Perhaps it’s a product of the times that the ownership of the Canadian Football League expansion franchise that will commence in Ottawa next season will formally unveil its team name and logo, even though both are already known because of a combination of internet and social media that make it really hard to keep anything a secret.
A grand kickoff on Saturday will showcase the team name and the logo, both of which have been making the rounds online, although the new ownership group that has been dubbed the Dream Team by the commissioner of the CFL has refused to confirm or deny the veracity of the information.
Barring an audible at the last minute, the team will be known as the RedBlacks, a variation of one of five names that were shortlisted following a lengthy process that involved various focus groups.
The other names — Nationals, Raftsmen, Rush and Voyageurs — all seemed to have merit, either because of the letter R that referenced the previous Ottawa CFL franchises called the Rough Riders and Renegades, the link to the nation’s capital, the Ottawa River or something that could be translated the same in both English and French.
RedBlacks may be one of the most unusual names in all of sports, but you can understand why the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group chose it. The colours have been primarily used in the uniforms of Ottawa sports teams and the previous two CFL franchises, but why not Red Blacks?
The original franchise was known as the Rough Riders, as opposed to the Roughriders, which happened to be the name of the Saskatchewan franchise, something that made the CFL the butt of many jokes because it had only nine teams and two with the same name.
As a condition of the new Ottawa franchise coming back into the fold, the Saskatchewan franchise, once one of the poorest in the CFL and now among the richest through success on the field and an ability to monetize anything with the logo, said Rough Riders could not be used.
RedBlacks has received a mixed response so far among people commenting on it, but the bottom line is the people who follow the franchise and pay for merchandise will have to learn to like it — assuming again the team owners do not make a last-minute alteration.
It may draw some howls from people who wonder what the hell a RedBlack is. But it will generate discussion nonetheless en route to the team debuting next year. It will also be interesting to see how this is all explained.
But there may be a slight variation of the name to market the team to Francophones who comprise a significant part of the Ottawa population and across the border in Gatineau, Que. That’s why there have been some suggestions that somehow the team will also be marketed as the Ottawa Rouge et Noir, which is the French translation of red and black.
For purposes of anything to do with the CFL, the team will be called the Ottawa RedBlacks. How the team will somehow explain why and how it plans to incorporate Rouge et Noir will be an interesting part of the rollout on Saturday.
Think about it: the team will be known by a name that is completely original, making this a totally unique move by an ownership group reviving a franchise that has collapsed twice before under different names.
Add in the fact it may have an alternate name to appeal to a different market, well, this is taking something very simple and complicating it. The easiest thing would have been to call the team the Voyageurs because it is written and translates the same in English and French.
Then there is the matter of the logo, which has been revealed despite the team’s attempt to keep it a secret, because of an enterprising website called sportslogos.net that searched the Canadian Intellectual Property Office where trademarks are officially registered.
There had already been a controversy because a former employee of the company the Ottawa ownership group employed to design a logo released on his personal blog some logo images that were being considered for the team.
That was quickly defused by the ownership group, but it hasn’t officially commented on the news of the registered logo with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. A no comment in this case could be considered a yes.
If nothing else, the product has already been sampled to the market for a test, albeit not by design, so when the logo and team name are officially revealed it will hardly be a great surprise.
It will be a day to celebrate and do a lot of explaining to the critical mass of people that have jumped aboard the latest CFL team in Ottawa.