¶ Buffalo Bisons and the Copa Design
Is anybody there ? Alright , alright . Well , welcome everybody to yet another episode of the Dad Hat Chronicles . My name is Ed , also known as the Dad Hat . With me , I got my co-host wearing an awesome dad hat . Look at you , val . What are you wearing today ?
This was actually new , brand new . The logo's not official yet , like just testing it out , but it's a Stadium Food Girl logo .
Look at on a 47 cleanup .
Yes .
Yo , look at that . You know the way I like .
Okay , all right girl , I know the way I like .
Okay , all right , girl , I love it All right . So obviously everybody knows you as the stadium food girl . Besides the hat , how are we living ? Girl ?
I'm doing great . It's a Monday , favorite day of the week . Ready to hit the week strong with our show tonight .
Let's go All right . So with me , guys , I got two . We getting lucky . Today we get two people from one team . I'm excited about this . Okay , um , I'm gonna start with brad bisbing . Uh , he is in cool , uh . Title assistant general manager for the buffalo bisons . How are you today , sir ? I'm great .
Thanks , uh , thanks for having us on the show , absolutely , absolutely . And also we have Allie Marcano . Did I say that right ?
Yes .
Yes , allie is the head graphic designer for the Buffalo Bisons . How are you doing today ?
I'm doing good , how about ?
you , oh , you know , just excited . You know , this little thing you've got going on with this little design that you guys put together here for the Copa . It's very exciting . But we're going to talk about that here . But let's get back here to you . Know , I want to ask you , start with you , brad , and then , you know , bring you in Val .
You know how did you get started in baseball ? You know , obviously , you know you are right below right there with Major League Baseball , aaa , with Buffalo Bison . How did you get started , my friend ?
Actually , yeah , I did a couple of years in radio , went to school for broadcast journalism and you know I didn't really like the radio thing . It wasn't like building anything . So I wanted to try something different . But at the back , at the end of the day , I was a stat junkie .
I'm a numbers guy , I love baseball stats , I love how many different stats they are and real affinity to baseball stats .
And I had a good friend working at the Bisons and introduced me to some people , actually introduced me to the head of marketing at the time , and I told him that I could figure out the base batting average pretty quick and he tested me on a couple and I got them right and turned out he hired me and then he resigned in a couple of months and there was an
opening in marketing and PR and they kept throwing stuff at me . I kept saying yes . So 20 years later , still with the same organization an absolutely great organization we have in Buffalo . A lot of staff members have been there 20 , 25 , 30 years and you know it's a great team , allie included , that we have in Buffalo .
That make the long seasons a lot of fun . So love being in Buffalo .
That's awesome . I love it . And how about you , Allie ? How did you get started doing all this ?
Yeah , so I'm originally from New York City , actually , and so I was born and raised there and then I went and played college softball over at Coastal Carolina . So I played softball my entire life , really loved baseball , grew up going to baseball games with my parents and it was a lot of fun .
And then I also played softball for the junior national team for Team Puerto Rico . So that's how I tie in with , like , my Puerto Rican roots . My dad is Puerto Rican , so I really tie in with the culture and everything . So taking on this project was a lot of fun for me .
Oh , that's right . So you're a Chanticleer ? I am , yes , I see . I know my college too , all right , so , belle , do you have any questions here ?
I was going to ask about Ali's background because I had done some research and I saw the softball resume and I was like , oh cool , and our very own Ed probably feels a connection there with the Puerto Rico . You know the background there .
Oh yeah , oh yeah .
Yeah .
Right away . I mean I , you know , and it's , it's . I'm very excited about this right , because I , you know , and I've told my friends , I told anybody that can that would , that is willing to to listen to me talk about this is . This is by far one of my absolute favorite Copa brand logos . Like I mean it is . I mean I'm not even going to lie .
This is like as soon as it came out , I said this is right at the top , right when it comes to the cookies , right . And then you know you got the with Buffalo right . You know you guys have what the loosest of Buffalo right and with Buffalo right . You know you guys have what the loose is the Buffalo right .
