Cleveland asks fans about Chief Wahoo

Cleveland Indians soliciting fans for their opinions on smiling “Chief Wahoo” logo

By Associated PressThe Indians are asking some fans for their opinions on the team’s “Chief Wahoo” logo.

As part of their annual postseason survey to gauge fan satisfaction, the team is asking fans for feedback on a variety of topics including in-game experience, uniforms and Cleveland’s smiling Indians logo, a caricature some of have labeled offensive. In the survey, fans are asked to give their stance on five statements regarding the logo. The survey asks for similar responses—on a standard, five-choice scale—on the team’s “Block C” and “Script Indians logo.”

The Indians have no immediate plans to change any of their logos.

And although not connected, the Indians’ review of their fans’ attitudes about the logos comes as the Washington Redskins are being pressured to change their nickname.Stay or Go? Indians Fans Asked About Chief Wahoo Logo

By P.J. ZieglerThe Cleveland Indians are directly asking fans about the Chief Wahoo logo in an online survey that is circulating following the 2013 season.

The survey is used to provide the best fan experience possible and this isn’t the first time the team has asked fans about their opinion on the logo.The Indians are surveying attitudes about Chief Wahoo



Wahoo is going, going...

Is Chief Wahoo Finally on the Way Out?

By Chris Creamer

Are “Chief Wahoo’s” days as the Cleveland Indians primary method of branding over?

It certainly feels that way.

After years and years of *very slowly* removing the Chief bit-by-bit, the controversial logo has very suddenly been almost completely eliminated for all things Cleveland Indians over the past few months.

We got our first hint that something may be on the way when coming into 2013 the Indians stopped wearing “Wahoo” on their batting helmets altogether. The Chief had previously been worn on the batting helmet every game, home-and-away, up until 2009 when it was suddenly erased from road games. In 2013 it was taken off helmets for home games as well, replaced with the simple block, red “C” logo:

Creamer's conclusion:

Is a change coming? Maybe not “officially”, the team has said in the past to SportsLogos.Net that the logo isn’t going anywhere anytime soon… but with all the attention over the Washington Redskins name lately plus these pieces of evidence shown above I’d be surprised if we see very much of the Chief, if at all for the 2014 season and beyond. Good news for most.

But Wahoo isn't problematical?

A later posting addresses the previous posting:

Cleveland Indians: "Chief Wahoo" Has Been Demoted, But Not Because Logo Is Racist

By Marc TracyCurtis Danberg, the Indians’ senior director of communications, told me Wednesday afternoon that there is not any sudden move to ditch the chief, who remains, he said, one of the three logos, along with what he called the “script Indians” and the “block C.” “It’s not reacting to anything in the news,” he said, acknowledging the controversy over the Washington football team’s name. “There’s no conspiracy theory here.” He declined to comment on the broader question of whether Chief Wahoo should and will stick around in this climate. He insisted, in a way that didn’t contradict Sportslogos.net’s account, that there has been a gradual move toward the block C, but that, he said, is more about “celebrating Cleveland.”

He did say something very interesting, however, when I brought up the new spring training uniforms. “Spring training’s a different animal,” he said, “and when we’ve been in Arizona, we’ve really focused on the block C—being in that region, in that area, we’re certainly cognizant of that.” In other words, it is apparently one thing to use the chief while in the eastern Midwest, but quite another to use him in the southwest, where (whispered voice) there are actual Native Americans. And the first year the Indians did spring training in Goodyear, Arizona, after having spent the past decade-and-a-half in Florida, was … 2009, the year they first started playing around with the block C in a bigger way. Cynical? Democratic? Whatever it takes to ditch Chief Wahoo.Comment:  So the Cleveland Indians aren't reacting to the news? But they may be reacting to the decades of anti-Wahoo protests, which aren't exactly news? Okay.

In any case, it seems Chief Wahoo is on his way out. Nobody is screaming to retain their beloved logo and nobody is dying from his omission. Every mascot change should be this easy.