Quote:
Originally Posted by bwburke94
Trouble is, there's already been a fairly recent team called the Nor____ Navigators...
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I have to be honest, I was not aware of the Norwich Navigators... but I also don't really see anything there that makes me desperate to start over with a new name. A minor league team who changed their name 14 years ago, and moved, ironically to Richmond, 10 years ago, isn't really enough to sway me. Maybe not ""realistic"" in terms of obtaining copyrights or whatever (also maybe still fine), but Navigators is still a good name for a Norfolk team & I'm quite happy with how it turned out.
Anyhoo...
MONARQUES DE MONTRÉAL (in game: Montreal Monarques)
Logos/Uniforms (Imgur)
Back across the border we go, but this time into Québec and back to a city baseball fans are all familiar with.
The case for Montréal as an expansion team is really easy, especially within the confines of OOTP. They've already hosted 36 seasons of MLB baseball already, easily the most of any city that does not have MLB baseball right now, the city is already part of the NHL and MLS, and Montréal wouldn't even be considered a small market within MLB (right smack dab in the middle). Plus, fan support is clearly in place, as seen by the crowd whenever the Blue Jays play their spring exhibitions at Olympic Stadium. Those sellouts definitely don't translate to 81 games of sellouts in an MLB season, but it's clear that the support would be there if there were a team and an ownership group that local fans could feel like actually cared about them. (As opposed to, let's say, Jeffrey Loria.) A new stadium probably wouldn't hurt either. Anyway, it's no wonder that the first expansion that people make in their MLB saves is often Montréal, and I hope I can give you a nice backup option if you don't want to reuse the Expos name.
I'm on record as having had some trouble coming up with a name for an Expos replacement team, but I think this is a good one. The problem with Expos as a name is that to new fans who don't understand its origin, it's confusing. It was a fine idea to call the team that in '69 when the '67 Expo was fresh in Montréalers' minds, but growing up as I did in the 90s it was confusing to me. Nostalgia is a hell of a drug, but I would personally hope that a new team in Montréal would come with a new identity entirely, especially if the Stade Olympique is out of the picture.
I'd really like to name the team the Montréal Royals (the same as the long-time minor league club that today is best known for having Jackie Robinson), but that's a non-starter with Kansas City still part of the league. I gave thought to going with Royals anyway and coming up with a new team identity for KC (probably the Monarchs, actually, to honor their Negro League history), but in the end I decided to repurpose that name in this location. Monarques is close enough to Royals to honor the history of that team, but it also adds some alliteration and is a word that reads well in both French and English, just like the Montréal Canadiens (despite the difference in spelling in both cases). The proper name of the team probably should be Monarques de Montréal, but in OOTP practice it'd need to be entered as Montreal Monarques (the game does not handle accent marks well).
Two different primary logos here, since I'm not sure which I prefer, but with the same symbolism in each. The crown itself was modeled on French royal insignia, specifically the crowns featured on the royal coats of arms used by the Bourbon kings of France (1589-1830, with some Napoleonic interregna). The shield is modeled using more Montréal-specific imagery: the white cross on a blue field representing Québec, and reinforced by the two fleurs-de-lis; the rosette which is used as a logo by city government (and is reminiscent of the rose on the city's coat of arms, which represents its English heritage); and the M, which is an M.
On the crown logo and in non-shield appearances, the M is rendered as a double-M in red and blue, both to represent the alliterative name but also as a reminder of Montréal's duality as an important city for Québec, but also Canada as a whole (blue within red).
In general, I don't think there's a way to have a team based in Montréal and not put them in the same blue and red of the Expos, Canadiens and Alouettes because the imagery is so strongly connected to the city itself. It as a color scheme feels more entwined with its city than any other in North America (more than black and gold in Pittsburgh, blue and orange in New York, or green and blue in Seattle, in my opinion). I guess red is expendable, as the Montréal Impact have done, but it doesn't feel right. I did a lot of experimenting with a light gold as a third color, and it didn't feel blasphemous or anything, but it just didn't work as well.
The M here is surrounded by the same white border visible on the crown logo, so it won't look as thin in game as it does here on this background.
Jerseys and caps:
Definitely took some inspiration from the 90s Expos on this uniform set - I thought that was a really strong look, but the two solid color uniforms offer something else if you're looking for something else. I recommend the fleur-de-lis cap with the home uniform, the M cap with the gray and blue uniforms, and the red with the red, but your taste may vary.
That's it for Montréal - next time I think I'm gonna do something a little more off-beat. Probably out west, and probably a less obvious expansion target as well. Seeya soon!