And you know , guys , you know , talk to me a little bit about . You know why did you guys decide to bring this specific design and this logo to Buffalo ?
Well , we , you know we wanted to join COPA for a couple of years and and we were . You know , actually , some of the groundwork was in , you know , 18-19 and all these things you have to when you , when you're having a new logo , you have to plan almost two seasons in advance , yep , and we were just about kind of finalizing it .
And then the pandemic happened and we lost the 2020 season and forPA . Anyway , it was a blessing in disguise because , you know , we kind of it wasn't Luce's before the pandemic . It was I don't know . You know , I'm trying to remember , I'm not even sure what it was , but we were picking from other names .
And then , you know , we regrouped and I rebuilt my staff and was lucky enough to find a very talented graphic artist in Allie who joined our team , you know , when we came back in 2022 and restarted those conversations with we're working very closely with the Western New York Hispanic Heritage Council , as well as some longtime season ticket holders and fans for their
input as well . And so , you know , we wanted it to be authentic and you know Buffalo's got a lot of monikers , uh , so to speak , uh , the city of good neighbors , the queen city , nickel city , things like that Um , but we really .
The city of light is also one of the things we're known for , um , and that springs from the 1901 Pan-American exposition , or the world's fair . Uh that was actually in Western New York , it was in Buffalo . The World's Fair in 1901 came to Buffalo and you know it was a , and the celebration , the World's Fair , was a . Twofold .
It was one , you know , back then Buffalo was one of the first cities in the country , even in the world , that widely accepted the use of electricity , and we had Niagara Falls and we had the power there . So that's kind of how we got the moniker .
City of Light was from the World's Fair , but it's also during a time where it was to celebrate all those World Fairs had been happening over in Europe and on the other side of the world . And then it comes here to Western New York and comes here to North America .
So it was a celebration of not just North America but also Central and South America , the emerging cultures , and celebrating all the great cultures throughout the Western Hemisphere . So that was a long celebration . It's not like festivals now that are a week or two weeks .
It was like six , seven , eight months here in Buffalo and people from around the world came to Buffalo to see the electricity , to see the light and to see these great cultures . So that's how we came to City of Light or , excuse me , the Luceis . That's how we came to the name Luceis .
And then now I'll turn it over because we had the name and we needed the uh what the design was . So , right , I told ally , you know , it's lucas de buffalo , it's kind of what we all agreed on , and she was obviously a part of that as well . And then we said , all right , what's it gonna look like , ally ?
And , um , you know , as a great graphic designer , she went to work .
No pressure .
Right .
Yeah , here , here's a name . Figure it out after that .
Yeah . So I kind of wanted to dig deep into the roots of , like Puerto Rican culture and everything . So I did a lot of research and a lot of the research tied back to Atayano , so Atayano , his heritage , everything , and it kind of expanded through all of of like the Caribbean and also South America .
So I figured this was a little more inclusive for other cultures as well . So I wanted something that everybody could be a part of too . And so when I think of light , I was like all right , let me dig deep and two and two came together . So it was a lot of fun to do .
And then I also incorporated like the Buffalo flag in there just to emphasize like the light . So it was pretty cool .
I love it . First of all , obviously , the Taino symbol for Sol , right , you know , so the sun , and I think that's a beautiful design . I mean , if I didn't believe it then I wouldn't have tattooed on my arm . So you know , and it's you're right , though right Because a lot of people think that Taino is just for one area , but it's not .
It's just it's throughout the Caribbean , Like you said , South America , Central America , so it expands it all over in that area , which I think it's very inclusive , and I love it a lot . So let me ask you this you know why those colors ?
Why those specific colors ? As far as the design process , when you decided to , you know , finalize everything , yeah . So I know we wanted to do like a brand new look , kind of just kind of get away from our red and blue . So I went with yellow for light , just because kind of emphasize the lightness of it . And then I went with teal just because of water .
Our electricity comes from the water , so I wanted to emphasize you water . Our electricity comes from the water , so I wanted to emphasize , you know , that's where the water is coming from , which is therefore why we have the teal brand .
