Hillcats Begin "Name the Team" Contest

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LYNCHBURG (WSLS-10 SPORTS)- After 21 years of being the Hillcats, Lynchburg is now asking fans to decide the team name for 2017.  The process begins May 25, as fans are encouraged to submit their nomination on the teams website. Fans have until Wednesday June 8th to make your voice heard.  The top six will be placed on the website where fans will vote on the final name.  The Hillcats are a Class A Advanced team in the Carolina League and currently are a farm team of the Cleveland Indians. They had been a farm team of the Braves from 2011 to 2014, the Reds in 2010, and the Pirates from 1995 to 2009.

"The merchandise sales were in the lowest tier in minor-league baseball for sales, so we were trying to figure out why was it. The logo? Was it the name?  And so we hired a company out of San Diego named 'Brandiose'  that works with 50 other teams.   In our conversation they brought up the fact that "Have you thought about a name change? "-- Well, no we will throw it out there. So we're gonna let the fans decide in the community we are a community-based team. You know we take from the community a lot we want to get start giving back a little more, and one of them is give them back their team if that's what they want, " explains Lynchburg Hillcats President Chris Jones.