It was a busier summer morning around Cleveland, Ohio’s Rocket Arena on Tuesday. The home of the National Basketball Association’s Cleveland Cavaliers and minor league hockey team the Cleveland Monsters, Rocket Arena has few nights off in the fall and spring. This time of the year though, its usually quiet, barring a concert or maybe Cirque du Soleil coming into town.
However, this cooler August morning than most in Northeast Ohio saw a line that stretched from one side of the arena to the other. Everyone there patiently awaiting the first glimpse of the team identity that will bring the WNBA back to Cleveland in 2028.
On June 30, 2025, the WNBA announced its additions of Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia, so Tuesday’s logo and name announcement was 13 months in the making. That year to ponder and prognosticate the new identity ended when the Rock Entertainment Group (REG) unveiled the team’s new identity – the Cleveland Sirens.
As is usually the case anytime a new logo arrives on the scene, it had its critics. Some mentioned that Ohio is landlocked. There is also the fact that Cleveland shares its name with the PWHL’s New York Sirens, although for different reasons. That was only the start. Throw in numerous images of Matt Damon tied up to a boat, in agony, as he listened to the song of the sirens in the 2026 blockbuster movie The Odyssey and it was a typical sports team logo rollout.
For Cleveland, this announcement was different. This announcement carried more weight than early season ticket holder numbers or merchandise sales. Tuesday’s event at Rocket Arena could prepare the team for the future or disrespect the city’s WNBA past. That is because for some people Tuesday’s announcement was almost 23 years in the making.
In December of 2003, the original WNBA franchise the Cleveland Rockers dissolved after seven seasons. Women’s basketball at the professional level vanished from the city at a time when the league itself struggled. Then, in June of 2025, the announcement gave the city’s longtime women’s basketball fans hope.
“People would come up to me and tell me how they would get emotional, they would get tears in their eyes or they would cry talking about coming to Rockers games with their grandma, with their father, with their friends, with their neighbors,” Sirens team president Allison Howard told reporters. “This was the opportunity that they had at the time to experience Gund Arena and professional basketball in Cleveland.”
REG did what big companies do when coming up with a logo. Outside of the organic conversations between the team and fans at any of their pop-up basketball clinics or panel discussions over the last year, the organization surveyed 10,000 people. Through surveys and focus groups, the Rockers name held importance, but the data showed that fans were ready for a change.
Howard told reporters that people 60 plus were the most supportive of keeping the Rockers name, but even then, 68 percent of those people still said they would support the team even if they went a different direction.
There were reasons to go in a different direction. First, the league lost the trademark for the Rockers outside of using it on merchandise. If Cleveland wanted the full rights, it would take some negotiating and then some. Second, REG and owner Dan Gilbert own the team now, not the Gund family. It is a clean slate to start their own organization, outside of the shadow of the previous defunct side. Lastly, it was the chance to highlight more of the city than the tired rock n’ roll moniker used frequently over the years.
Enter Lake Erie. Cleveland is a port city, with ships connecting to Canada, Detroit, Western Pennsylvania and New York. On June 3, 2026, USA Today’s 10BEST project had Lake Erie atop its list of best lakes in the country, as voted on by editors and readers.
“I wish I could have scripted that that was all a part of our grand plan,” Howard told reporters. “But, it is amazing that the national spotlight really seems to be on Cleveland, and everything is just coming together so well.”
The iconography of the logo features nods to the team, city and Great Lakes region. The Sirens “S” is made of the letters “CLE”. On the primary logo, there are five waves to highlight the five players on the team and the five Great Lakes.
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Howard and REG’s due diligence created a logo that does set the team up for its own future, yes, but how does it honor the past?
On top of those 10,000 people who gave their opinions in the process, there were eight important figures in the unveiling. Monday night, Howard, members of the front office and eight former Cleveland Rockers players went out to celebrate the momentous occasion. REG paid to fly out of state members into Cleveland to make sure that the Sirens were not forgetting its Rockers foundation.
Included at the dinner were Rushia Brown, Helen Darling, Suzie McConnell-Serio, Bonnie Dove, Michelle Edwards, Chasity Melvin, Alisa Burras and Janice Braxton. Not only were they catching up over a meal but Howard and the Sirens showed them a part of the hype video that fans saw in the arena and streaming around the world on Tuesday. Braxton herself narrated the video, but did not see the final product.
Now, at that point of the process, the private showing was not to have them approve or deny the logo. It was a small gesture of giving those that first played professional women’s basketball in the city the opportunity to see what was next.
“They were overwhelmingly in love with it, and clapped several different times,” Howard said. “We were high-fiving each other, cheering each other, and that was also very important to us to feel that they also wanted to be, since they were such an important part of this journey 30 years ago, that they were going to be a part of this for 30 years and beyond.”
Cleveland may no longer be the Rockers, but their future team plans on honoring their past.