So that's pretty cool . Love that . It's the little details . You know it's like it's not blue because , or teal because it's just teal , but then when you go into it it just adds a little more oomph to the hat that's right , exactly I .
I'm like , oh so you know , and it's funny because you say I wanted to get away from the red and blue , which you know you could have used that dark blue that you already have . But it's like , no , we want to go different . And you used a lighter shade with the teal and it's like , yeah , it makes sense , it absolutely makes sense .
When you put it all together , like you were saying , val man , this thing is just yeah , I'm looking at it up close too . I'm on the shop . I'm right now . I'm on the website right now .
The lightning bolts . Can I ask what are the three ? The circles within in the middle of the logo ?
So the lightning bolts around that comes actually directly from our buffalo flag . So the buffalo flag has lightning bolts all the way around it and then , um , the traditional symbol is kind of just like one simple line . So I kind of just wanted to emphasize , like , give it a little extra couple lines , kind of make it different , put my own twist on it .
So it was just kind of just an extra design , how how to make it a little different .
No , it's beautiful .
Thank you , it's gorgeous .
Yeah , no , I think it's . It looks like it's trying to warm me up . You know I'm not going to lie . I'm a little , you know , emotional right now with this logo , so I just want to put that out there . I might cry later . I'm not going to lie , I might cry later . But how has the public reacted to this specific Copa brand in your community ?
Yeah , I'll speak to that . I think it's gone over tremendously well . We've had two games already and our big one's still to come on september 6th . That's the first friday in . In september is the last few years has been our hispanic heritage night with the hispanic heritage council .
Um , we have a former great player , carlos garcia , who , uh , played for the pirates for a while , all-star , um , he's coming back as a part of that . He's actually well , he's a western new york native . He's going
¶ Celebrating Cultural Pride Through Baseball
to be a part of that . And , and you know , I the proof is in just walking in the concourse and you see people wearing the hats all over the place .
I was at the grocery store the other day , literally yesterday or two days ago , and seeing someone walking in as I walked out with the hat on and I just you know that , that , you know , really makes all that that hard work , the two years that we put in building it and obviously all the work that Allie did putting in it .
I mean that's just awesome to see . And you know , the best part is now we're launched . Now we are Luce's Day , buffalo for the first year , and it's only going to grow in the future years as well as more and more of that awareness , not only of our brand but of the Copa games , and more and more and more .
Well , you know we'll , we'll be back for three games next year as well . That's what .
I'm talking about it's using it as much as possible , and the players too the players absolutely love it .
You see the guys , you know they all batting practice hats and then when they go out for batting practice , it's it's not those , it's , it's it's these caps that they're wearing and players are . We saw some players the last game . They got special shoes to match .
One of our players was wearing the yellow shoes and had yellow batting gloves and you know they've really taken to it as well .
The yellow shoes .
I know , I was just thinking the same thing , like the batting gloves too . On top of that , they went all out for it .
They even bought thinking the tape thing , like the batting gloves too on top of that , they went all out for it . They even bought , like the tape around their wrists . They bought teal tape , everything Like they . All of them came up to me like this is the coolest hat I've ever seen . Like the players love it so much .
They're like we want to wear this every day .
And that makes me , that makes me happy , right , as a Hispanic person . Right , you know , and not just with you guys , right , but throughout , like you know , minor league baseball , the way that the Copa has taken off , right , I mean , it's a sense of pride for a lot of people and it's all over minor league baseball , right .
So it could be totally something different on the West Coast , on the South , you know where you guys are at , so everybody's embracing it , and the fact that the players are also buying in into this , it makes it even much of a bigger impact on the community , because you can tell that level of pride when they put it on .
For sure for sure . And the other thing I failed to mention that I think that you'll get a kick out of or enjoy . You know , it's interesting that we launched it this year because , come to find out , this is the anniversary of a very special event in baseball . Ago this year , roberto Clemente got his first professional hit and that first hit was in Buffalo .
It was actually in Buffalo , playing for the Montreal Royals . He played , and I think it was the second game of a double header and he got his first pro hit in Buffalo and it was the anniversary of that earlier this year .
