The Rome Braves, the minor league affiliate of the Atlanta Braves, will have a new nickname next season. On Friday, Rome, which is located an hour north of Atlanta, announced it is dropping the Braves nickname. The team has no plans to change its relationship with the Atlanta Braves as it has been associated with the club since 2003. But Rome is making the move for marketing purposes.ย
“In 2024, the Rome Professional Baseball Club will take the field under a new name,” the team said. “Our mission is to give the Rome community a brand as unique and special as the area itself is. For Braves fans, our long-standing affiliation with the Atlanta Braves will continue for years to come, however, we want to create an identity that fans across the region can proudly claim and call their own.” Rome went on to say that fans can submit their idea for new names until Friday, Aug. 18.ย
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The is the second team in the Braves farm system that has changed its name. Before the 2018 season, the Triple-A team in Gwinnett switched from Braves to Stripers, and this leaves the Double-A Mississippi Braves as the only team among the top four affiliates still carrying the parent club’s nickname.
During the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, the Atlanta Braves sent a letter to season ticket holdersย to let them know they have no plans of dropping the nickname. “Recently, there have been reports in the news regarding various team names in the world of sports. We wanted to let you know directly from us where we stand,” the team said at the time. It went on to say that it has “formed a cultural working relationship with the (Eastern Band of the Cherokees)” and has “also formed a Native American Working Group with a diverse collection of other tribal leaders to collaborate on matters related to culture, education, outreach, and recognition on an on-going basis.”
The Atlanta Braves currently have the best record and baseball with a 72-41 record as of Friday evening. They won the NL East the last five seasons and won the World Series in 2021. Recently, the Braves owner Liberty Media and its stockholders voted on a reorganization move to split off the team as a publicly traded company, meaning fans can purchase stock in the Braves.ย
