I am definitely impressed by the amount of restraint the designers of this logo showed. There were so many opportunities to get silly with it. The sword could have been replaced with a hockey stick (or even worse, a hockey stick that still had the sword pommel...I've seen a junior team that actually does this in their logo). The helmet could have been replaced with a goaltender's helmet. Or it could have been a full-fledged hockey player wearing a gladiator's helmet.

But they didn't do any of that. Instead, they actually drew a gladiator.

The result is a logo that is easily the best new logo for the 2003-04 season, and one of the best in all of minor league hockey. The name is great too. Long-time readers know that I firmly believe team names should have powerful connotations of some sort. "Gladiator" manages to combine physical strength, honor, courage, and desperation into a single word. A gladiator will go to great lengths to win because he knows he might die if he doesn't, but he still has certain rules he is supposed to adhere to and does. It's hard to beat those connotations. It's certainly better than their fellow Georgians the Macon Trax.

About the only negative here is the use of a county for the team name. They are located in the city of Duluth, Georgia, in Gwinnett County -- one of the outer suburbs of the Atlanta metropolitan area. I understand why they didn't use "Atlanta", but I'm not certain why they didn't just go with "Duluth". But this is still a relatively small criticism. The colors are also a little bit on the murky side, but it works.

Final Score: -3 points.
Penalties: Region, 3 pts; Alliteration, 2 pts; Name-Logo, 2 pts.
Bonuses: Cool-Name, -5 pts; Cool-Logo, -5 pts.