So we did something special around that as well , and pretty fitting that the cap came out this year when we had that anniversary that just gave me chills .
I'm not gonna lie , I just gave me chills . I mean I , he's one of my baseball heroes . I mean , I mean , if you're puerto rican , listen , if you don't know who roberto , if you're anybody , if you don't know who roberto clemente , is something wrong with you . You gotta get checked out .
Because that man , like I mean , what he did off the field was , I think , he , in my opinion , greater than what it was what he did on the on the field .
So for sure , for sure , yeah , truly , truly a special player in the history of baseball and , um , you know there's a barber shop here in western new york that has a giant mural of him up as well . Um , and we post for buster with some photos wearing the Luce stuff in front of it as part of our launch as well .
So his impact still today and he's still a hero to many baseball fans .
OK . So I want to get to know about you guys , right ? And then I'll start with you , ali , because obviously Val was doing some research on you as well . Tell us about your softball career . I mean , listen , I mean that's pretty cool to play in Division One collegiate softball , that's like that's no small feat , girl .
Yeah , so yeah , I played Division One softball for Coastal Carolina and so I played there . And then what happened was my senior year ended up being when COVID hit , so I couldn't do my senior year there , so I actually transferred to University at Buffalo . So that's how I ended up in Buffalo and then I just finished my softball career there .
¶ Passion for Baseball and Design
They were also Division I , and then I did play overseas . I played for Team Puerto Rico since I was like 13 . So I've been playing there for a very long time and I actually won a bronze medal with them in 2017 .
So , what a resume gold or , I'm sorry , bronze medal . I mean , that's insane , it's just wow . And then , of course , your love for softball brought you where you are today , which is , I mean , the stars really aligned there with that .
Oh yeah . And then it's fun too . Like anytime we have like fun like baseball camps or kind of like miracle league things like that . Like I love helping out with the kids and stuff like that . And sometimes they look at me like , oh , you're a girl throwing a baseball . I'm like yep .
What position did you play ? By the way , I was a pitcher .
What position did you play by ?
the way I was a pitcher Pitcher , woo-hoo-hoo , listen , I don't care what anybody says Fastball pitch , fast pitch . I can't , there's no way , absolutely . I am so bad . That's why I play soft pitch , you know , just leave me there , because I suck I was going to say .
We have an annual tradition at the Bisons where the staff takes on the interns every year and the interns were getting pretty tough so I had to bring in a ringer in higher alley . So last couple of years it hasn't been much of a contest , with us having a ringer on our team .
That's pretty cool . Did you start off as an intern ? So , after graduation , university of Buffalo , you were just Trying to continue with graphic design , or ?
Yeah , so I actually , prior to the Bisons , I was a designer for Citibank and so I was there for a bit and then I saw an ad pop up for the Bisons and so I applied , because I was like the worst that they do is say no . So I applied and the rest is history . So I'm really thankful for all of it .
Here's my little hockey thing . It's like Wayne Gretzne graski says like you miss every shot you don't take . So I mean exactly right , I mean what you're working in baseball . You you're doing two things that you love , right , working in baseball and graphic design . I mean that just yeah , that's pretty cool .
That is pretty cool the dream job right here .
I love it now , do you get to ? And brett , don't get me , don't , don't . I'm gonna get to you right here in a second , my friend . But ellie , like , do you are ? Do you also do other things in within the team , right , do you work on any other projects that are coming up or anything like that , without having to say anything ?
Obviously like , do you do other things , uh , within the team as well ?
yeah , so I actually operate the video board during games . So all the visual entertainment that you see , that's what I control . I work with our entertainment coordinator Her name is Amanda and we kind of just work on like the game day experience pretty much together .
So that's pretty cool .
That's a lot of skill buttons with that .
I know I'd mess that up real quick real quick you know , and I'll put a plug in If you want to see not just the loose days , you want to see some of Allie's Allie's designs . Check out the buys and social media .
