Big news in the lacrosse world, as the Premier Lacrosse League has announced geographic locations for its eight teams, as follows:
Eastern Conference
- Boston Cannons (previously of the MLL)
- Maryland Whipsnakes
- New York Atlas
- Philadelphia Waterdogs
Western Conference
- Carolina Chaos
- California Redwoods
- Denver Outlaws (previously of the MLL, replacing the Chrome Lacrosse Club)
- Utah Archers
The teams’ new logos are shown above.
Up until now, the PLL teams did not have geographic identities, so the teams were known simply as Waterdogs Lacrosse Club, Redwoods Lacrosse Club, and so on. A rotating series of cities hosted the league’s games, with all teams playing in the same city on a given weekend.
Beginning in 2024, PLL teams will have four home games in their newly designated home cities, four road games, and two games at neutral sites.
Additional info on all of this can be found here.
My only gripe is that they did the same thing as XFL 3.0 did and overdesigned or over simplified perfectly good identities. Denver should have just come back with their old branding if you are going to use the barbed wire knot.
NY Atlas?
So, a collection of maps?
Odd name and logo combo…don’t get it (and I from NY)
link
Here’s an Atlas statue in Michigan.
link
I’d think that a team nicknamed Atlas would have the mythical figure with the world on his shoulders. Instead we get a bull?
I think they got their Manhattan landmarks confused: link
Pretty sure someone form thr Chicago Bulls may want send a cease and desist on that NY logo
I’m a huge PLL fan, and happy to have a “home team” (I live in Baltimore, Maryland), but I hope this doesn’t backfire on them; I sort of thought the non-geographical identities made the league unique. No matter where you lived, you could root for any team you wanted to (I sort of latched on to Archers, Redwoods, and Waterdogs). So far, though, the PLL seems to know what they’re doing business-wise.
I agree that they are stepping away from what made the league unique. But, I also think that they have done their market research the past few years, and it makes some sense to try and build up brand loyalty through location. My understanding is that they are keeping the road show in having all teams play at a single location each week, and then moving on to the next “home” city. I also think if they are to grow into a more major sport, not having location-based teams feels a bit like going to see the touring monster truck shows, or traveling sport shows like the Globetrotters.
Oops, looks like I stand corrected on the traveling format going forward. This will be interesting. I live in Rochester NY, and all the years that we had a team, it just never generated enough buzz to fill the stands. Hopefully they have built up enough of a fan base in these cities after having toured there the past few years.
Happy to see the Outlaws are sticking around!
Wish they still had the “O” in the logo though, looked more complete.
Philly Waterdogs…not Wooderdogs?
Nice. Why not go full hoagiemouth and go with Philly Wooder Ice? (Sidenote: I hate using “Philly” as the city name. Philadelphia is long but it is the city where the team is based. Like going with “Chi-Town”, “The ATL”, or “The Land”.
As a lacrosse fan, and a graphic designer, I think they really botched this. The only logo improvement was the Chaos. Whipsnakes (awful name) is fine, but could benefit from a few minor tweaks. Archers is a downgrade. Atlas and Waterdogs are HUGE misses. The designer employed by the league VERY LIKELY was pushed into some bad decisions by those higher up than him on the food chain. I think it is inexcusable to launch with logos of this quality for a “major” league. The product on the field is AMAZING, these are super talented athletes, and lacrosse is an amazing sport. I also think the league itself is an amazing idea, and the Rabils have done a phenominal job growing the sport. I have seen so many talented sports logo designers online, and it feels like the league cheaped out.
I get why a team based in California would have a bear for their logo.
I do not get why a team based in California, with the nickname Redwoods would have a bear for a logo and then have some small trees tossed in at the bottom, almost as an afterthought.
Denver is the Outlaws?
OK, but with a logo like that, there is NO WAY I’m getting “Outlaws” from it. I mean, what is that logo supposed to be (or represent)? Looks like a piece of barb wire encircling a steer horn, or something…
I guess I should be happy they didn’t go the cliche route of a black hat, but I don’t get “Outlaws” from that in the least.
The “Chrome Lacrosse Club” logo that this replaced was also quite neat and actually original… too bad
Carolina in the Western conference brings back memories of the old NL and NFC West divisions that had Atlanta.
Even better, the Carolina Panthers started out in the NFC West.
When the Panthers joined, the NFC West had only 1 team out of 5 in the Pacific Time Zone.
This remains a travelling circus with no real fixed homes. Will be difficult to create a loyal fan base is my guess. The team logos are some hits but mostly misses. I like the Philly logo, looks loke a beer brand.
The Essendon Bombers of the Australian Football League would like a word, Utah…
I’m weirdly upset about the loss of Chrome LC. I always thought they had the most unique and visually appealing identity in the PLL. Vaguely vaporwave, kinda metal. It just clicked for me. link
I much prefer the older Whipsnakes Logo and color scheme even thought they are clearly branding within the constraints of the traditional Maryland Flag colors of Red, Yellow and Black.
*Whipsnakes’ Logo – Where’s my coffee? ;-)
They all look like the generic logos on an unlicensed video game. Also bring back the Chrome.