Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Naysayers really say a whole lot of nothing.

"I seriously can't believe you have nothing better to do than sit here and wail on about the logo."

Not the most biting comment I've ever read from a negative Nelly but will address it utilizing the utmost lack of brevity.

It's actually a little more deeper than wailing on the logo. I'm don't want Larry Quinn to get away with swerving accountability for letting RBK ruin the teams identity as the one of the Edge System uniform's guinea pigs with a lame logo on a jersey that was originally designed to be tucked in by the RBK brain trust and suggested as a best hockey practice. You can throw in what happened to Briere and Drury too. One of them had to go sure and we were braced for that...not losing both of them. Drury wasn't THAT homesick...come on.

I quote from a WGRZ interview:

"Quinn: "We wanted to preserve our tradition and old look."

2 On Your Side’s Stefan Mychajliw: "A lot of folks would have liked the 'old school' uniforms just to be 'the' uniform. Any talk of that ever?”

Quinn: "We thought about it. But what you really want to do is go forward. And I think having a forward looking ‘futuristic’ uniform, if you want to call it that, and one tied to your tradition, is a good way to go. I think the old one, the original one, is a retro look. I don't know that's the look you want all the time."

You is us...he knows what WE want? Actually the fan's sentiment when Golisano bought the team was to bring back the classic identity IN ITS ENTIRETY. So why when we don't get what most of us wanted do they test market the new uniform in Las Vegas and New Orleans?

People shouldn't have to "grow to accept, like, or deal with" a logo. If anything it should be the other way around because if it was done right in the beginning, people would have loved it right from the start. Then that love might fade over time, it might not. That is what creates a time tested identity that fans can be proud of and can be marketed and successfully sold as such for the long term. And the latter is what really matters to management anyway. Until it changes, the slug will be an embarassment and a missed opportunity to re-establish a respectable long term identity for the team.

I really like the uniform style suprisingly enough...the logo simply ruins it all and couple that with the Sabres pure avoidance of the issue has snowballed into the site and blog.

Here is what I think will happen. The managing partner will dangle that classic uniform for another meager 15 games in 2008-2009...just to tease and spur on the mob to buy it next season when it comes back. The marketers are simply hedging the teams' two logos against each other. It is actually smart thing to do to capture the fans "passion" as Larry calls it.

What logo do you want to have as the face of the team? The Original crest or the slug...next season is the perfect opportunity for fans to have a choice and make their opinions heard.

I mean has anyone ever came up with a derogatory nickname for our original logo like we or others did for the goathead and slug? Not to my knowledge and that is because it is respected for the most part by fellow Sabres fans and NHL fans league wide.

The Managing partner blew off or was directed to blow off a talented and ambitious John Slabyk, surrendered to RBK's design influences on the re-branding of the franchise, thumbed his nose at 30,000 plus people who signed the petitions, he quickly increased the amount of games the vintage third jersey was to be worn at home to 15, and then lucky for him the team started 10-0 last season. Complacency clearly set in as winning could even make Rosie O'Donnell's mug as our logo easier on the eyes. And given what has happened in the off season and the degrees of frustration this season, that public relations band-aid should fall off real soon.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you stay with this cause to fix the logo or revert back to the original.

The biggest problem is those who are complacent as you have stated and accept the current logo by going out and purchasing slug merchandise. The Sabres and NHL are happy to rake in the profits from both the slug and classic logo since fans are happy enough with the choice to pick their favorite. I however would like to see the slug eliminated. If they stopped selling classic logo merchandise, fans would then be more up in arms than they are today.

It's unfortunate that we are in this situation but I do not see a way out of it since there are now so many fans who have become accustomed to the slug. The only hope that we have is to get as many concept logos out there as we can so that fans can see how good the logo can look.