Choosing a mascot in today’s society is a very difficult task. It seems that no matter what you choose, someone is offended by it. Even the once “safe” animal names are subject to protest these days. I swear you could name a team the Volcanoes or the Moon and somebody would be offended.
A few years ago, there was a push to eliminate Native American names and symbols from all sporting team names. When he owned the NFL team in Washington D.C., Dan Snyder acquiesced and dropped the name Redskins from the team. Snyder has since sold the team and a group of Native Americans are suing to get the Redskin name back.
The Chicago Blackhawks hockey team continue to claim that the name and symbols represent a single person whose name is Blackhawk.
The only sporting team in the country who has avoided the pressure to change their name is the Florida State Seminoles who have appeared to find the best solution to the issue. The University has partnered with the Seminole Nation of Florida that allows them to use the name. All symbols of the team must be approved by the Seminole Tribal Council including all changes to the uniforms. Any member of the Seminole Nation may attend FSU free of charge and the Nation receives a percentage of off merchandise sold.
If I were going to create a new sporting team in today’s political climate, I would have to follow the example of the Seminoles and after deciding what I might like, by approaching a group associated with that image and try to set up some sort of partnership to use the name.
I wonder is there is an association of Bears??? Or maybe partner with a honey company and name the mascot Honey and the colours could be gold and light brown.