New Las Vegas Aviators Name and Logo: Safe Name Markets Howard Hughes Corp. and Logo Difficult to Figure Out

BY ALAN SNEL

LVSportsBiz.com

 

The new Las Vegas Aviators name is a safe, sound and marketing-oriented moniker for the Triple A ball club owned by Summerlin master developer Howard Hughes Corporation. The ballpark, which opens April 9, looks like it will be a diamond gem.

 

But the new logo? Well, fans who chatted with LVSportsBiz.com after the Big Reveal of the re-branding of the former 51s at Downtown Summerlin Saturday afternoon said they were trying to figure out what the logo was.

 

In other words, the Aviators logo suffered from new-UNLV-logo disease — too much happening in the logo to figure out what exactly is going on. The logo design was too busy to place on a ball cap. Sports logos should be bold and easy to identify. The Aviators logo needs an explanation chart like the new UNLV logo — and that’s not good news when trying to figure out the logo’s meaning. Some observers chimed in and said the logo looks like a bug, ant or fly.

 

“I like the colors, but I was trying to figure out what it was,” said Kyle Fraser, 28, of Las Vegas, who was checking out the $38 fitted caps in the Aviators store in Downtown Summerlin. “At first glance, I couldn’t make it out.”

 

Fraser’s friend, Andy Forrester, 31, of Henderson, said likewise.

 

Fraser said the logo looked like the New England Patriots logo of the man with goggles on it.

 

Other reviews were also not too flattering.

 

Juli Shapiro asked on Facebook whether the Aviators logo was “Carnac the Magnificent?”

 

Here are some choice comments on Twitter.

 

 

Here’s a Facebook post on the Aviators’ own page.

 

Even Las Vegas Councilman Bob Coffin weighed in with this crack on Twitter.

 

The baseball fans, Fraser and Forrester, were hoping for a “V” with a jet inside the V.

 

The logo, to LVSportsBiz.com, looked like the bottom half of one of the Mount Rushmore faces with an orange nuclear explosion coming out of the top of the head.

 

The new name will work as a marketing ploy to highlight Howard Hughes Corp.’s Summerlin area in the Las Vegas market since the company namesake was a world-famous aviator.

 

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The announcement was held at Downtown Summerlin, only a five-minute walk to the $150 million ballpark that opens April 9. Howard Hughes Corp. held a tour to show the construction update for the venue, which can hold 10,000 (including 8,200 in fixed seats), a 360-degree concourse, 22 suites and a pool beyond the centerfield wall.

 

The ballpark is next to the Vegas Golden Knights’ training center off South Pavilion Center Drive. Take a look.

 

 

 

With the new ballpark opening April 9, that means that Big League Weekend will not be played at the Summerlin venue in March. But it’s unclear whether Big League Weekend will be held at Cashman Field in March.  Howard Hughes Corp. has not terminated its lease to play baseball games at Cashman, so it is conceivable that Big League Weekend — which pits two Major League Baseball teams against each other in spring training games — could be held at Cashman. The Las Vegas Lights soccer team, which plays its games at Cashman, has installed grass on the field at Cashman and hopes the last baseball game has been played at downtown Cashman.

 

Not only does the Triple A baseball team have a new name and ballpark, it’s now affiliated with the Oakland A’s. Howard Hughes Corp.’s Triple A team ended its baseball relationship with the New York Mets.

 

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