Club gives up name

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The Syracuse SkyChiefs are probably wondering why they didn't take the advice of local Native people years ago.

Up until this season, the Toronto Blue Jay's AAA International League affiliate club, which was founded in 1934, had been called the Chiefs. The club's logo was a simple one: an Indian head.

This season, the Indian head logo is gone - replaced by a flying baseball bat that resembles a World War II fighter plane. And the change is bringing in big bucks for the franchise, which now has one of the catchiest logos in any sport.

One of the reasons the club opted to change its name and look now was because this marks its first season in brand new P & C Stadium, named after a major supermarket chain in this state.

"Being that we're in the heart of Indian country here in central New York and the fact people are being more sensitive now than they were in 1934 when this team was named, we thought when we moved into a new stadium, we should consider a name change," said SkyChiefs' general manager John Simone.

But the name change was not a universally popular move. More than 10,000 people responded to a name-the-team contest and about eight per cent were in favor of making no change.

"We were kind of in a dilemma," the GM said. "We respect the local Indian people here in Syracuse but the fans wanted us to keep it Chiefs. So what we did was try to find a way to change the logo because (Native people) weren't upset with the name but with the actual logo. So we put a word in front of it - SkyChiefs fit . We have a rich aeronautical history in this area; boys from Syracuse flew in World War II. So we put an airplane in the logo."

Onondaga Nation Chief Irving Powless Jr. approved the new look.

Including design patterns and patent rights, the name and logo change cost the organization about $30,000 (U.S.). But it was money well spent. In fact, that expenditure has already been recovered, thanks to the club's booming souvenir sales.

"We've already surpassed last year's sales in the novelty store and it's only April," Simone said. "People are buying everything with our logo on it."