The Tampa Bay Devil Rays have been baseball’s most hapless franchise since they began play in 1998, first in uniforms with a kaleidoscope of aquamarine colors and more recently while wearing green.
Club officials hope the on-field performance of the team rechristened last week as the Tampa Bay Rays will be as different in 2008 as the franchise’s new marks, which represent the area’s sunshine and deep blue sea colors.
On one level, the rebranding seems subtle. Though the club considered other nicknames, it finally opted to simply drop “Devil” and keep “Rays.” The stingray logo remains as a small patch on the sleeve of the jersey. The new cap, like the previous one, incorporates a “TB” logo.
But that’s where the similarities end. Gone is the green palate, replaced by navy blue as the primary color. A secondary blue, which is similar to the popular shade adopted in recent years by the Denver Nuggets and San Diego Chargers, also is incorporated. The signature feature is a small yellow sunburst that team officials hope will represent the optimism — the “rays of hope” — surrounding the franchise.
The Rays’ rebranding is the closest a Major League Baseball franchise has come to completely changing nicknames without relocating since the Houston Colt .45s became the Astros prior to the 1965 season. In other sports, the Washington Wizards changed their name from the Bullets in 1997, and the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim switched to the more conventional Anaheim Ducks last year.
“We do want to honor the first 10 years of the franchise,” said Rays President Matt Silverman. “But it’s important to let the community know that this is a clean break from the past.”
That’s been the goal of Stuart Sternberg since 2005, when he bought controlling interest in the team from Vince Naimoli, whose abrasive, heavy-handed management style alienated fans and much of the Tampa Bay business community.
Sternberg and his staff have worked to mend fences, from offering free parking the last two seasons to sprucing up Tropicana Field to training ushers to be more fan-friendly. Though the team has finished last in the American League East in each of Sternberg’s two seasons, the Rays have a talented, young, low-budget nucleus of players.
Rebranding often coincides with an unlikely on-field turnaround. The Arizona Diamondbacks changed their marks before the 2007 season, improved 14 games and reached the National League Championship Series. The Angels won the World Series in 2002 after rebranding the previous offseason.
Rays officials have tempered such comparisons, pointing to 2009 as a more realistic possibility for contention. The club’s projected payroll of $35 million next season again will rank as the lowest in baseball.
“Looking to 2009 is a bit safer,” said Sternberg, the 48-year-old former Goldman Sachs managing partner. “When you look at the maturity of the players and the young guys coming up, the flower should be in full bloom at that point.”
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| The Rays ditched green (above)
for deep blue with “rays of hope.” |
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The Rays’ rebranding follows the recent baseball trend of connecting with the climate and colors of a region. Just as the San Diego Padres chose a sand-and-sea color scheme for their 2004 rebranding and the Diamondbacks opted for Sedona red rock hues last winter, the Rays selected a look that reflects the area in which they play.
The marks were created by MLB Design Services, following some exploratory design work around potential names with Interbrand, a New York-based branding firm that has worked with automobile manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies. The Rays also conducted focus groups of fans concerning the team’s name and design.
The Rays had considered rebranding for the 2007 season, but Sternberg’s late 2005 takeover and MLB’s long lead time made that impossible.
The Devil Rays underwent a modest rebranding before the 2001 season, encouraging the use of “Rays” but not officially dropping “Devil.” The green palate was streamlined from the expansion design and unique to baseball. But the fresh look did nothing for the team’s on-field fortunes.
“There was a connection between the green uniform and losing, and we need to distance ourselves from that,” Silverman said. “If we’re successful on the field, this look will be associated with something completely different from the past.”
The Rays’ new navy and Carolina-like blue combination is similar to that used by the NFL’s Tennessee Titans, but is unique to baseball. The blues represent the waters of Tampa Bay, while the sweeping right leg of the “R” resembles a wave. The sunburst figures to grow in prominence, especially in digital media, providing a sort of exclamation point or Tinkerbell effect.
“It was important to incorporate what Florida is without using another sea creature,” Sternberg said. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but we wanted to set ourselves apart from what the franchise was in the past and get away from the expansionist look.”
The Rays unveiled the new marks in a downtown waterfront celebration featuring players modeling the uniforms. Official sporting goods sponsor Champs Sporting Goods has an exclusive 10-day window in which to sell the new merchandise, and Rays players appeared last week at locations throughout the Tampa Bay area.
The sunburst meshes nicely with Bright House Networks, the team’s official cable provider, which sponsored the launch festivities and has a similar yellow sunburst logo.
The Rays will be one of few teams that do not wear its city or community name on its road uniform. Silverman said that’s to cement “Rays” in the national consciousness and that Tampa Bay lettering could return to the road uniform in ’09.
Silverman said the rebranding will cost “a couple million” dollars once everything from design costs to signs to new letterhead is included.
As for ridding the Rays of the devil, team officials say the occasional complaints from religious groups played little role in the decision.
“It wasn’t the devil but the Devil Ray brand that was keeping people away,” Sternberg said. “You want to have an iconic brand like Coca-Cola or Apple where people will buy anything from you because there’s a certain trust you’ve built. That’s where we want to be.”
Pete Williams is a writer in Florida.
