Norfolk Admirals

5

NOTE: This review incorporates text from the previous review for the Norfolk Admirals, which was posted 2018 January 25.

There's a definite sense of nostalgia for me when I look at the Admirals logo. Back when Raleigh still had a minor league team, the Hampton Roads Admirals (as they were then known) was one of the other teams in the league. And most of the other East Coast Hockey League (as the league was then known) teams are gone. Of all the teams that were in the ECHL during the IceCaps' last season, the only ones that still exist in the same city with the same nickname are the Admirals, the South Carolina Stingrays, the Wheeling Nailers, and the Charlotte Checkers...and the Checkers are now in the AHL. The Admirals spent a while in the AHL as well, but have been back in the ECHL (dare I say "where they belong"?) since 2015.

Incidentally, Norfolk is now the oldest minor league hockey city in the South. Heck, scratch the words "minor league" from that sentence. No city in the South has continuously had hockey as long as Norfolk has had. And only seven cities nationwide have continuously had minor league hockey for longer than Norfolk: Hershey PA (1932), Fort Wayne IN (1952), Springfield MA (1954), Rochester NY (1956), Peoria IL (1972), Kalamazoo MI (1974), and Milwaukee WI (1977). So throw in the markets that had NHL teams in 1989 (and haven't lost them since), and Norfolk ranks 26th in North America in terms of professional hockey longevity.

To the right you will see the original Hampton Roads Admirals logo. As you can see, it's very similar to the current logo. It's even more similar than what you see to the right might imply when you consider the fact that both logos would swap colors depending on the jersey. On the blue jerseys (which were the away jerseys in the 90s and are the home jerseys now) the logo was and is a blue anchor and blue stars on a yellow background; on the white (then home, now away) jerseys the logo was and is a yellow anchor and yellow stars on a blue background. So if you take look at the jerseys (which doesn't include the wordmark), the current logo is basically identical the original one.

That said, the full logo including the wordmark does fumble in one big way: the inclusion of "professional hockey" at the bottom. The team's been in the city for over thirty-five years, guys. Anyone who pays any attention to local sports knows they're a professional hockey team. You'd be better off without that bit. But if you ignore that, what you're left with is a solid logo that clearly has stood the test of time. Just like the team itself.

Final Score: 5 points.
Penalties: Name-Logo, 2 pts, Obvious, 6 pts.
Bonuses: Local, -3 pts.