This is a story that Johnny over at PuckDrawn has been following for quite some time. Last month the SPHL's newest member, the Pensacola Ice Flyers (not to be confused with the defunct ECHL club Pensacola Ice Pilots) announced they were looking for a logo and accepting fan submissions.

The team said that a vote would be held for two weeks beginning July 1 on the Pensacola News Journal's web site. After being delayed by more than a week, that poll is finally live. There are four finalists to choose from. Here's a preview.

Here's a quick breakdown of the Icethetics assessment:

Logo 1: Gradients? Really? This isn't a logo. Far too intricate and detailed to be a good, recognizable mark for embroidery on jerseys and hats.

Logo 2: Solid effort. The team will take care of making the gold more eye-friendly if they choose it, but overall it's a strong classic design. The only issue it has is that minor league expansion franchises must have an integrated wordmark in order to properly build the brand. That's the only thing this logo is lacking.

Logo 3: Easily my favorite of the batch, but then I may be slightly biased. This design comes from SixZero, who entered a lot of concepts into the IceHL competition (which will return soon). In fact, he has over a dozen more concepts for the Ice Flyers here worth checking out (link from PuckDrawn).

Logo 4: This one has all the necessary elements for a minor league logo, including a sharp wordmark and a very identifiable secondary logo. The problem is in the minute detail of the primary mark. I think this might be solved by making each of the five planes much bigger.

Overall, Icethetics recommends Logo 3 if you're voting. It's even in the lead with 43% of the nearly 700 votes at the present time. 

By the way, stuff like this always comes with a disclaimer. Despite offering the illusion that fans will be choosing their team's new logo, this is by no means the case. Obviously, team ownership and management will have the final say. The News Journal is quick to point out that this poll is for entertainment purposes only.

Happy voting!