Nashville Banner September 25th 1997

 Beware the saber-toothed tiger.

It's the long-awaited, much anticipated logo expected to be revealed today by Nashville's NHL team.

Still without a nickname to go with it, the saber-toothed tiger was to be unveiled by Craig Leipold, chairman and majority owner of the team, and team president Jack Diller at the First American Center.

``We have what we believe will be the hottest logo in the National Hockey League,'' Leipold says, without divulging its identity.

``There are a lot of people around this country that have seen our logo that believe we've got a hot logo.

``I'm very excited about it and have been for a long time. We really love our logo. People in Nashville are going to be very excited with the logo.

``It just has been a long process of playing with schemes, ideas and figures. It has been a culmination of a lot of peoples' input. Finally, as soon as we saw it late last week, we knew that was it. Everybody agreed that was it. We hit it.''

Leipold says the logo is a natural fit for Nashville.

``It's an interesting thought, the saber-toothed tiger,'' he says. ``Middle Tennessee is indigenous to the saber-toothed tiger. Once we found out about that, we did a lot of investigating as to how true those stories were.

``We have come to find out that they clearly are very, very true. The saber-tooth bones were found around here. We've seen them. There's an exhibit. They've been on exhibit for years. Saber-toothed tiger and the Ice Age, there's a natural tie-in.''

Oddly enough, the bones were discovered during excavation at the First American Center -- site of today's unveiling and where they remain on exhibit.

Leipold and other team officials say the saber-toothed tiger logo will go with any of the four primary nicknames being tested: Ice Tigers, Fury, Attack and Predators.

The majority owner says coming up with the nickname has been a challenging and exasperating experience.

He cites the potential nickname Fury, also the nickname of a team in the Central Hockey League.

``We were just talking to the owner today (Wednesday),'' Leipold says. ``We obviously have got to negotiate something (in order to use Fury). Part of our struggle coming up with a name is that we have to come up with a name that we can also get a clear trademark to.

``We've had lists. Our first list was about 50 names. We narrowed it to 15. We went to the NHL. We let them know that these were the names that we were interested in. So they put in a preliminary trademark search.

``A couple of names were just ruled out. Edge was one of them. That was a name we were close to. We liked that name. It was very aggressive, very ambitious, kind of in your face. Hockey is known to be edgy, and edging is a hockey term.

``Bottom line is there is a problem using that name. That's a name we necessarily weren't going to use, but it was on our short list.''

Edge was dropped because it is the name of a shaving gel and also The Edge is the name of a line of apparel, not to mention the guitarist for U2.

The staff is getting set for Saturday's Ice Breaker Bash, the kickoff for season ticket sales.

The event, which is free, will have food, entertainment, freebies (hockey sticks and goodie bags), interactive games, clinics by the coaching staff, tours and other activities related to the purchase of season tickets for the 1998-99 season.

For information, call 770-4625.

Randy Weiler may be reached at 259-8250 or by e-mail:rweiler@NashvilleBanner.com