You only get one chance at a first impression, and the WNBA franchise coming to Cleveland in 2028 made a splash on Tuesday, revealing the name of their expansion team: Sirens.
The announcement came at an event held in Rocket Arena, the team’s future home, which would’ve made it perfect had the organization chosen to revive the name of Cleveland’s original WNBA team, the Rockers, which existed from 1997 to 2003. Former Rockers, such as Janice Braxton, were in attendance, however, to inaugurate this new are of women’s professional basketball in Cleveland.
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And the Sirens are here to make some noise.
Sirens president of business operations Allison Howard discussed the team’s name and logo, explaining the rationale for both:
The siren is very powerful, unapologetic, relentless, and we see the siren as the epitome of power, but also the best teammate.
Even from the logo, you can feel this energy, this thunderous passion. And you look at the siren’s face; it’s menacing. It’s fearful. You see the power even just in those features. And then with the hair, there’s the five distinctive waves. Those, of course, will represent our five players out on the court as well as our five Great Lakes.
It wasn’t just inside the Rocket Arena where the Sirens made their splash.
It extended to social media with a hype video. Braxton did the voice-over, with her prose syncing perfectly to images as music from Billie Eilish’s song “You Should See Me in a Crown” played throughout.
Whenever names, logos and/or jerseys are are revealed for new teams, two responses generally emerge.
One will be filled with excitement and enthusiasm, and the other will be nothing but caustic criticism. Overall, the Cleveland Sirens received an overwhelmingly positive response from the WNBA world.
Tuesday, will be forever etched in Cleveland basketball history. But there’s still some darkness overshadowing the return of the W to Northeast Ohio.
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The Rockers were here, but they didn’t last. What’s going to make this time different?
Well, for starters, the Sirens are establishing their own identity by clearly separating themselves from the NBA’s Cavaliers. The colors, logos and slogans are not at all similar. The Sirens are their own team and will approach things their way.
Things seem to be off to a great start for the Sirens.
They have reportedly sold 9,000 deposits for season tickets, and with the interest surrounding the new name and logo, that number will undoubtedly go up between now and when they begin play in 2028.
The WNBA has seen tremendous growth in recent years, resulting in expansion teams like the Golden State Valkyries, Toronto Tempo, and Portland Fire having success early on, proving the league is in a great place.
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The Sirens will ride that WNBA wave, and when they land in 2028, the plan is for them to stay for good this time. So far, things are going swimmingly.
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