ROME, Ga. — Rome's baseball rebranding effort has borne the fruit of a new team name and look - on Thursday night, the once-Rome Braves showed off their new groove as the Emperors.
"This is our Roman Empire. Welcome to the Emperor City," the team announced on X.
The then-Braves announced back in August they were taking new name submissions, continuing a trend across the minor leagues with teams looking to have their own distinctive branding.
The new Rome Emperors have followed suit, playing on the name of their northwest Georgia city as well as the famed emperor penguins.
The team said at the time they were announcing their search for a new brand that for "over twenty years, Rome Professional Baseball has proudly donned the Braves' iconic tomahawk across its chest" but that "the time has come to usher in a new era of Minor League Baseball in Rome."
They debuted on Thursday night several elements of their new look, including logos and wordmarks as well as uniform renderings.
"With our royal penguin propped up on top of our Emperors wordmark, there is no question whose logo are you looking at," team materials noted. "Our city name proudly sits atop the Emperors wordmark in our primary logo. We are proud of where we are from, and this is our city."
