Sports teams continue to penalize themselves with tone-deaf nicknames and marketing

Last week, my colleague Brittany MacLean and I rated the newly released names and logos of the Northern Super League teams, which begins its inaugural season next spring.

After that discussion, I kept thinking about names and logos of teams. What’s in a name, anyway? One could argue that it sets the tone for the culture of the team, charting a course for narratives and offering ideas about ways in which fans engage.

The NSL teams largely chose names connected to the beautiful and vast geography in this stunning country; Vancouver Rise, Ottawa Rapid, Halifax Tides, Calgary Wild, and Montreal Roses. The exception was AFC Toronto, but “Tdot” often likes to consider itself an exception to some degree.

The Professional Women’s Hockey League did not do this when it revealed team names in September after playing its inaugural season without nicknames. It went in a very different direction and chose varying names that, in most cases, have a regional significance: Minnesota Frost, Boston Fleet, New York Sirens, Victoire de Montreal (Montreal Victory), Ottawa Charge, and Toronto Sceptres. 

The definition of sceptre is: a staff or wand held in the hand by a ruling monarch as an item of royal or imperial insignia, signifying sovereign authority.

Some discussion around it claimed the hockey sticks could be seen as symbols of power, like a sceptre was for a queen. 

WATCH | Ranking every NSL team name, logo:

I am an advocate of women’s sports and was excited that the league got off to an explosive start. From draft day in the CBC atrium to the thrilling end of the season, the storylines of fan culture were fantastic.

It’s not often that a new team name comes without any criticism, but the response to Toronto’s team name did not go as perhaps anticipated. The comments to the release on social media were not overwhelmingly positive, with many remarking on the connection to monarchy being out of touch with reality, and I had a few people asking me repeatedly how to actually spell “sceptre,” which is spelled “scepter” in the U.S.

Dr. Melissa Kimber is a professor at McMaster University and also plays hockey. She wrote a comment on Instagram that captured the sentiment of many: “Okay, I’m super excited for season 2 of PWHL AND wondered how, in September, which contains our National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, that Toronto has wrapped itself around Colonial symbolism? Was there any consultation with Indigenous communities about the names and symbols?”

That led me to wonder about the connection to royals and Toronto? What was so compelling that a woman’s league would choose a sceptre? Some of the discussions I had suggested the hockey sticks could be seen as sceptres, symbolizing a royal power that is not beloved across the board. 

In fact, CBC Radio’s Here and Now had a segment about the name and callers were not too fond of it. In a nutshell, Toronto (York) was set up on (Indigenous land) to be a place for people who wanted to escape the American revolution and remained loyal subjects of the English monarch.

Sceptres and maces were featured all over Toronto in portraits of Queen Victoria. Its significance was undoubtedly that monarchical power was prominent. Perhaps the PWHL wanted to feature queens as symbols of power and prowess. And we’re not talking queens like those in Sarah Nurse’s personal brand (released before the team name was announced) or the legendary Toronto “queens” who perform in drag shows at Woody’s on Church St. 

But is using Queen Victoria’s era the best way to showcase a team of incredibly popular and talented women hockey players in 2024? On online petition for a name change says that choosing sceptres as a nod to colonial empires goes against the rich diversity of Canada’s present. 

I asked Dr. Janice Forsyth, an Indigenous scholar and professor of kinesiology at University of British Columbia why a name is so important in sports?

“It’s more than just a name,” Forsyth said. “It’s an opportunity for people to reflect on what they conjure up.”

Prof. Forsyth explained that names have often been used as tools of colonial settler erasure, meaning that often context was lacking and names appropriated mascotry or symbols from Indigenous history. When I asked her about the Sceptres, Forsyth said, “If they’re coming from a monarchy from the Victorian era, LGBTIQ2S+ communities were degraded and outlawed in the society. “

She also pointed out that women were not empowered during that era and had few legal or personal rights.

“Is that the womanhood you’re conveying?” she asked.

When asked about the not-so-positive responses to the Toronto team’s name, a PWHL spokesperson provided a statement:

“Our approach to creating the six new PWHL team identities was to make them feel bold, confident, and competitive. The sceptre is a timeless symbol of leadership spanning centuries, continents, and cultures.

“We understand introducing a new team identity can spark a mix of reactions, which we see as a reflection of the investment our community has in the PWHL and our team. We recognize that building a new identity takes time. We’re excited for the season to begin so Toronto fans can see how the Sceptres come to life on the ice.”

The Sceptres is not the only professional women’s team facing heat. Tuesday night, the newest NWSL team in Boston announced its name — BOS Nation — and its presentation went so awry that the marketing firm and the team issued an apology.

The video titled “Balls Balls Balls” (now pulled from most social media channels) received much criticism, including from Canadian soccer national Quinn, who identifies as non-binary and trans, and said on Instagram: “Feels transphobic.Yikes.”

Steph Yang, a women’s soccer writer, reported on the launch and said that it wasn’t only the video that caused stir, it was also the name. She spoke with fans in attendance who were eager to support a team in the area but did not like the name. One attendee wondered if supporters would be called “the nationalists.”

While BOS Nation did issue an apology for the video, it did not commit to a name change. In a bizarre twist, when tagging different professional teams in Boston on the lunch, BOS Nation actually forgot to tag the PWHL’s Boston Fleet.

It makes me wonder who is in the room making these decisions? Marketing companies seem to be losing the plot. Women’s leagues are robust with LGBTIQ2S+, racialized and so many other fans from marginalized spaces. Exclusionary or offensive names are not the vibe. 

The Sceptres released a statement on social media about meaning and identity, but there was nothing to hint at an apology nor name change. The first comment was a reply from a fan disclosing that as a dyslexic, “sceptres” was very difficult to read and went on to say that they didn’t like being compared to an object carried by royalty.

In fairness, it’s not easy to pick a name and many are already trademarked. “When you go through the process, you feel like, my God, every name is taken already,” Amy Scheer, PWHL’s SVP of business operations said in a recent interview. 

But that’s why many heads are better than a few. Putting together committees for teams with lived experience, varying ages, racial and cultural backgrounds, and historical knowledge could be very powerful. Strength comes from communities, and people connected to those communities could be more helpful and effective with marketing and creative planning than any royal artifact.

True power in sport comes not from hockey sticks or balls, it comes from people.