We have one of the best accounts in minor league baseball and and there's some great graphical treatment there whether it's the lineups or game today stuff and that's all Allie's design . She does a tremendous job with her social media .
I was already on it . There you go .
I was already on it , so someone is just being modest is what you're saying , Brad I do all the social media marketing merchandise , pretty much everything that has a design on it . I probably did .
Oh , nice , on that note of design , are we ?
in the same room as the person who designed the Buffalo wing logo with the celery and the baseball . That , no , that was . That was before the pandemic , when we did the Buffalo wings . That was a previous designer who actually we run . We run the events for buffalo's canal side district as well and waterfront , and so it's all part of uh .
We're together as part of what's called rich entertainment group , owned by rich products , and uh , michelle siccatello is that designer and uh , we've been fortunate to have a great designer over there as well , but she started at the bisons a little bit before the pandemic , oh nice this is another logo that I , I love .
I a little bit before the pandemic . Oh nice , it's just another logo that I , I love . I love food and I love sports , so like , that's just another another logo that I love , well , that was also a natural fit for us to be the buffalo wings .
Obviously most , most minor league teams at this point have have done a food moniker uh , whether it's the garbage plates in rochester , salt potatoes down the road in Syracuse . And it was only fitting that we became the Buffalo Wings , being the birthplace of the chicken wing .
That's so cute , I love it . I want some .
Buffalo Wings right about now . That's pretty cool . So , brad , talk to me , man , like I mean , listen , I know you said you started in broadcasting .
You know , like what gets you like you know like what , what gets you , like , you know , excited to going to , to work every day , right , I mean because it's a tough job , like let's let's , you know , let's not mistake this right , working in baseball , while a lot of fun and great , it's still a tough job .
Right , because you're you could be there 12 , 15 , 16 hours a day . You're there all day .
Yeah for sure . And now you're at 150-game season , right , so it is a long season , but I'll be 100% honest . It's the team behind the team . As I mentioned earlier . You know , our president has been with the team for 38 years . Our general manager joined the team one year before me . Our restaurant guys joined the team one year before me .
Our stadium , our restaurant guys , was joined the year I did . Our sales guy , the director of sales , jeff Lundquist , joined the year I did or the year before . So we have so many people that have been there for 15 , 20 , 25 , 30 , some even 40 years .
And when you go through those seasons and you have those highs and lows of the seasons but you do it with , with the same group , it's really special . It's it's it's cliche , but it's the family . It's the family that you have at the ballpark . And and then you get to work at a ballpark .
You get to after a long day getting ready for a , for a Bison's game , and you got there at nine and you and you , you , you play some ads for the for next week and you , whatever , you got the game notes done and you did some interviews and you plan some things out , and then at seven , oh five , you sit down in a press box and you get to look at ,
oh , what is what I feel is still the best ballpark in all of minor league baseball , the ballpark that really started at all , the , the Salem field a little ballpark history for you was the first ballpark designed by hok um , which went on to design almost every major league park that's in existence right now . Uh , we were the first classic retro ballpark .
Seating , you know , 16 000 , uh , just a beautiful ballpark , and you get to . You get get to . You know , like Allie said , combine the things that you love between baseball and , uh , in graphic design .
Well , I was a stat guy , I was a baseball guy and you know being able to do that , um , with a great team , you know , and I and I should say not just uh you know the , the , the staff that's been there for for 20 , 25 years .
But then , you know , coming out of the pandemic , and as lucky as I was to be able to hire someone like Allie and a few of the other team members who have only been around for two , three seasons and have bright , bright , bright futures in minor league baseball or professional sports ahead of them , we got a great thing going in Buffalo .
We pride ourselves on doing the things the right way and making sure that it's customer first . Customer obsessed is what we say , and you know trying to make all those . You treat every game like it's someone's first and that's what we try to do . And make every game an event and have fun . At the end of the day it's fun , it's baseball .
I was just going to say it's baseball , it's .
I was just so so your , uh , your hardest decision might be how to discount the hot dogs or who to put on a bobblehead . We're not , uh , we're not making uh life or death decisions . We get to have fun and we have uh a product on .
