There was a bit of buzz this week when Miami Dolphins President Tom Garfinkel said the organization is commited to the current Dolphins logo “as of right now.” Essentially Garfinkel left the door open to the franchise making a change back to the classic logo full time down the road. There is an NFL rule that when a team changes their logo/uniforms they must wait 5 years before making another change. So at this time Miami must wait another year before making any changes. Yet I think many fans are getting way ahead of themselves after hearing this statement out of Tom Garfinkel and think that a change is on the way or in the works; I don’t see it that way.

The Miami Dolphins are a business and when it comes to any business there is always one rule of thumb; follow the money! Can the Dolphins organization overall make more money bringing back the classic logo full time or do they make more money keeping the current logo but also using the classic logo as well on a limited basis? The answer is clear and its the latter and that is why I do not see a change anytime soon to the classic logo on a full time basis.

Let’s break this down a bit and go over a few key points.

  • The Stadium: Why is the stadium important you ask well because Stephen Ross just paid out of pocket a whole lot of money to renovate the stadium and look at the color of all of those seats. What do you notice? Answer: It is the same shade of Aqua/Teal as the Dolphins current uniforms with the new logo. There is some synergy there and integration with the current “Dolphins Brand.” Now, is this a huge deal if the Fins went back to the darker shade of Aqua/Teal and the classic logo that the seats in the stadium don’t match, no of course not. But there was clearly some major branding involved here when all of those hundreds of millions of dollars were spent and to give up on it a couple years in probably is not something the organization wants to do.
  • Extra Revenue From Throwback Sales: In this day of age the “throwback jersey” concept is very popular among fans in this country. They like to see it and they like to wear it. It’s also popular among sports franchises as they see it as a way to double-dip and get the most possible money out of fans. Are you a Jarvis Landry fan? Well don’t you want a Jarvis Landry jersey and oh yeah for two games a year Landry will wear a Dolphins throwback jersey so buy that too! The team just sold you two jerseys and hey that throwback jersey might have limited production on them so it probably costs a few bucks more. Hey look at that, the team just really drained every last dime out of you. If the Dolphins go back to the classic logo on a full time basis guess what, they no longer have a throwback jersey or throwback look anymore. Meaning they have less merchandise to sell you and in turn will make less money.  Don’t be naïve and think teams don’t think about this stuff. Teams by NFL rule are allowed to wear throwback jersey’s twice a year if they want. It’s not by mistake that the last two years Miami wore them vs the Giants on Monday Night Football in early December and last year vs San Francisco on Black Friday weekend. Right in Christmas shopping season to market those throwbacks and sell as many as they can to fans around the holiday season when everyone is shopping for gifts. Throwback apparel makes teams money, lots of money. If they don’t have them to sell they don’t make as much money and teams don’t like that.
  • New Era; New Look: The classic look of the Dolphins logo brings fans back in time to the 70’s/80’s when the Miami Dolphins were winning consistently. It gives fans that warm and fuzzy feeling of the “good ole’ days.” Joe Robbie was the owner of the franchise back then and things were good, the team was always winning, and it was fun to be a Dolphins fan. Then came the mid-90’s and Wayne Huizenga takes over as owner and low and behold in 1997 he changed the logo and even though Wayne had owned the team for a couple years it was him putting his stamp on this franchise so to speak. Now we have Stephen Ross and this current logo in many ways is Ross putting his stamp on the franchise. To me this new logo coincides with the #NewMiami theme going on in South Florida at the moment. When I think Adam Gase, Jarvis Landry, Jay Ajayi, Ryan Tannehill…I think this new logo. When I think about the bright future this team is looking at I think this new logo. To me this new logo is a sign of a new era in Miami at the moment and the future and I’m not sure it makes sense to go back to a classic look on a full time basis right now.
When this new logo was announced a few years back at first look I wasn’t a fan of it. I will admit that over time it has grown on me and I like the new modern look. Uniform wise I like the white helmet with the white facemask a lot. I like the current shade of Aqua/Teal we use vs past shades of the color. And the new logo itself has grown on me over time and it doesn’t bother me. Does the actual Dolphin on the helmet still remind of Shamu from Sea World more than an actual Dolphin? YES! But it’s not that big a deal to me as the prior logos looked silly with a Dolphin wearing a helmet. So as we sit today I like this new and current Dolphins logo and let me add to that I also like the throwback look too. In fact I like the current situation of the new logo being used for 14 games and only seeing the throwback look twice a year. If we went to the throwback look on a permeant basis the novelty will wear off fast.  

At the end of the day we are all fans of this team and just want to see the team win games. I have always said that if the team is winning I don’t care if they wear hot pink and lime green each week. And if they were we would go out buy that gear and defend it to our family and friends because we would all be in a great mood that our Dolphins are winning. So at the end of the day the team winning is more important than what logo the team wears. Yet talking about the classic logo or the new logo is fun! That’s why we follow sports and get passionate about sports….it’s fun! So this is a fun debate and there really is no right or wrong answer. With that said though if you want to predict what the Dolphins organization will do in the coming years concerning the logo; follow the money! There is more money in keeping things status quo and sprinkling in the throwback look here and there than there is in making a wholesale change.

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