Quad City Storm join SPHL to replace the ECHL's Mallards
/When the ECHL's Quad City Mallards folded at the end of the 2017-18 season, fans were promised they wouldn't be left without a team. The market is joining the Southern Professional Hockey League — the SPHL — in 2018-19. Yesterday, that franchise announced its name and logo.
Behold the new Quad City Storm.
Quad City Storm / Primary logo 2018—
If you think the name sounds generic, it actually gets worse. The logo is a poorly edited stock art. I found it available through Getty Images.
Why do I sound so bitter over an SPHL team logo? It's just that the previous Quad City logo, for the Mallards, was an incredible piece of sports branding from the great Matt Kauzlarich.
Longtime readers — and I do mean longtime — may recall a series of incredible NHL concept logos and uniforms from a then-student designer who worked under the cyber moniker GhettoFarmBoy, or GFB, in 2007. That was Matt. He was a big part of the early days of Icethetics so seeing his work thrown away is disappointing to say the least.
In fairness, ECHL owns the Quad City Mallards trademark, according to The Moline Dispatch. But just because someone else has the logo you want doesn't mean you need to throw up your hands and deliver this eyesore.
I will give the Storm credit for a good color palette. The jersey holds some promise.
Unfortunately, this one is sublimated and I'm holding out hope it's just a placeholder for the unveiling and that a real jersey is forthcoming. Also, the name bar and numbers will be completely illegible from the stands of any size hockey arena.
You might think I'm holding the SPHL to too high of standards, but I don't believe standards can be too high. Money is money, I get that, but this is a hockey team. Have a little pride.
Anyway, rest in peace, Quad City Mallards. We'll miss you.
