Sep 10
Professional hockey team changes name to Atlanta Gladiators
By: Carla Caldwell
Published: Thursday, September 10, 2015
The Gwinnett Gladiators are now the Atlanta Gladiators.
“We are very excited to announce that our name will transform to the Atlanta Gladiators with the 2015-2016 season,” said Joe Gelderman, Gwinnett Gladiators General Manager and Vice President of Business Operations.
The franchise, which plays at The Arena at Gas South District (formerly Gwinnett Center) in Duluth, Ga., has been known as the Gwinnett Gladiators since it relocated to metro Atlanta from Mobile in 2003.
The team is the ECHL affiliate of the Boston Bruins.
Gelderman said in a press release:
We already consider ourselves to be part of the Atlanta sports landscape, and given the absence of NHL hockey in the area we want to make sure people understand that we are not just Gwinnett’s hockey team. We are the professional hockey team for all of the metro Atlanta community.
We hope that incorporating ’Atlanta’ into our name will allow more fans to identify with us, and will inspire people from all over the metro area to continue to support and embrace our organization. This was not a decision we made lightly, and in doing so we made sure to consult with a cross section of our fan base, as well as some of our corporate partners. The feedback we received was overwhelmingly in support of making this adjustment.
The Gladiators will update their “primary” and “wordmark” logos to reflect the Atlanta designation. The rest of the Gladiators logos will remain the same, as will the team colors. The squad will skate in their traditional white (home) and black (away) jerseys this season, along with the third “G-Flame” alternate sweater introduced in January 2015.
Click here to view the team’s schedule.