Take a gander: Beloit unveils Sky Carp name, logos

On Monday afternoon the southern Wisconsin ballclub previously known as the Beloit Snappers unveiled its new name, logos and uniforms. The Sky Carp are here, and they're here to stay.

Sky Carp is a slang term for a goose, denoting them as the aerial equivalent of the world's most common fish. But the Beloit Sky Carp, depicted in the primary logo wearing a scarf and carrying a wrench, is a special sort of goose. It's Beloit born and bred, loves its home and has no plans to leave.

"What intrigued me about Sky Carp is that it's a goose that doesn’t migrate," said Quint Studer, the team's managing partner. "That's exactly what we’re trying to symbolize here, to create a great place where the people who usually migrate don’t want to leave. ... It's vital locally to tell that story. Over the last 40 or 50 years small and mid-market cities have been major exporters. We've exported our talent. The message is that we have to create the types of communities where young people want to stay."

Sky Carp was one of five fan-submitted monikers selected as a finalist in a Name the Team contest, ultimately beating out Moo, Polka Pike, Supper Clubbers and Cheeseballs. The team's logos were created by Brandiose, a San Diego-based design firm that has worked with dozens of Minor League Baseball clients over the past 15 years.

The Sky Carp, High-A affiliate of the Miami Marlins, will take the field at Beloit's ABC Supply Stadium. This privately funded facility opened this past August, replacing the team's longtime home of Pohlman Field. The new ballpark is located along the Rock River in the southern end of downtown Beloit, essentially a foul ball away from the state line separating Wisconsin and Illinois.

Studer, an entrepreneur and author who founded the Studer Group Healthcare Company, is based in Pensacola and co-owns the Pensacola Blue Wahoos. (The Blue Wahoos are Miami's Double-A affiliate, one rung above the Sky Carp in the team's farm system.) He used to live just north of Beloit in Janesville, Wisconsin, has family in the area and remains involved in the community. The Snappers had previously been community-owned, with the future of the franchise in doubt due to Pohlman Field's lack of player and fan amenities and correspondingly low attendance. The construction of ABC Supply Stadium, spearheaded in large part by Studer and local billionaire businessperson and philanthropist Diane Hendricks, ensured that the team would stay in Beloit. For Studer, Monday's rebranding is a key element in creating long-term sustainability for a franchise that had been on the brink of extinction. The Snappers name and logo, featuring a bat-wielding bipedal turtle, had been in use since 1995.

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"Ironically, I'm a turtle lover -- not anti-turtle or anything like that," said Studer. "But we did research on the [Snappers] brand and how much merchandise we sold, and for a team like Beloit the merchandise is very important. Every other [revenue stream] is committed to a circle around the city, but the merch goes national and sometimes international."

While the team expects the Sky Carp brand to resonate well beyond Beloit, the logos feature an array of local references. The goose in the primary mark carries a wrench, modeled after one produced in Beloit's Fairbanks-Morse facility during the 1930s. This is a nod to Beloit's history as a manufacturing community and the desire to keep building the city in the present day. The road cap logo features the head of a goose that has just plunged into water. The goose is wearing aviator glasses modeled after those worn by Beloit native Bessie Raiche, the second woman in the U.S. to fly an airplane solo. The "S" and "C" in the Sky Carp wordmark resemble a goose's head and neck, accentuated by white plumage.

The Sky Carp color scheme, possessing some similarity to the parent Miami Marlins, incorporates light blue, hunter orange, black and dark gray. The home jerseys are white with blue lettering, while the road jerseys are gray with blue lettering. An alternate blue home jersey features Beloit on the front, marking a rare instance of a club wearing the name of their city on a home jersey.

Of course, whenever a Minor League team unveils a new identity, debate and discussion is sure to result. Studer said he expects some criticism of the Sky Carp name, including from those who are upset that Beloit's team will no longer be known as the Snappers.

"Those who might not like the change, we hope they'll still support the franchise," he said. "For Beloit, the whole region, we want to respect the past but not live in it. This is not just about baseball, this is about continuing to build the community."