The Arena League Football announced in mid-May that Eau Claire would have a team set to launch next summer and on Thursday the name and logo of that squad will officially be announced.
In a media event set for 3 p.m. on the main stage at Country Jam USA, League officials and commissioner Tim Brown will unveil both the name and logo. Those who already have a paid admission to Country Jam are welcome to attend the League’s ceremony. And hints have slowly been delivered to the media the past two days as to what exactly both will be.
Both the first hint delivered personally to the Leader-Telegram office late Tuesday afternoon and the second one first sent via email Wednesday morning and later hand delivered to the LT offices, as well, were in the form of a riddle. To read each riddle, see side graphics with this story.
Additionally, two separate clues were delivered each day; on Tuesday it was a guitar pick and on Wednesday it was a jar of Lautenbach’s Orchard Country chopped cherry jam from Door County Wisconsin.
The Arena League, a new football league that kicked off its inaugural season earlier this summer, officially announced in a press conference in May that Eau Claire had been selected as one of two expansion cities for the League and will begin play in 2025.
That announcement was made in a press conference that included Brown, who is not only the Arena League Commissioner, but also an NFL Hall of Fame Wide Receiver and Heisman Trophy winner, as well as other officials working with the League and from Eau Claire. In addition to Brown, many of those same officials are expected to be in attendance at the unveiling Thursday afternoon.
Hot Springs, Arkansas was the other city awarded a team for 2025. Hot Springs and Eau Claire will join the Kansas City Goats, the Iowa Woo, the Duluth Harbor Monsters and the Ozark Lunkers who all started play this season.
The Eau Claire team will play its home games at the Sonnentag Center, but on the basketball court and not in the field house due to the unique field of play that the league will use for games. Eau Claire was one of five cities considered for expansion that were a part of an online vote on the Arena League website. Eau Claire and Hot Springs as well as St. Joseph, Missouri; Dallas, Texas; and Rochester, Minnesota were all in the running.
The team identity is now decided, in part through feedback from the Eau Claire community in determining it. There was a team name competition where members of the community went to the Arena League website — thearenaleague.football/eau-claire — to submit a team name idea as well as team color, logo and mascot ideas.
Winners of the contest were entered to win prizes including season tickets and the chance to lead the team onto the field according to the League’s media release issued prior to the May announcement that Eau Claire had, indeed, secured a franchise.
The team’s first home game is scheduled to be played in June of 2025.
The story on the reveal of the team name and logo will appear late Thursday afternoon online and in Friday’s print edition of the Leader-Telegram.
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