Login

***sve7en*** · 04-25-2025, 10:31 PM

So far we've looked at a comprehensive branding I didn't go with, two cities that I was hoping to use for my SMJHL expansion bid, and three brand ideas that all felt good but were missing that special something. Through each of these there were lessons to be learned and glimpses into what abstract rubric I was using to evaluate these ideas. As I shot down these incomplete ideas, I decided that I needed to take a step back and really figure out what I was trying to do with an expansion team. That process would eventually lead me to four elements that I wanted to make sure I was thinking of as I crafted the final idea.

1. Market strength

The SHL, as a sim league, simulates different things for different people. Some users are disappointed by the lack of injuries or player movement, while others appreciate the suspension of belief that comes with putting juniors teams on opposite sides of the continent and the rigidity of growth and development. When @ACapitalChicago was scouting me for Carolina back when I first joined, I mentioned being captivated by the level of detail and character building that one could do with their media. I had grown up playing sports, and watching ESPN every chance I could, but my experiences with D&D and RPGs came digitally as I played by post on forums not too dissimilar from these. As I dove headfirst into the media side of the league, I loved the alternate universe that could so well pull from our own. From learning about real life Charlotte, to making fake Los Angles Times newspaper articles, the ability to emulate realism was a big draw for me.

I never have had issues with the smaller market teams in the SHL existing, those exist in our universe as well, but I knew that an SHL level expansion team of mine would emulate real life expansions. Outside of the owner's preference, the largest driver of where an expansion team ends up is fan base and market share. I had alluded to this in my previous articles, referencing how there were a few cities that might be able to support multiple teams to the extent that our world does or that the SHL has Toronto and Hamilton, but that otherwise I wanted to make sure I had a comfortable market to base my team in. In order to better demonstrate, I've mapped out the current 36 franchises:

But, as I knew from my discussions with HO, and as you all have seen with the reveal of the Denver Glacier Guardians, there was less of a real constraint from SMJHL teams. I've removed those, and added the three other teams that had their branding ideas fleshed out well before I knew I was even applying:

Looking at the map, there's clear open spaces for teams, but as we consistently have to remind some people, land doesn't vote. Because of that, I've highlighted the remaining possible markets that I think would be targeted by an expansion team owner in the SHL universe. Most of these have been discussed at points in media, but there was value in pulling that all together:

Double-ups

The key realism component to the double-up is metro area population, while the key SHL component is a valid reason to stay in the city and not somewhere else in the region. By population, the largest combined statistical areas in the US and Canada are:

New York–Newark // 22,342,624

Los Angeles–Long Beach // 18,507,255

Washington–Baltimore–Arlington // 10,237,545

Chicago–Naperville // 9,941,597

San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland // 9,164,058

Dallas–Fort Worth // 8,909,918

Boston–Worcester–Providence // 8,493,824

Houston–Pasadena // 7,996,140

Toronto–Hamilton // 7,281,694

Outside of the top 5 there is not much doubling up in our universe, and I don't really want to consider going beyond it in the SHL. Dallas would be a silly double, when Houston is just down the road, and maybe there's space in New England, but that team already encompasses most of the North East United States. That leaves us with:

Brooklyn - The counterpart and sometimes rival to Manhattan, NYC is the easiest double-up to imagine. The possibility is aided by Manhattan being named for the most populated borough and not for the entirety of New York City.

Los Angeles - Originally a possibility with the Vibe, LA is the west coast version of NYC in how it houses multiple franchises in the same sport in our universe. Anaheim existed at one point in the SMJHL and it could be worked out.

Washington DC - A viable option, though the east coast is somewhat crowded right in there already. It would be easier to target Virginia with many of the same ideas.

Chicago - A possibility, but a harder ask because of the proximity of newly founded Madison and the only real world example being the Cubs-White Sox which pre-dates modern sports.

Oakland - Across the bay from San Francisco, Oakland is distinct enough to have its own franchises and the metro area is large enough to support the second team.

Large Markets

Outside of the markets that could sustain doubles and the areas that already have teams, these are the most populated regions in the country and are primed for a team:

Mexico (Mexico City, Guatalajara, Monterrey) // 33,263,642

Potentially cheating the numbers with this, but I already defended it in a media post when expansion media was all the rage. Mexico City is the largest metro in North America and is still growing (1%). Both the Metro and the Mexican market (130m) would dwarf any other viable addition when considering market size, and the number of hockey players in Mexico is already climbing past states like Arizona and Utah.

Mid-Atlantic Coast (Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina) // 25,340,000

Again, probably greedy to lump these three together when Virginia was mentioned as an alternative to Washington DC and the Carolinas add another 15 million people from a very different culture, but there's a populated void there served only by my old team in Charlotte.

