Atlanta Gladiators

-8

When this team debuted in Duluth, Georgia as the Gwinnett Gladiators, I commented at how impressed I was at the restraint the logo designers showed. Rather than throw in any number of gratuitous hockey references (hockey stick instead of sword, goalie mask instead of gladiator helmet, et cetera), they just drew a gladiator. I was also impressed with the name, which to my knowledge has never before been used in minor league hockey yet in my opinion has excellent connotations: As I wrote at the time, "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.

My one criticism at the time was the use of "Gwinnett" (the name of the county where the team plays). As in most instances, I felt that they should use either the name of the town they actually play in (Duluth) or the name of the largest nearby city (Atlanta). I said that I understood their hesitation to use "Atlanta" given the presence of the Atlanta Thrashers, but didn't understand why they didn't go with "Duluth". Now they've even fixed the "Gwinnett" issue by changing their name to the Atlanta Gladiators since they're now the only professional hockey team in the Atlanta metropolitan area.

And despite this being the perfect opportunity to switch logos (and potentially incorporate any of those terrible things they didn't incorporate the first time), the team has decided that the logo is a winner and have stuck with it. Obviously they've replaced the word "GWINNETT" with "ATLANTA" on the logo, but aside from that the logo hasn't changed a bit.

Interestingly, the change helps their score as well, since it removed the "Region" and "Alliteration" penalties. This means that the team now has the best score any team has ever received on the Bush League Factor, with -8 points. (The previous record holder was the Grand Rapids Griffins' original logo with -5, in case you're wondering.) Twelve years ago I ended my review for the Gwinnett Gladiators by saying "The whole thing works. It's that simple." Well, the whole thing still works. It's still that simple.

Final Score: -8 points.
Penalties: Name-Logo, 2 pts.
Bonuses: Cool-Name, -5 pts; Cool-Logo, -5 pts.