A slate of 10 finalists have been unveiled in the name the team contest for Madison, AL‘s upcoming Class AA Southern League club, which will open a new ballpark in 2020.
The Mobile BayBears (Class AA: Southern League) are set to relocate to Madison in time for the 2020 season, when they will begin play in a new ballpark constructed as part of the Town Madison development. BallCorps, LLC–owner of the franchise–is conducting a name the team contest ahead of that move, and has unveiled 10 finalists for the branding that will take effect once the club relocates to Madison. All names were nominated by residents of the Tennessee Valley.
Working with Brandiose of San Diego, 10 names were selected based on uniqueness and how each name relates to the characteristics of Madison and surrounding communities.
Voting on the ten finalists begins today and will extend through noon August 16, after which five names will be eliminated, and the five leading names will be open for voting. The team name will be announced at a public event on September 5.
The top ten names, with descriptions from the club, are listed below:
- Army Ants Sound off! The Army’s Redstone Arsenal serves as a center for missile and national defense programs and employs more than 40,000 members of our community.
- Comet Jockeys “Rocket City” was put on the map for its cutting-edge aerospace development. Comet Jockeys is a celebration of our brave astronauts who explore outer space.
- GloWorms Glow Worms are rare tiny bioluminescent creatures that call the caves at Dismals Canyon in North Alabama home, one of few places in North America!
- Lunartics We are home to some of the wildest mad scientists facing today’s challenges in space and technology. You’d have to be a “Lunartic” to do that!
- Moon Possums A scavenger at heart, these local critters are known for hanging around and having a good time with their family — just like going to ballgame!
- Puffy Head Bird Legs No joke! It’s lingo coined by our astronauts for body fluid moving from feet to head in outer space due to the lack of gravity!
- Space Chimps A tribute to Miss Baker, one of the first animals safely launched into space. She is buried on the grounds at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center.
- Space Sloths A nod to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, the Space Sloths is up there with classic Minor League Baseball names like IronPigs, Flying Squirrels, Chihuahuas and Jumbo Shrimp.
- ThunderSharks Mix the powerful thunder of North Alabama’s storms with the ultra-strong, sleek determination of the shark and you end up with the personality of our community: willing to attack any problem. Visiting teams won’t mess with ThunderSharks.
- Trash Pandas (Slang for raccoon) Our community is known for engineering, and no creature in our galaxy is as smart, creative, determined and ingenious a problem solver – dedicated to the challenge at hand – as our local raccoons!