Denver Post: May 26th 1995

 Shall we call them the Colorado Bears?

Or maybe the Colorado Cougars or Cutthroats? The Denver Avalanche or Grizzlies?

How about the Pepsi Center Puckers, the Mighty Prairie Dogs or the Denver G-stringed Cowboys?

Why not just settle for "20 Guys Not Named Chico Resch?"

Whatever Comsat Video Enterprises decides on for its new National Hockey League team - and the above are just a few suggested to The Denver Post yesterday - the company will announce the name within three weeks.

Comsat also will unveil a new logo and new color scheme at that time, according to Shawn Hunter, executive vice president for business operations for Comsat.

That would make it seem as if Comsat officials are scrambling to deliver their new baby. But plans have been under way for 60 days in Comsat's front office on all fronts - marketing, ticket sales, corporate sponsorship and media relations.

The new ownership isn't jumping onto the ice cold.

"We wanted to hit the ground running," said Hunter. "Our in-house motto is: "Let's Get Loud Quickly."'

For their new design, Comsat will turn to creative director Dan Price, the same guy who saved the Denver Nuggets, also owned by Comsat, from further leaguewide humiliation by redesigning those awful Lego-style uniforms into the classy blue-and-gold snow-capped mountain logo featured today.

In two years, Price's design took the Nuggets from No. 19 out of 27 NBA teams in product sales to No. 10 last November - a near-miracle considering how ridiculed the old uniforms had become.

Price, working closely with the NHL's creative services, is "homing in" on designing the logo and color schemes for the new Denver team, according to Hunter, who declined to even hint at any specifics.

"This logo thing is top secret," said one Comsat official. "It's up there with Col. Sanders' KFC recipe."

In other areas, Comsat is in full sprint. Print ads for the NHL team start today, with radio ads beginning next week. Television spots, currently in production, start in two weeks.

To understand the benefit of the merchandising power play, one must look only to The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim');">Mighty Ducks of Anaheim of the NHL. The Mighty Ducks are a team also owned by a media-entertainment giant, The Walt Disney Co., which had a few in-house creative people to work on their design back in 1993.

Since the team's logo and color scheme were released in June 1993 amid great fanfare by Disney - imagine that! - The Ducks today sit atop all NHL teams in licensed merchandise sales, which collectively should hit $1 billion this year.

Mighty Ducks officials even suggest their merchandise sales may exceed that of the NFL Dallas Cowboys, the hands-down, all-time king.

The Ducks' team logo features a sinister-looking duck face in the form of a goalie mask, with two hockey sticks crossed behind it. A team of Disney designers came up with the idea, based loosely on the marketing artwork used in the hit Disney movie "The Mighty Ducks" and its sequel.

"We tried to appeal to both young and old people," said Bill Robertson, director of public relations for The Mighty Ducks. "The whole thing about the logo and colors is that everyone identifies with them. It's one thing that people gravitate to. And we try to showcase different products all the time. We put out holiday catalogs every year, which are successful all over the world."

By contrast, annual sales of licensed merchandise among the other three major league professional sports leagues look like this:

*The National Football League - $3 billion.

*Major League Baseball - $3 billion.

*The National Basketball Association - $2.85 billion.

Comsat could learn a lesson on how not to conduct the process of logo and color scheme design from its pals down on Blake Street, the Colorado Rockies. The Rockies' rocky journey to its current successful and top-selling product was convoluted.

After Denver was awarded a National League franchise in 1991, now-deposed Rockies chairman John Antonucci infuriated Denverites by awarding the task of designing the team's logo to a firm out of Youngstown, Ohio - his hometown.

The logo, which faintly resembled the one soaring high above Coors Field today, was sent back to Denver with mixed reviews.

Major League Baseball, which has the final approval over all logos, colors and uniforms, wasn't exactly enamored of the design and ordered it redone.

"We had to change it around later," said Paul Jacobs, former general counsel for the Rockies.

Working closely with Anne Occi of Major League Baseball Properties' design services, the Rockies tightened up the logo to meet league standards. Occi also designed the team's trademark hat "CR" logo, as well as the Rockies' uniforms.

"From a graphical point of view, it helped tighten up the logo, make it more appealing and easier to read," said Dave Madsen, assistant director of merchandising.

After leading all major league teams in licensed merchandise sales for two years, the Rockies dropped to No. 2 earlier this year, just behind the Chicago White Sox.

TOP SELLERS

Below are the top 10 sellers of NHL licensed merchandise by U.S. sales for 1994. The Quebec Nordiques ranked second from last among the 26 teams. The number in parentheses is last year's ranking for combined U.S. and Canadian sales.

1. Anaheim Mighty Ducks (1)

2. Chicago Black Hawks (3)

3. New York Rangers (11)

4. Detroit Red Wings (8)

5. Pittsburgh Penguins (4)

6. San Jose Sharks (5)

7. Boston Bruins (9)

8. St. Louis Blues (15)

9. Florida Panthers (2)

10. Los Angeles Kings (10)

25. Quebec Nordiques (21)