Since returning to the ECHL in 2006, the Cincinnati Cyclones—whose home season begins in earnest November 7—have won two championships and promoted three head coaches to the American Hockey League. But the team’s logo was as dated as the name “Firstar Center.”
Not anymore. After a yearlong development process with local design firm LPK, the Cyclones have swapped the image of their toothless, anthropomorphized mascot Twister (who isn’t going anywhere) for a glossy, high-tech-looking C-within-a-C—inspired, according to LPK group director Matt Fearn, by iconic NHL “Original Six” logos. “There appears to be some normalcy within minor league sports to have a cartoon-like critter as not only your mascot, but the logo,” says Cyclones vice president and general manager Kristin Ropp. “We felt it was time to vacate that thinking.”
The goal was something “powerful, dominating, and fierce,” says Ropp. But as ESPN Uni Watch columnist Paul Lukas noted on his blog, some fans formed a different first impression. “I confess, when I first saw it, I did not see a flushing toilet,” Lukas says. “But once you see it, it’s sort of hard to unsee it.”
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