South Texas (Houston–Pasadena, San Antonio, Austin) // 11,821,087

Potential home of the Houston Apollo, Texas is one of the easy options to consider for a new team in general, and for a team's current space to be encroached on. Houston is a top 10 region by population, San Antonio is in the top 25, and Austin is home to Circuit of the Americas and a vibrant art scene. The state of doing it big is a natural fit for hockey and is ripe for a second SHL team.

Ohio // 11,880,000

The SHL has yearned for Ohio for far too long. A state with a diverse array of successful and unsuccessful sports franchises in our universe, Ohio has long been teased as an option for the SHL with it's array of cities large enough for expansion and slow transition into becoming a hockey state.

Michigan // 10,140,000

One can't mention Ohio as an option without considering it's perpetual rival to the north. Michigan has a strong hockey culture but still only has representation at the SMJHL level. Detroit is the obvious option here, but the western half of the state is nearly as viable.

Miami // 7,309,740

An iconic city when considering the US, the 11th most populated statistical area, and 2nd most populated behind Houston for cities without SHL teams, Miami would be a phenomenal location for an SHL team. However, when talking about the Portland Cascade, I mentioned not wanting to be tied to the SHL history in that region, that holds even more weight here.

Phoenix // 5,241,031

Portland // 3,326,675

Obviously already on my radar given the Cascade, Portland is obviously big enough to support a team, and the SHL has been there before to mixed success. There's a strong market and a fun chance to reclaim the city as my own, but the history hang-up is still there.

Mid-markets

There are also some places capable of supporting teams that don't quite have the same pull as the above. I can't say that they excite me as much, but they're at least moderately possible?

Salt Lake City // 2,879,037

Sacramento // 2,751,336

New Haven–Hartford–Waterbury // 2,702,390

Indianapolis // 2,691,579

Kansas City // 2,593,094

Pittsburgh // 2,457,000

Las Vegas // 2,454,861

2. Unique and interesting color scheme
Color is obviously a critical part of the identity but, like many sports leagues, the SHL has some colors doing a lot of heavy lifting. From the Vibe's white primary to the Cascade's bright pink, there's been an itch of mine to do something off the wall but cohesive with color in the team's design. In order to figure out where the SHL was over and underutilizing colors I reached back to my experiences with You Belong and putting together the SHL Colors sheet to map out the current SHL colors and how those are being used:

Additionally, while I love the SMJHL dearly, I wasn't about to let their brandings influence my decision making in the upper league. I filtered them out and added the three new teams:

From that, we can see there's a few curious gaps. While red is a popular color in the SHL, it's predominantly darker reds being used. There's obvious space in orange still, which is a color I'm pretty affiliated with - my orange circle and 7 picture has been in use for years before I found this league and ended up with Carolina. I listed out most of the colors and shades underrepresented or not represented at all in team's predominant color identities, as a resource to draw from:

A lot of these would be hard to incorporate as a primary color, but could do a lot of work for carving out a unique space. A lot of these colors were in line with what I was doing with my early ideas - the Vibe's teal and purple are less unique with Madison's reveal, but the light yellow and cerulean can be seen in the Ohio Apollo concept, the pink shows up in the Portland Cascade concept, brown and green in the Oakland Rangers. Scarlet has shown up in my old logo for the SHN's media empire, and that combined with the light yellow makes something close to the Atlanta Beat idea. While I might need to go into the traditional color to stabilize the brand, some of these bright and impactful colors will be needed in making this new team stand out where the other three expansion teams blended in.

3. Have fun with it
This element has been very obvious from the start, unironically submitting the Vibe and pulling from D&D references for the Oakland Rangers, but there's a bit of unseriousness to sim leagues that sits in a fun spot between professional brand ideas and minor league brand ideas, with a unique online twist to it. I wanted to do something that wouldn't blend in with traditional sports brandings, or with the current SHL brandings, but wasn't out of place at the same time. There's a hard line to balance in there, but ideas like the Vibe and Rangers really represent it well in that I want it to be out there to an extent, but it makes sense and feels right when you sit back and consider it for a moment or see it on the index after a few seasons.

4. Strong synergy between brand and location
The balancing half of point number 3, and something I've leaned into in the first six brands you may have seen, these are brands crafted with explicit locations in mind. The cohesion is something I enjoy seeing in brands in general, and I really wanted to make sure that the team's identity, and the little details within the brand, are tightly connected to the city that I choose. While the Apollo brand and location combination was good, the other options where I took locations and built out the idea from that have felt much more unified and in essence personalized.

So, I had a plan. Point 4 meant I had to go location first, I had a shortlist of markets, and fun colors to inspire the planning. All that was left was to pick the specific market I wanted to target, embrace the city, find the weird ideas, and come up with a theme.

Easy, right?

*Gwdjohnson* · 04-25-2025, 11:51 PM

[Image: they-faces-killing-me-why-nobody-gaf.png...f23776ce0&]

***Lime*** · 04-26-2025, 12:03 AM

that michigan circle includes part of the UP... UP team wen

Navigation

Extra Menu

About us