The new American Hockey League team that will begin play for the 2007-08 season in Cleveland at Quicken Loans Arena will be named the Lake Erie Monsters. The announcement was made on Thursday afternoon by Dan Gilbert, majority owner of the Monsters and majority owner of the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers and chairman and founder of Quicken Loans.
The Monsters will operate as the primary affiliate of one of the NHL’s most successful franchises, the Colorado Avalanche.
“This huge, hideous creature is going to wreak havoc at The Q! We expect Monster Hockey to be a smash hit with fans and can’t wait to develop what will be one of the most exciting, energy-packed game atmospheres in the AHL. Just like Cavaliers games, our fans are going to have a blast and help create that special home ice advantage for our players,” said Gilbert.
Joining Gilbert to help debut the new team identity were Francois Giguere, Avalanche executive vice president and general manager; Jim Mill, AHL vice president of hockey operations; Len Komoroski, Cavaliers/Quicken Loans Arena president; and Kerry Bubolz, Cavaliers/Quicken Loans Arena executive vice president of corporate sales, broadcasting and minor league operations.
Bubolz will serve as the Monsters president while Randy Domain will serve as the Monsters senior vice president and chief operating officer.
The team name was selected after an extensive amount of research was conducted with focus groups made up of casual fans, high level hockey fans, former Cleveland pro hockey season ticket holders, and others. In addition, considerable research explored names that would have a fun connection to the region. The Lake Erie Monsters was the top preference from the focus groups.
The “legend of the Lake Erie Monster” or “LEM,” brings a fun geographical folklore connection to the region. The logo art reflects the menacing, powerful nature of the creature and features the hot yellow glare of the Monster’s eye. Primary team colors will be wine, blue, yellow and black. (wine – PMS 201C, yellow – PMS 130 and blue – PMS 647).
The home jersey will be white with wine shoulders and black trim segments on the arm sleeves and will feature the secondary “M” logo on the front. The road jersey will be wine with black and white trim segments on the arm sleeves. Both home and road jerseys will have the Monster from the primary logo on each shoulder. Player numbers will appear on each shoulder sleeve and on the back of each jersey.
Leading the design and name development process with the organization’s senior management team was Tracy Marek, Cavaliers/Quicken Loans Arena senior vice president of marketing. The team worked with Cenergy Communications on all elements of the name and design development process.
“Cenergy Communications brought a great deal of specialized expertise and insight to the table for this project. They really helped us develop an identity package that we’re confident will engage our fans-to-be with a fun, but aggressive, team image they can be proud of and connect with. Monster Hockey is going to attack The Q like no other hockey team ever has!” said Marek.
Season and partial season ticket plans are on sale now. Ticket plan and additional team information is available at the team’s website www.LakeErieMonsters.com or by calling (216) 420-2000 or toll free at (800) 820-2287.
