MADISON – In front of a packed Rocket Republic Brewery crowd, the Rocket City Trash Pandas was unveiled as the name of the new baseball team.

And Ralph Nelson, the managing partner/CEO of BallCorps, LLC, the team’s owner, wasn’t particularly enthralled with the name when it was nominated.

“When I first heard it, it didn’t do a lot for me,” he said at Wednesday’s unveiling celebration.

But now?

“This is all we care about,” Nelson said. “They voted for Rocket City; they voted for Trash Pandas.

“That’s going to be the team now.”

On BallCorps’ website, NorthAlabamaBaseball.com, 28,560 nominations and votes were recorded in three
rounds since the stadium groundbreaking June 9. According to Brandiose of San Diego, the Minor League Baseball industry’s premiere branding partner, this represents – by far – the largest community participation in a Name the Team contest in the history of Minor League Baseball.

“(Trash Pandas) won by a ’84 Reagan landslide,” Nelson said. “There’s never been a community like this in minor league baseball.”

Trash Pandas was nominated by Matthew Higley of Lacey’s Spring on June 19. He will receive two box seats for the first five years of play in Madison and will throw out the ceremonial first pitch at a Trash Pandas home game in 2020.
Trash Pandas dominated both rounds of voting. In the round of 10, Trash Pandas received 41.37 percent of the votes. The second-place name (ThunderSharks) received 13.81 percent.

In the round of five, Trash Pandas received 44.75 percent, to second-place ThunderSharks’ 19.25 percent. Moon Possums was third (12.57 percewnt); Space Chimps fourth (12.05 percent); and, Comet Jockeys was fifth (11.38 percent).

The regional identifier was also chosen by the community. More than 250 fans suggested Rocket City during the nominating round. The identifier was put to a vote during the round of ten; and, out of 13,559 votes, 67.4 percent chose Rocket City, over North Alabama (18.09 percent) and Madison (14.51 percent).

Trash Pandas, slang for raccoon, was included in the original 10 nominations following several Brandiose-
led focus groups in Madison and Huntsville. The ballot descriptor read: Our community is known for engineering, and no creature in our galaxy is as smart, creative, determined and ingenious a problem solver – dedicated to the challenge at hand – as our local raccoons!

Brandiose is working with BallCorps on logo designs for the Rocket City Trash Pandas. Logos
and merchandise will be unveiled on Oct. 27 at a free community celebration at 6 p.m. at Dublin Park in Madison. The event will feature a free concert by popular Huntsville band Dirt Circus and a fireworks extravaganza, as well as the first opportunity for fans to purchase official licensed Rocket City Trash Panda merchandise.

“We’re going to have a big ol’ party …,” Nelson said.

BallCorps will open a merchandise store next to the Apple Store at Bridge Street on Nov. 12 and, Nov. 17, the team will begin taking season ticket deposits at $250 per seat.

Seat locations will be allotted on a first-come, first-served basis for those making deposits. More information on the Bridge Street store and season ticket policy will be forthcoming in coming weeks.