrand helped boost interest in the team. Let's hope that's the case with the Beloit Sky Carp or Supper Clubbers or whatever name they end up picking (the organization appears confident this will all work out in the end). But if the change doesn't go as well as the team expects, fans of the "Snappers" can have at least a small bit of hope knowing there is some precedent for teams eventually switching back to an old name or something that more people might like. To their credit, the new ownership group seems to take fan feedback very seriously, so if you're still unhappy with the rebrand after it is announced please take a moment to let them know. We have found everyone in the Snappers organization to be very approachable, reasonable people. And in the end, both fans and the team want the same thing: for baseball in Beloit to be a success for years to come!