The Alliance of American Football has started signing players to fill out the inaugural rosters of their eight teams and now they’ve moved on to giving those teams names.
The league, which will launch its first season in February, announced the names and revealed the logos for four of its teams on Thursday. The Birmingham Iron, Atlanta Legends, Memphis Express and Orlando Apollos will make up the league’s eastern division.
“The selection process of naming each Alliance team began by listening to our fans and working with each city to hear their suggestions and determine a long list of great ideas,” AAF CEO Charlie Ebersol said in a statement. “After we culled that list down through local market research, testing and a dynamic group of advisers in each city, we had our short list. Then, more testing, and ultimately, Bill [Polian] and I had some decisions to make. We feel strongly that our team names identify with the great cities we call home to our Alliance teams and positively represent the region and our fans.”
The Iron references the history of iron and steel production in Birmingham while Atlanta’s name references legends in the sports world and civil rights movement. Memphis is the home of Federal Express and the league notes “things move swiftly and purposefully with the goal of achieving awesome results” in the city. Orlando’s moniker references both the sun god and the space program.
Teams in Arizona, Salt Lake City, San Diego and San Antonio will have their names revealed next week.