Colorado Rapids Rebrand? Club Launches “One Club, One Legacy” Fan Survey!?

Commerce City, Colo. – The Colorado Rapids are looking at possibly rebranding in some capacity. On Monday, the club launched the “One Club, One Legacy” fan survey to gather information from the Rapids Community and greater Denver about the Rapids’ brand among other topics.

To be clear, nothing has been decided. If the Rapids are changing their name, colors, and/or crest in any capacity, they want fan input soon.

I took the survey. It’s relatively short. Some of the questions were a bit strange. Interesting to ask what shape defines the club. It wasn’t as open ended as I would have expected. There wasn’t an “any other comments” at the end. It doesn’t directly ask, “do you hate this?” They want feedback but maybe in a targeted way to get answers to questions they want. Rating a crest on a scale of party to battle is a choice.

Colorado Rapids Rebrand, but Only For the Fans, With the Fans:

“For the fans, with the fans,” has become a saying for Chief Business Officer Hailey Durmer, who joined the club in July.

“‘Rebrand’ is a scary word for a lot of people. It’s not necessarily going to happen. This needs to be founded in fan research,” Durmer told Burgundy Wave.

The idea of a rebrand had been discussed internally on a very high, conceptual level. Durmer had that paused to focus on research to see if this would be a good idea and if so, how? There are no mock ups at the time of publishing. The goal of this survey is to know more about the fanbase and potential fanbase from a visual identity perspective.

“A lot of the times, you operate in a silo. If you don’t do the research, you don’t really know what they want.

“We need to dig down deep to make sure this is something that the fans want. If the fans say ‘that’s not who they are,’ or they want us to be different, then we’re going to consider it. We want this club to represent them. We want them to look up at the crest and say ‘yeah, that’s me. I feel connected to that. I was a part of that.'”

Durmer has a good understanding of the circumstances six months into the job:

“One of three things I think is happening. 1. We do a pretty poor job communicating our brand identity. 2. It (the brand) doesn’t resonate with people. 3. There’s a disconnect in how we’re translating our brand identity to fans who care about the brand.”

I think it’s a combination of all three, but mostly #1 and #2. The Rapids lack a presence in the city. They’re struggling for relevance in a crowded, competitive sports market. And when a casual fan, Rapids curious person, or potential fan sees their brand, it’s ‘oh yeah. The Rapids exist. Meh. They’re bad, right? They’re not downtown. I’ve got better things to do on a Saturday night in the summer. Is Tim Howard still playing?’

Just my opinion. I do think the fan survey will match any initial research that the club could do more to connect their identity and fandom to the spirit of the Soccer Community in Colorado. “Be the heartbeat of sport” in the state, to quote The Rapids Way.

In terms of a rebrand, for me, the name shouldn’t change. I love the Burgundy and Blue. Given the etymology of the word Colorado, it’s perfect. The only color change I would want would be going back to the 90s/early 2000s green. The crest is a bit simple. I like that but I would be ok with a refresh, ala Seattle or D.C. United.

The club crushed it this year with the Headwaters secondary kit having the state flag look and the Original Green throwback third kit. You could make the home and away crests those second two, and I’d be fine.

Let the club know what you think by filling out the survey.

Read More: 30 Years of Colorado Rapids Branding

There Will be More to Come:

The timeline for Adidas kits and some merch is usually a year or two out. So even if the club moves quickly this year, the Rapids will certainly have the same Burgundy and Blue crest in 2027. The club has been working with Monigle and Name & Number, who were involved in Seattle Sounders’ recent refresh. Durmer also said the club will be asking for fan feedback on the fan experience, among other things.

“It’s a long timeline. It’s probably going to be over a year. Feedback (from the survey) is January and February. There’s going to be lots of other feedback checkpoints throughout the next year and a half, two years.”

To be clear, there is absolutely a scenario where the crest and the colors do not change if the survey feedback is harsh. Other teams have gone forward with rebrands against the will of the fans and had it end horribly. Colorado would like to avoid that.

Durmer acknowledged there is work to do elsewhere, especially from an infrastructure standpoint. This had been a point of emphasis for her predecessor, Wayne Brant. BW had previously reported Brant resigned in part out of frustration that infrastructure projects could not get off the ground.

“Obviously, there are things infrastructure wise that need adjustment. Especially with the shift in the schedule.”

With Kevin Demoff taking a more hands on approach with the club, and the projects around Ball Arena moving forward, there’s potentially more time and attention for DICK’s Sporting Goods Park.

“We need to think about the different changes that our stadium needs to operate, not operate at bare minimum, but operate to win. Because that’s the goal.”

Everyone is well aware of the scoreboard, the stadium being bare bones, the dirt lots, and the Victory Crossing sign that went missing in 2023.

“The next phase is looking at Victory Crossing. There’s a grocery store chain opening up on a corner,” said Durmer. She added, “There needs to be some kind of indoor training facility. We’re open to different options right now.”

Last Word: We’ve seen and heard this before.

It is worth acknowledging that we’ve seen this before. After the disastrous 2023 season, the club had a big public survey among other things to look at upgrading DSGP. Two years later, nothing has changed. We have another club executive stating the stadium and other things need improvements. And yet, it’s a fan survey about change, rather than change itself.

Hailey seems really smart. She’s been cordial and energetic in conversations with me. She’s been here six months, so hopefully she is part of the change fans have wanted to see that didn’t happen with a longtime KSE employee in her role.

That said, the club has not earned the benefit of the doubt here. A rebrand that involved and engages the fans is good. It’s also easier and cheaper than overhauling the stadium and building a dynasty roster.

It could also be used as PR to mask these problems while doing a cash grab. There’s a C38 geezer who is going to take one look at this and think, ‘they’re doing this because they can’t afford to replace the scoreboard or buy a third DP.’

Thank you for reading Burgundy Wave. Support us via our Patreon starting at $5/month. We’re always looking for new talent. Let us know if you’re interested in covering Colorado Soccer.