Washington

Red Tails, Red Clouds, Red Wolves and Hogs are among the betting favorites for the new name. The organization is working quietly to try to roll out a fresh moniker and logo in time for the 2020 season.

Sports business and marketing experts consider feedback from fans, endorsements from current players and alumni and on-field success as three crucial elements no matter what the new name winds up being.

“The mere fact that they’re changing the name is going to elicit some back

lash, and they need to be ready for that and be comfortable with it,” Virginia Tech professor Nneka Logan said.

“Beyond that, I think it’s important they and other organizations engage with your local community, engage with the Native American community, engage with all of your stakeholders in the process of the name change and ensure that it’s something that authentically aligns with your corporation’s values.”

Rivera said his hope was to continuing honoring and supporting Native Americans and the military. If Warriors — the name of Snyder’s proposed Arena Football League team from 2002 — is nowout of consid

eration, Red Tails would fit the bill as a nod to the Black fighter pilots of the Tuskegee Airmen from World War II. Tuskegee Airmen Inc. said it “would be honored and pleased to work with the organization” if that’s Washington’s new name.

Former Washington linebacker Will Compton voiced his support for Red Wolves by saying he liked that name so much he’d want to return for a day. Hogs would pay tribute to the famed offensive line that bulldozed the team to three Super Bowl titles.

O’Keefe had hoped the organization would engage the community in the name selection because, like North Dakota with the Fighting Hawks, feeling a part of the

process builds acceptance of the name. Perhaps just as importantly, it could prevent missing on a name like the NBA’s Bullets did when changing to the Wizards in the mid-1990s.

“You don’t want to mess this up, so they really need to take it seriously,” Carnegie Mellon associate professor of marketing and strategy Tim Derdenger said. “If you come out with the wrong name, the wrong pitch to your fans and it gets squashed, it’s really hard to recover from that.”

One way to not stray far from tradition is to avoid the kind of wholesale change that happened when the Wizards replaced red, white and blue with teal, gold and black.