Brampton Beast

15

"Name the team" contests are nothing new, but the hockey team in Brampton seems to have put a twist on the usual approach. From what I can find, they did a realty-showesque "elimination" style name the team contest, with ten finalists that were whittled down one by one until only two remained. I assume the contest was just as fixed as any other name-the-team contest, but it was a neat idea that probably drew more interest than the usual approach would have. Incidentally, the names (listed here in order of elimination) were:

10.	Wolverines
9.	Vipers
8.	Smash
7.	Renegades
6.	North Stars
5.	Blizzard
4.	Bengals
3.	Arrows
2.	Bandits
1.	Beast

That's an interesting mix here of names that are overused and names that I've never seen used before, of names that are good and names that are dreadful. But I have to say that I think that the winner was a pretty good choice. I'm not certain it would have been my first pick on the list, but I can't criticize whoever it was that selected the name.

One of the things I like about the name is its vagueness. When you give your team a specific name, be that name Bulls or Cottonmouths or Pirates or Mallards, it creates specific connotations. But a name like Beast is open-ended. Or at least, it can be if you don't get too specific with the logo. Consider, for example, the Lake Erie Monsters. There's nothing there but the very top of the head. The viewer is left to imagine the rest of the creature. Is it bipedal? fish-shaped? snakelike? That's up to you. Does it have a beak? fangs? You tell me. Even better along these lines was the old Madison Monsters of the Colonial Hockey League. All you could see of that monster was five claws (you couldn't even see what the claws were attached to) and two eyes glowing ominously in the background. The Brampton Beast could have chosen a similar approach, but instead they gave us a good view of the Beast. And the Beast, it turns out, is basically just a werewolf. That's a little disappointing. Not because werewolves aren't intimidating creatures (they are), but because of the squandered opportunity. Even if the designer was going to draw something specific, they could have been so much more creative. It could have been something you'd never seen or even imagined before, but instead we get something we've all seen in old "B" movies.

I'm not saying it's a bad logo per se. In fact, I'll go ahead and say that it's a good (but not great) logo. With a name like "Beast", the logo should imply something that you'd be scared of, and I think I'm correct in saying you'd be scared if that thing came after you. But it could have been so much better. They should have kept in mind the rule of horror movies: that which you can't see is always scarier than that which you can.

Final Score: 15 points.
Penalties: Singular, 6 pts; Alliteration, 2 pts; Name-Logo, 2 pts; Equip-Logo, 5 pts.
Bonuses: None.