SLH News - Guardians Official

The Name Change of Cleveland Guardian is Now Official

Cleveland Guardians - Indians 2021Sports Logo History

It is official. The name change of Cleveland's MLB franchise will be officially changed from the Indians to the Cleveland Guardian. Originally, the name change for this franchise was made official in July 2022. However, the momentum of this potential name change was quickly stalled by a local roller derby team based in Cleveland. They challenged the franchise's use of the name due to the fact that the entity also called a similar name: Guardians Roller Derby.   

The Guardians Roller Derby filed a lawsuit against the newly-named Cleveland Guardians. They alleged that the team’s name change infringed upon their own trademark. They also believed that the team’s name violated Ohio state law because the name change prompted trade practices that were deceiving. The roller derby claimed that there cannot be two Cleveland Guardians franchises and that they had the right to the “Guardians” name because they operated under that name in the city of Cleveland first. This action has held up the name change by Cleveland's long-standing MLB franchise. 

However, both entities have agreed to a unique solution to settle this dispute.

A press release was put forth with regards to the resolution. It stated that the Cleveland Guardians and the Guardians Roller Derby team agreed to a scenario in which both franchises will be allowed to use the "Guardians" name. In other words, there will be two sports entities in Cleveland that will be allowed to use the word "Guardians" in their name. 

No other details of this action were made public.

The lawsuit by the Guardians Roller Derby team has thrown a monkey wrench into the franchise's proposed plans for a merchandise sale launch. That launch had to be pushed back as a result of the lawsuit. Additionally, this action has caused MLB to delay updating the website to display the franchise's new name and logos.

Since 1915, the Cleveland Guardians have been known as the Cleveland Indians. However, the name was considered offensive to Native Americans. The move to change the name intensified due to the momentum of the social justice movement in 2020. In December 2020,  the franchise announced that it would eliminate the offensive Native American imagery from its logo. They also announced that they would commence searching for a new name. 

It appears that the process is finally over.  

The name change will be made official on Friday, November 19th. Merchandise sales and souvenirs with the “Guardians” name will begin to go on sale.    

On March 31st, 2022, the franchise will play its first official regular season under their new name against the Kansas City Royals.

Sports Logo History is a community of sports logo enthusiast who enjoys the history of each team’s logo history. Sports Logo History has primary logos, alternate logos, wordmark logos, or concept logos from the NFL, NBA, MLB, MLS, NHL, Premier League, WNBA, CFL, NCAA, ABA, USFL, AAF, and XFL.

Our partner site is Sports Team History takes a look at the history of each and every professional sports team. In addition, we have added Sports News History to our sports history websites. 24/7 non-stop sports news that's worth knowing. Finally, the premier sports team marketplace for your favorite team or college with thousands of items for you to peruse at Sports Market History.