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📰🏟️ The name$ game

Why MiLB teams are embracing rebrands…

Peter Nowak, Kyle Nowak

02 Sep 2025 — 3 min read

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Why Minor League Baseball teams are embracing rebrands

*The Rancho Cucamonga Quakes prepare to take the field; Image: Wally Skalij*

Like an incoming freshman that aims to shed their high-school reputation, a growing number of Minor League Baseball (MiLB) squads are ditching their old identities for new, more fun rebrands.

Examples in the mid-2000s and late 2010s include the Rocket City Trash Pandas, a nod to northern Alabama’s space industry and raccoon population; the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, highlighting the Floridian fare; and the Akron RubberDucks, honoring the city’s rubber-making history.
The Salem Red Sox and Syracuse Mets both announced rebrands this year, with the goal of increasing their appeal to hardcore fans in the Northeast who would rather die crossing the street than be in proximity to a jersey bearing the name of their MLB team’s biggest rival.
In total, at least ten MiLB teams announced rebrands or unveiled new identities in 2024 and 2025.

A sizable business opportunity lies behind this name game

Many of the rebranded teams raked in $1M+ in retail sales in the first year after their name changes, Front Office Sports reports.

And some, like the aforementioned Trash Pandas, can make even more. Rocket City’s home team slang ~$4M worth of merch before even playing a game—a character arc similar to Bane, as no one cared who they were until they put on the mask🦝.

The change doesn’t even need to be permanent for teams to cash in. Mini-rebrands, where teams adopt temporary alternate identities and change their team names, logos, and jerseys, have also gained popularity. Think: John Oliver’s renaming of the Double-A Erie SeaWolves to the Moon Mammoths for a few games this year.

These mini-rebrands can also make the money machine go brrr. The cofounder of sports-branding firm Brandiose told Front Office Sports that most of its business is generated by MiLB theme nights, with each having the goal of the team making $100K+/year in merch sales from these efforts alone.

But…Finding good names isn’t always easy. Many common words in the English language have already been trademarked. Team mascots also need to be easily chantable, and possess alluring logos that can be slapped on merch—which means that finding the right combo of letters and pictures can sometimes be harder than uncovering El Dorado.

A pro baseball team located in Gastonia, North Carolina, changed its name eight times in 2024 alone—from the Bolognia to the Dinos to the Gnomes—before finally landing on the Ghost Peppers.
Many teams hire agencies, such as Brandiose or Collegiate Licensing Company (being used by Salem), to help navigate this process…

..and they have to be eating good, as the new-name game continues to be popular. The Carolina Mudcats will be moving 25 miles east and rebranding before next season to the Wilson Warbirds, while two other teams are also expected to announce new names or logos for 2026 in the coming months, according to FOS.

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