Are the Ottawa Senators Considering a New Look?

The Ottawa Senators could be in for a logo change in the next few seasons, according to a report in the Ottawa Citizen this past weekend.

In the article, Ottawa Senators new president and CEO Tom Anselmi is asked about whether or not the team would consider a new look in the years to come. A sampling of some of the things Anselmi said in the interview:

“The logo is just a visual representation of the brand. Where we go next is a clear priority. We’re aware of what the fans here are saying and we’re hearing a lot.”

“There has been a lot of jerseys, a lot of logos, lots of patches, whatever we end up with at the end of day, we want to stick with it. We want something that will stand the test of time.”

The Ottawa Senators have worn this alternate uniform based off the look of the original 1930s Senators since 2011/12 (Photo: © Marc DesRosiers-USA TODAY Sports)

And specifically about the current alternate jersey — black with red and white horizontal stripes based off of the old 1920s and 1930s Ottawa Senators uniforms:

“That jersey has inspired lot of people. It’s a great looking jersey and the players like it. But we’re not going to do anything knee-jerk.”

Ottawa has undergone a few uniform changes over the years but has always stuck with a Roman theme in their logo. For their expansion season in 1992 up through the mid-2000s the logo featured the profile of a Roman soldier wearing a helmet inside a semi-circle on a black jersey. Following the league-wide switch to the Reebok uniform system in 2007 the Senators, now predominantly red, switched to a templated design for their jersey, a re-coloured version of what the Pittsburgh Penguins were wearing at the time, the logo also updated with the soldier now facing the viewer. The black alternate jersey with the “O” on the front was introduced in 2011.

We conducted a poll via our Twitter account (@sportslogosnet, Follow!) earlier today to see which direction logo fans would prefer the Senators go — we asked whether they should get a new look but continue with a Roman theme, start using the alternate “O” logo full-time, or just try an entirely new direction. The results surprised me as I expected the vintage “O” to prevail but in the end it seems continuing the theme was the more popular choice: Any change the Senators choose to make now wouldn’t be ready for the 2017-18 season, everything’s already set for next year, we’d be looking at 2018-19 at the earliest at this point.