It’s goodbye Suns and hello, Jumbo Shrimp.
The new name and logo for Jacksonville’s Double-A Minor League Baseball affiliate of the Miami Marlins was unveiled Wednesday by team owner Ken Babby and other team officials.
“It’s quirky and it’s fun,” said Babby.
When the name became public late Tuesday, it created a storm on social media, with people at first thinking it was a joke, then realizing it was reality.
Babby said he knows change can be difficult, particularly for sports fans who are entrenched in tradition.
He went through a similar experience in Akron, Ohio, when he bought the Cleveland Indians’ Double-A affiliate, which was at the time called the Aeros.
As in Jacksonville, Babby wanted a name that reflected the community and also brought some fun to the fan experience.
He settled on Rubber Ducks, reflecting Akron’s history as the headquarters city for the B.F. Goodrich and Goodyear tire companies and added “ducks” for fun.
Babby said the team worked on the new name for his Jacksonville franchise “all during the season” and brought in San Diego-based Brandiose, a marketing firm that specializes in branding sports teams.
“We brought their people to Jacksonville and showed them around,” he said. “We kept coming back to water and marine life — like Mayport shrimp.”
John Daigle, principal of Daigle Creative, a local advertising, marketing and public relations agency, said when you ask loyal fans of a sports team to accept a new identity, it can create a challenge.
“The (old) brand is close to their hearts. You really have to do a good job selling it,” said Daigle.
He was director of marketing and communications at Jacksonville University in 1997 when the college made a slight change to its brand.
It entailed replacing school colors green and yellow with green and gold and slightly redesigning the logo.
The name “Dolphins” remained, but that didn’t mean the change didn’t cause a little controversy.
“It didn’t matter how good it was. We knew the alumni would have a hard time accepting it,” Daigle said. “No matter what, it’s going to take people a while to get used to a new brand.”
Another local advertising executive said the Jumbo Shrimp name is merely following a trend in sports marketing.
“It has become prevalent in the minor leagues to have a playful brand,” said Will Ketchum, president and CEO of the Burdette Ketchum creative agency.
In addition to team names such as Travelers, Tourists, Muckdogs, Fire Frogs and Lugnuts, quite a few minor league baseball teams have adopted distinctive local wildlife as their identities.
The Beloit Snappers in Wisconsin have a turtle mascot. The teams in Burlington, Iowa, and Salt Lake City are the Bees and in Texas, it’s the El Paso Chihuahuas.
Also on the list are the Fresno Grizzlies, the Toledo Mud Hens and the Hartford Yard Goats.
Minor league baseball teams named for food are less common.
There are the Montgomery Biscuits, the Modesto Nuts and the Pensacola Blue Wahoos.
The Jumbo Shrimp join the Charlotte Stone Crabs and Hickory Crawdads as the only tasty crustaceans on the menu in Minor League Baseball.
Ketchum said the new name references the shrimping industry in Mayport, it “captures the character of the community,” and since the team’s intent is providing family fun, “Jumbo Shrimp” has a lot of potential.
And it really was time for a new, more distinctive brand.
“The Suns was a great tradition, but any team in Florida could own that name,” said Ketchum.
The new brand was planned for introduction following $1.8 million in improvements to the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville, such as more fan amenities, renovated suites and a new concessions menu.
Babby said 2016 was a year to build trust and relationships in the community and to further establish the team’s position as affordable, fun family entertainment.
Ketchum said the key to success for the Jumbo Shrimp brand will be for Babby to maintain the level of fan experience that has been established.
He said so many companies have adopted new brands in the past 20 years that consumers have become accustomed to change.
“People accept it and move on,” said Ketchum, “As long as you’re providing the same product or service, the name is not as important.”
After the formal announcement, Babby made the rounds of the local television stations and then was interviewed all afternoon by the media.
The story was picked up by NPR, Fox News and many other national media outlets.
As of 8 a.m. this morning, a Google search identified nearly 60,000 results for “Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp baseball team.”
Babby was a guest this morning on WJCT-FM’s “First Coast Connect.”
He said Wednesday afternoon he was sure some of the callers would be ready to voice their objection to the team’s new identity — but that’s OK.
“Who’d have thought this many people would be talking about a Minor League Baseball team in November?” he said.
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