Baseball United announced this week that two of its franchises would rebrand to gain more regional appeal.
The Abu Dhabi Wolves and Dubai Falcons will now be known as the Arabia Wolves and Mid East Falcons, respectively, retaining their original colors and logos with creative changes to letter marks and wordmarks to incorporate the new Arabia and Mid East names.
According to a Baseball United press release, “the shifts in naming and branding are intended to extend the franchises’ appeal across the entire Gulf Cooperation Council, which is made up of six nations within the Arabian Peninsula – Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, and the UAE.”
“About 7% of the GCC population are now baseball fans, which gives us a strong foundation of nearly five million fans across the Arabian Peninsula,” said Baseball United CEO Kash Shaikh. “These fans are young, educated, and active across sports and social media. And they all want teams they can call their own – franchises that have a local feel, presence, and identity. By evolving our founding Middle East franchises to encompass the entire region, we will now be able to connect with fans more meaningfully in all six GCC countries.”
The Arabia Wolves wordmarks and lettering will feature Arabic-language inspired elements, while the Mid East Falcons will use a font the evokes Major League Baseball team marks.
“We continue to be intentional and deliberate with our brand building and our marketing cadence,” said Shaikh in the release. “We believe our brand strategy, brand identity, and brand creative are all key points of difference for our business, and we continue to see our league and franchise brands resonate with sports fans around the world. I can’t wait to see Arabia Wolves and Mid East Falcons hats and jerseys all over the Peninsula.”
The Wolves and Falcons, along with the Mumbai Cobras and Karachi Monarchs, were the first four Baseball United franchises to be announced. Baseball United recently announced that it intends to add three franchises in Saudi Arabia and plans to have eight total franchises for its’ first full season, which will begin in the winter of 2025.
The league said it will announce plans for games in 2024 and the Saudi franchises later this year.