Midland Waves Rebranded from PMBA Magic & Mystics

PMBA Magic and PMBA Mystics are now the Midland Waves!

The Penetang-Midland Basketball Association Magic (PMBA Magic) OBA boys teams and Penetang-Midland Basketball Association (PMBA Mystics) OBA girls teams are now simply Midland Waves for both boys and girls OBA teams.

The Penetang-Midland Basketball Association is now “Midland Basketball“.

Why “Midland Basketball”?

Rationale for the rebrand:

  1. Penetang-Midland Basketball Association is too long for many use cases.
  2. PMBA Basketball is often used, but most people in other towns/cities would need to ask what this stood for.
  3. While Penetang-Midland represents much of our region, it doesn’t cover all.  e.g. Tiny, Tay, Hillsdale, etc.
Some of the association names that were considered:
  1. Georgian Bay Basketball
  2. Huronia Basketball
  3. North Simcoe Basketball
  4. Midland Basketball
The PMBA executive discussed the pros and cons of the many options and ultimately selected Midland Basketball for the highest level of clarity and noting it represented the location of the majority of the Association activities.

Why “Waves”?

We had two rep team names; Mystics for the girls’ teams and Magic for the boys’ teams.  Branding issues noted:

  1. Branding confusion:  Several instances were noted where PMBA teams were referenced by the wrong team name, belonging to the other gender.
  2. Branding complexity:  This added a second or third logo to advertising and sometimes the need to explain that Mystics was for girls and Magic was for boys.
  3. Brand recognition:  public needed to learn that both Magic and Mystics were basketball rep teams
  4. Uniform Cost:  Parents that had a boy and a girl in basketball would have no opportunity to hand down uniforms.
  5. Team Apparel (Jackets, sweatshirts, bags, etc.):  Separate order forms and arrangements for the two were required and again parents may need to purchase two sets of fan wear for themselves and could not share between boys and girls.

We solicited names from our basketball community and conducted a few rounds of voting.  Some wanted to continue with the Magic and/or Mystics, but we also had over 30 new names suggested.  After two rounds of voting, the short list was:

  1. Matrix
  2. Waves
  3. Islanders
  4. Marvels
  5. Meteors
  6. Majestics

In the end, Waves was chosen, with many commenting on the connection to our area of Georgian Bay, the actions of our great fans in the stands and we’re sure it will make it into a few team cheers!

Our New Logo!Midland Waves

Many thanks to Jamie Redgrift for her donation of the logo design by the artists at her business, Open A Party – Canada’s #1 Party Supplies Store! We look forward to seeing it on the court!

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