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“Wowza, it’s the Hammer, baby. It’s the Hammer,” Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath declared on stage at TD Coliseum on Thursday, after warning she wasn’t sure what she was about to say would land.
People whooped and applauded.
The city’s incoming American Hockey League (AHL) team announced its new name — the Hamilton Hammers — during a news conference at the arena, where the team will play starting this October.
Dozens of people attended the event. They included children and youth from the hockey teams the Hamilton Steel and Burlington Bulldogs, and the Stoney Creek, Thorold, Flamborough, Chedoke and Kitchener minor hockey associations.
In late March, the AHL board of governors unanimously approved the Bridgeport Islanders’ relocation from the Connecticut city — where they’d been based since 2001 — to Hamilton.
The team’s orange and blue colours remain the same.
The logo symbolizes “the strength, grit, and togetherness of the community, embodying both the city’s steel-working heritage and the spirit of the game,” Oakview Group, which renovated and manages the downtown arena, and the New York Islanders, the NHL team that owns the Hammers, said in a news release.
The AHL is made up of affiliates, or farm teams, for each NHL team that serve as a development source for player prospects.
Training set for Harry Howell Twin Pad Arena in Flamborough
The Hammers will train at a renovated Harry Howell Twin Pad Arena in Hamilton’s Flamborough area.
“For our players and their families, it will be cool,” Mitchell Payne, general manager of the Wentworth Gryphins, the senior Triple-A hockey club based at that arena, told CBC Hamilton earlier this month.
“We’re really excited to see what they do there and potentially learn a little bit from how they operate.”
Horwath said the associated investments in the arena will create lasting benefits for the city.
Online, some have pounded away at the new Hammers name and logo.
On the r/Hamilton reddit community, users have described it as on-the-nose and generic.
CBC Hamilton asked Nick DeLuco, general manager of TD Coliseum, about that chilly reception. He said he’s hopeful the popularity of the name will grow.
“I honestly think it really hits locally,” he said. “I know it is a bit on the nose, but I really think the brand, and the look, and the feel and the tie with the Islanders colours is different and unique. I think it’s a team name that fans can rally around.”
Matt Lupal, who plays with Queer Hockey Hamilton, previously told CBC Hamilton he liked the Hammers name after CBC reported an Islanders-linked company had trademarked it.
“With Hamilton being known as the Hammer, it’s great for marketing the team and putting Hamilton back on the map for pro hockey,” he said via text message Thursday upon learning the new name. “I can already see the post-game headlines.”
Lupal hopes American rapper MC Hammer might come out for a big game to perform Here Comes the Hammer.
“Kinda cheesy, maybe,” Lupal said. “But on brand and a smart business decision in my humble opinion.”
New Hamilton PWHL team also to play at arena
New York Islanders president Kelly Cheeseman told reporters he thinks Hamilton is a “fantastic market” to play in, saying the city isn’t too far from New York for players and officials to travel between if they’re liaising with the NHL team.
He added there’s also an opportunity for a rivalry with the Toronto Marlies.
AHL president Scott Howson said he was excited to have another Canadian AHL team and for it to be in Hamilton, where he loved living several years ago.
“I think we can put this team on the map.”
Some time between noon and 1:30 p.m., the Hammers updated their website to reflect the new branding and announce the “puck drops” in October.
TD Coliseum will also be home starting this fall to a new Hamilton-based PWHL team, as announced May 14. The venue says AHL and PWHL schedules are expected to be announced in the summer.
According to its website, the arena is taking deposits for private suites and “premium” seats, and advertising season tickets. Oakview Group Canada president Tom Pistore told the news conference Thursday that premium AHL seats are 95 per cent sold.
DeLuco said single-game AHL tickets are expected to sell for about $30 each.
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