It's official: River Bandits return!
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By Steve Batterson | Thursday, December 13, 2007 |
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One day after announcing a new name for its home stadium, the Quad-Cities’ Midwest League baseball team is returning to an old nickname.
The club will announce during a news conference late this afternoon that “River Bandits’’ will return as the franchise’s nickname for the 2008 season.
The name was selected after finishing as the most popular option among a group of six choices in the Your Team, Your Name contest.
Fans were asked to submit suggestions for a new nickname in August and throughout the month of September, fans chose from a field of finalists which included Channel Cats, Current, River Bandits, River Eagles and Talons as well as an option to vote to retain the Swing of the Quad-Cities nickname which has been used since 2004.
The River Bandits nickname was previously used by the Quad-Cities’ franchise from 1992-2003 and its familiar bandana-wearing baseball logo ranked among the most popular minor-league images nationally shortly after it introduction.
An updated version of the logo which reintroduces the club’s old red-and-black River Bandits colors and adds a touch of gold is expected to be unveiled by the team at the news conference.
Seventh Inning Stretch, which completed a sale of the franchise to MainStreet Iowa in late November, opted to change the club’s nickname to Swing of the Quad-Cities in 2004. A new color scheme of light and dark blue and burnt orange was introduced at that time as ownership sought to signify a new beginning for the franchise following a multi-million dollar renovation of its home stadium.
Like the Swing nickname, the River Bandits nickname was originally selected from a group of entries submitted by fans in a name the team contest which drew over 750 different entries in 1992.
That popularity carried over into an online balloting which attracted over 14,000 votes from fans this fall on websites of five sponsors of the Your Team, Your Name contest, including at qctimes.com.
The River Bandits option was the choice of over 50 percent of those who voted, while fewer than 5 percent of the ballots listed retaining the Swing as their option.
The announcement of the new nickname follows an announcement on Wednesday that naming rights for what has been known as John O’Donnell Stadium since 1971 have been sold to Modern Woodmen of America. The facility on the banks of the Mississippi River in downtown Davenport will now be known as Modern Woodmen Park.
Steve Batterson can be contacted at (563) 383-2290 or sbatterson@qctimes.com.
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