What Do You Mean By "Too Local"?

If you're aware of your hockey history, you likely have seen the logo on the left before. That was the original logo that the Ottawa Senators were using prior to them taking the ice in 1992 for the first time as an NHL team. What you may not know is that the logo on the left was abandoned nearly seventeen months before the Senators had stepped on the ice, and after a pile of merchandise with the Peace Tower logo had already been manufactured, distributed, and sold. As we're seeing with the Utah Mammoths, a logo matters when it comes to merchandise and branding, so why would the Senators switch their logo in the middle of gearing up for their inaugural season?

Before we get to the reason for the switch, it's pretty safe to say that the logo on the right is far better branding for the Senators than the logo on the left. That's not to say that the logo on the left doesn't have some positives going for it - the Peace Tower is an Ottawa landmark while the Canadian flag boosts the Senators' national identity - but it also feels a little collegiate with the city name spelled out across the jersey and it doesn't feel like a logo that would move a lot of merchandise. In the big business of the NHL, that matters, especially to a new expansion team entering Season One.

While that would be a perfectly valid reason to make the change, it seems the Senators and the NHL weren't too keen on explaining why.

That May 15, 1991 article from the Canadian Press run in the Brandon Sun seems to highlight that at least one Ottawa citizen wasn't very fond of the original logo. As explained by the writer, Senators owner Bruce "Firestone confirmed Monday that when the team takes the ice in 1992 the players will wear a different logo than the one that graced the estimated $1 million worth of Seantors products so far." It sounds like a lot of people had collector's items in their possession!

If James Powell's account on his website, Today In Ottawa's History, is to be believed, it seems the NHL may have forced the Senators' hand when it came to this logo. Powell writes,

"This emblem was never official. Reportedly, the logo was rejected by the NHL for being too local. Team officials said that it was 'the official logo of the campaign to bring back the Senators.'"

The only problem with Powell's claim is that it appears that the Peace Tower logo was official as the Ottawa NHL franchise was already running with it after selling merchandise with their branding on it.

However, we'd get our reason three days later when the new logo leaked out and everyone wanted to voice their opinions.

According to the May 18, 1991 article from the Canadian Press run in The Medicine Hat News, the reasons the Peace Tower logo was retired and replaced with the centurion head was due to the design being "too local to Ottawa" and that it didn't "emphasize the strength and speed of hockey". I'm not sure how those rules applied only to the Senators and not teams like the New York Rangers and their Lady Liberty logo and the New York Islanders' logo when it comes to being too local, but I don't make the rules for NHL teams here.

In any case, the new logo was ridiculed by fans and media as well, so it seems like the Ottawa Senators could do no right when it came to building a brand. As we now know, that centurion logo has stood the test of time despite a handful of modifications made, and the latest iteration of that logo will now appear on the new red jerseys that the Senators will debut this season. That's pretty solid for a "[h]ideous, ugly, and juvenile" logo that "could have been lifted from an American college football team or an insurance company."

What people like will always be subjective, but the rules for logos in the NHL shouldn't be. If Ottawa's original logo was "too local", there are at least two others that could classified as "too local" as well. In my view, the Senators made the right decision in going with the centurion logo because the branding is better, but it seems I would have been in the minority had I voiced that opinion in 1991.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!