A Purple Eagle's Nest

It's 11 o'clock, do you know where your graphic designers are? Slightly earlier than this site has been used to, but I got to thinking. Niagara University's Dwyer Arena doesn't get too much love at center ice other than sponsor changes and when the World Juniors came there in 2011. And what has been there has been rather lackluster, simply the logo in a centered position with the area above the center circle reading "DWYER ARENA" literally in all caps. Pretty disappointing if you ask me, except now it reflects the team's play as well.

Here we go, a new and fresh look. Just what the doctor ordered. As we would now be seeing, we pulled a double logo - which in and of itself is nothing out of the ordinary for many teams. The big draw here is the rest of this behemoth. The arena name and location are in the team's uniform font, a match to the NHL's Vancouver Canucks. But the big draw is at the red line. The design consists of it's primary athletic conference, the Metro Atlantic AC (rather than Atlantic Hockey, it's hockey conference). It would show a touch of elegance to a respectable facility in the sport for which it services.

-Ricky

Little Red Riding Hood's Lumberjack

Right on schedule! The next jersey to be added to the BNG closet has arrived. This one is better than the last one and was one that I was able to see in person. In fact, when this team started out, they earned an all star game the following year and those were basically copies of the original except with a hollow star replacing the hollow circle where the front numbers on this uniform go. Fromer MLS striker and current ESPN analyst Alejandro Moreno would say something along the lines of "you know it, and you love it," it is indeed the jersey of the Portland Lumberjax.

I could have done without their choice of number, but at least the color and outline pattern worked well to negate some of that effect. This sleek, futuristic approach was well received in the league and if that wasn't enough, they modeled a jersey after the logo! I've got nothing bad to say further except for maybe adding gold cuffs to the sleeves, but it is fine as is. That seems to be it in the short term, but I do have a short list of what to get next and they could be around the corner.

-Ricky

Get Stung!

May the jerseys keep coming in - and there's one I'm expecting for the near future. This came in on Saturday, and boy does it spell "has potential, reeks mid-to-late 2000s Arizona sports jersey" all over it. The logo itself actually is solid, though I think this designer did the Philadelphia Wings re-brand about the time just before Columbus moved to Arizona because the lacrosse stick looks like an exact match.\ This particular shade of sand appears to be the same as that of it's hockey counterpart, but doesn't look as good as I would figure it might for a desert team, unfortunately, maybe a different shade could help pull that off.

Now for the good, this is among the most recent jerseys for the team, which means "STING" is replaced by "ARIZONA" and is a welcome sight since the team had established its moniker by that time. Also, I really like the shoulder yoke extending down the sleeves. Those remind me of one Rochester Knighthawks jersey I keep talking about... That said, my next jersey will arrive by next weekend, so be prepared!

-Ricky