It could have been worse.

On Monday the Beloit Snappers unveiled its long awaited rebrand, to the Beloit Sky Carp. The new name is a solid choice, or at least not as gimmicky as the other options which were out there: Cheeseballs, Moo, Polka Pike and Supper Clubbers. And while we believed that an updated Snappers logo (or our River Rockers idea) combined with a new stadium and better marketing would have been enough to turn around low merchandise sales (without upsetting so many fans), the team disagreed.

The new Sky Carp logo and uniforms are fine, fairly straightforward. The color scheme is modern and modeled in part after their parent club, the Miami Marlins. Even though the logo with the goose carrying the wrench looks a little out of place, we appreciate that the team is trying to recognize the city’s industrial past. Our favorite design detail is the aviator glasses on the alternate logo—which is a tribute to Beloit native Bessica Raiche, one of the first women to fly solo in the United States. Didn’t know that!

This change has of course attracted a ton of attention and will undoubtedly lead to increased merchandise sales over the next year or two. The real challenge for the organization will be keeping that momentum going after the initial buzz wears off the Sky Carp rebrand. And that could prove to be tricky if national fans have moved on to The Next Big Thing and local fans still prefer the Snappers name.

But honestly, this rebrand is really about much more than just hat and t-shirt sales. Snappers radio announcer Jon Rawson was quoted in an interview recently describing this new name as a way of “separating” the team’s nearly 40-year history as a nonprofit with this new ownership group led by Quint Studer. Fairly or unfairly, the name “Snappers” was too closely associated with the old way of doing business: on a shoe-string budget in an outdated stadium in front of just a handful of fans on many nights. The organization hopes when people hear “Sky Carp” they’ll think of something different: a beautiful new downtown ballpark that the team will try to fill every weekend in the summer months.

And it goes deeper still: for decades Beloit has been incorrectly labeled by many people across the area as a bad place to visit, filled with poverty and crime. Local billionaire Diane Hendricks has attempted to help change that false reputation by spending millions of dollars gentrifying Beloit’s downtown, which included financing the team’s new stadium. And while it remains to be seen how much these improvements benefit regular Beloiters living and working elsewhere in the city, a rebranded minor league baseball team is another way to advertise to out-of-towners that it’s okay to come spend time and money in the “new” Downtown Beloit.

But the rebrand and the reasons for it aside, as longtime Beloit baseball fans it is exciting to see this new era get underway.  We know this last year has been emotional for many of us but hope we can start putting those feelings aside and get back to cheering on the hometown team together as one. Because regardless of what their nickname is, the “Beloit” in “Beloit Sky Carp” is still what matters most to us!