Cleveland Indians release update about potential name change

Are the Cleveland Indians one step closer towards changing their name?

One would expect the Cleveland Indians will quickly change their nickname here soon.

In the social justice movement, we’ve seen the Washington professional team retire its offensive nickname in the NFL. Up in Canada, it seems that the Edmonton Eskimos will adopt a new nickname in the CFL. Hopefully, they can keep that sweet stacked double-e logo intact. Cleveland owner Paul Dolan gave us an update on how the potential name change for the MLB club is going.

“Earlier this week, I had a candid and productive meeting with Terry [Francona] and our players, where they expressed their to help the organization in this process. Our players care about the organization and feel strongly about social justice and racial equality. I support their interest in using their platform to unite our city and our nation through their actions.”

“As I explained to our players, I am invested in engaging our community and appropriate stakeholders to help determine the best path forward with regard to our team name.”

“In the coming weeks, we will engage Native American leaders to better understand their perspectives, meet with local civic leaders, and continue to listen to the perceptions of our players, fans and employees.”

“We feel a real sense of urgency to discuss these perspectives with key stakeholders while also taking the time needed to ensure those conversations are inclusive and meaningful.”

How close are the Cleveland Indians to changing their team nickname?

From the looks of it, it seems that Dolan and important stakeholders will discuss with prominent Native American leaders before punting on dropping the Native American attachment entirely. This feels in a way similar to what Terry McGuirk is doing with the Atlanta Braves over the National League. However, we should expect the Indians to change their name and maybe not the Braves.

One popular nickname the franchise could easily pivot to is the Cleveland Spiders. It is a name deeply entrenched in the organization’s history. While there is a team in the A-10 called the Richmond Spiders, Spiders is definitely an underrated nickname, as it’s not used by any major North American professional team or prominent Power 5 university. People could get behind this.

While we should expect the Indians to eventually change their name, it would be shocking to see the 2020 club go by a different nickname. The Washington professional team will have a new nickname before it takes the field Week 1 in the NFL. Look for Cleveland’s MLB club to have a new nickname to start the 2021 campaign off right. It should be ample time to figure something out.

The Indians nickname feels like it’s going away, but it’s not going away within the next few weeks.