Sylvan Lake residents and baseball fans across Central Alberta will have the chance to decide the name of the future Sylvan Lake WCBL team.
Instead of a naming contest, the name of the future Sylvan Lake team will be decided by an election.
Aqil Samuel, general manager and president of baseball operations for the team, says it will be a two part process; the nominations and the voting.
“Starting Jan. 15 going to Jan. 31, we are going to take online name submissions from the general public. Anyone from anywhere in the world can submit a name,” Samuel said in an email.
In February polling stations will be set up around Sylvan Lake at local businesses for the public to vote on their favourite team name.
Samuel says out of the names submitted the Leadership Team will pick the “top five” to put up for election.
Famously, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) asked the public to name their newest research vessel in an online poll in 2016. The public unanimously voted for Boaty McBoatface. However the NERC chose to instead name the vessel RRS Sir David Attenborough.
Samuel says names like Boaty McBoatface will not be chosen for the election process.
“Doing anything online takes some care and attention, we think we are setup and ready to handle anything. And that’s the beauty of doing the Election in February, we can manage it locally.”
In choosing a name for the new team, Samuel says it should be original but can stand the test of time.
He says the people of Sylvan Lake should be proud of this name 25 years in the future.
When asked if he had any suggestions, Samuel was tight-lipped, simply saying he will make his name suggestion like everyone else.
“We are looking for something fun, original, and something that will be as good today as it will be 25 years from now,” Samuel said.
An election process and public input was chosen to help create buzz around the team, and to engage its future fans.
In deciding how to go about this process, Samuel said a number of different naming contests were looked at before deciding on something a little more original.
“With all the buzz about our recent political elections recently we thought a Name The Team Election would be a good way to engage baseball fans and our local Sylvan Lake businesses,” he said.
The election will end on Feb. 28, and the team will begin to work on a logo which will be unveiled alongside the new team name.
Samuel expects the unveiling of Sylvan Lake’s newest team name will be around March 15.
“We’re excited to be part of the Sylvan Lake community, let’s have some fun with the Election and come up with a name that we can all be proud of into the foreseeable future!”
Name suggestions can be made through an online form found on the team’s social media sites: @sylvanlakeWCBL. Name suggestions will be accepted from Jan. 15-31.
The election process will be held during the month of February at polling stations set up at local businesses.