Owatonna Express

Southern Minnesota — hello Owatonna
By IAN STAUFFER
Updated: Tuesday, May 27, 2008 11:16 pm

OWATONNA — Express hockey spokesman Bill Stewart said Tuesday that the junior hockey team will no longer hail from the broad expanse of southern Minnesota. Instead, the franchise will be a little more exclusive and the team will be called the Owatonna Express from here on out.

“Southern Minnesota is just too inclusive,” said Stewart, who is the head of a group that brought an expansion team back to Owatonna after the original franchise relocated to Detroit. “We felt that if we were going to make a change, we might as well make it now.”

David Lee, NAHL director of administration, also confirmed the name change Tuesday.

With the new team in Albert Lea joining the North American Hockey League this season, and others in the Twin Cities and Rochester possibly coming into the fray in the next few years, the Express are no longer the sole owners of southern Minnesota.

The Albert Lea Thunder announced they would incorporate into the NAHL in April, while plans for the former Fargo-Moorhead franchise to relocate to the metro area fell through for this season. Talks are still in progress to make that happen for the 2009-10 season. Rochester has also been named as a possible location for an expansion team, possibly as soon as the 09-10 season.

In addition to the name change, the Express will be changing their logo. Stewart said the club plans to have a final design picked out in the next week or so. The logo will allow fans to start over, much as the club had to do.

“We’ve seen some drawings and everything and we’re hoping to have it done soon,” Stewart said. “Fans can buy merchandise that they don’t already have.”

Stewart said the change should also affect the way people in town view the team.

“Basically, this defines what our goal is as a community owned, community run team,” he said.

“This kind of gives us ownership of the team, and that local ownership defines it more. The more we thought about, the more it made sense.”

The team also recently launched its new Web site at www.expressjrhockey.org.

Welcome to town boys!!

Like I said in a previous post, seize the moment and let your fan base vote on a logo. It's a primo opportunity to get some positive publicity, and to move merchandise.

It is super Nice the town gets a voice in the new logo. Liked the old logo and still have and wear the old logo fan hats and fleece jackets. Hopefully they wont charge us an arm and leg to buy the new ones.

The name change will take some getting used to But in the end we all just call the team the Express

Quote:

“Southern Minnesota is just too inclusive,” said Stewart,

I understand the reasoning for wanting to change the name, but I swear I never thought I would hear anyone say they were making a name change because the current one is "just too inclusive."

kevgraub wrote:

Quote: “Southern Minnesota is just too inclusive,” said Stewart, I understand the reasoning for wanting to change the name, but I swear I never thought I would hear anyone say they were making a name change because the current one is "just too inclusive."

Agreed but he does what he does. He is the boss afterall.

I can almost see his point...

With Albert Lea being so close and also in "Southern Minnesota"...

There is almost a need for the change to avoid an identity crisis...

Just hope no one suffers any separation anxiety from the "Minnesota" moniker...

Yeah, I can kind of see his point too. I just think it would have sounded better to say something like "We wanted to make sure we more closely associated with our core group of fans here in Owatonna" rather than "We don't want to be too inclusive in our fan base."

You're right, Kev, poor choice of words...

But like someone else posted, "He's the boss"...

And we all know how that works...

BRUINSFAN wrote:

But like someone else posted, "He's the boss"... And we all know how that works...

Anyone know where I can find a "biting my tongue" smilie?

BRUINSFAN wrote:

I can almost see his point... With Albert Lea being so close and also in "Southern Minnesota"... There is almost a need for the change to avoid an identity crisis... Just hope no one suffers any separation anxiety from the "Minnesota" moniker...

Alexandria coped with it just fine.

Yes, but they are a couple hours drive from us. Bill is running this team exactly how he wanted to in the beginning. Non profit or not. This is his team. Hear he is involved with the coach in choosing players also.

Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!

Not to attack TRW, but here we are again. Attacking the TEAM YOU PUT MONEY INTO. This team is being run the same as all the other teams. The coach pick the boys. The apointed board runs the marking and sales side. Not ONE man controls it all. If you wan't to think that way TRW, that's fine by me. But, please keep it to yourself. Let's try to promote this team in the right way.

punisher36 wrote:

Not to attack TRW, but here we are again. Attacking the TEAM YOU PUT MONEY INTO. This team is being run the same as all the other teams. The coach pick the boys. The apointed board runs the marking and sales side. Not ONE man controls it all. If you wan't to think that way TRW, that's fine by me. But, please keep it to yourself. Let's try to promote this team in the right way.

Promote? Did someone say promote? There ya go, now wer're thinking.

TRW, you never fail to amaze. I respect Pete's opinion of you, but I'll choose not to agreee with it. Let's see......what you've done this time is the equivalent of somebody buying a restaurant and telling his customers how much his food sucks. I'm on the outside, but I think any issues YOU have could be addressed with the board instead of coming out on a board like this and venting. Would that be something a successful bank employee would do?

I agree 100% with what Punisher36 and the real Jackbag have to say on their previous posts. The big picture is that we have a board of directors on the team and they are doing what they are supposed to do.

I also hope the Express are in the same division as N. Iowa, Bismarck, Albert Lea and Alexandria come this next season. It'll be interesting to see what the league decides to do with the division format.

No, I am not bashing Bill. Just speaking up for how I am feeling as of Late. Dont take it personally, I just wanted to be more involved than I am.

Take Care Guys!

Please tell me that is not the "new" logo.....

http://www.nahl.com/teams/index.cfm

Wonder if there's much vibration on that train?

Still, could be worse.... I don't see any gradients...

They said that the logo change would not be huge. It was going to be tweeked to work the Owatonna name into it. I like it, it's not a new logo and all of our jerseys for the past 3 years still good.