So , you know , when you , when you can do social media and marketing for a baseball team , as opposed to , uh , I don't know , a bag of chips or uh , or something else , you , you know you can have a lot of fun or , or something else .
You , you know you can have a lot of fun with it , and people enjoy our brand and our product and and it's it's great to be a part of .
You know , I , I I'm still . When I used to live in Ohio , we used to go to Toronto and then I promise I'm tying this on , passing right past the ballpark and I'm like one day I still haven't hit it , but I'm one day I'm going to stop there because I got to get to that ballpark . I love how retro it is , you know , I , and it's just so .
No , there's something about it so nostalgic that you know it's like that's baseball right there . You know , when you hear the , the , the bats , when you hear the ball hit , the gloves , things like that , and you see a ballpark like that , that's nostalgic .
But let me ask you this , and this is something that I've been wanting to ask somebody since , like after COVID happened , right , your relationship with the Toronto Blue Jays , obviously we all know , you know trying to play there for a little bit and everything . How was that whole experience it ?
was wild . It was wild , was wild , I mean , obviously , from the lowest of the lows to the highest of the highs . I mean there wasn't much lower than holding that press conference on on june 30th I think the date was and and saying there's no minor league season . Yeah , you know .
And and the timing of the pandemic , if you remember hitting in in march when everybody had spent the last six months gearing up for the season . We had all our promotions bought , we had our schedule laid out , All the ads were placed and everything was ready to go .
We're ready to go , I think we were , when it kind of like all kind of hit was like two days before we were supposed to have our fan fest , yeah , and we're like all right , we were supposed to have our fan fest , yeah , and we're like all right , we're going to open the ballpark for the first time . And oh , we got to shut it down .
So , so that was , that was a really tough time and , and you know , part of it too is we lost some staff members . Obviously I think everybody did around that To go from that to being able , in a month , to have Major League Baseball in Buffalo and to give you a little background too . On that , Buffalo does have Major League history .
We were part of both the National League and the attendance marks outdrawing major league teams . There was a strong push in Buffalo to bring major league baseball to Buffalo in the early 90s and we were part of the final three , along with Denver and Miami , to get an expansion franchise .
And it was the goal for a long time of our owners , Bob and Mindy Rich , to bring major league baseball to Buffalo and sure enough , that became the Colorado Rockies and the Miami Marlins , and so we kind of lost out on that dream .
So A to bring Major League Baseball back in 2020 , it had some significant meaning for almost 100 years , over 100 years since Major League Baseball had been played in Buffalo and then the following season to do it again , but this time to be able to have fans in the crowd and to be able to share Major League Baseball with the great sports fans .
I mean , there's no better sports fans in the world I'm sorry than Buffalo , New York and how passionate we are for our sports teams to be able to have those games in our ballpark and , all told , 49 Major League games were played in Buffalo between 2020 and 2021 , which was really really a special time .
Well , I wish it would have been . The Florida team would have never existed . You know , as a Cleveland fan I'm not going to lie . You know we probably would have won the World Series then . But I'm not bitter or anything .
With a lot of former Bisons on that 97 team too . A lot of former Bisons on that team as well , yeah . I remember that game but you know it's and and and and we always . You know the major league dream was a dream for a lot of people , including our owners .
But you know , fast forward , you know 20 , 30 hours minor league baseball , man , it's , it's , it's the best , it really is the best . And and to be able to , uh , have minor league baseball in buffalo and give that to our fans . You know , it's something we truly enjoy .
I hope you guys enjoyed this episode with Allie and Brad . Now make sure you guys are back next week as we finish our conversation . We go into the famous , not-so-famous questions , as well as some of the other cool things that the Bisons are doing right now . Before I go , make sure you guys are following myself and Val on all the socials as well as YouTube .
On Tuesday at 9 pm Eastern Time , the Data Chronicles Sports Show we'll go over some of the things that have been going on in the week baseball , football as well as other sports , whatever comes to mind , football as well as other sports , whatever comes to mind .
On Thursdays at 9 pm , pat of the MILB Head History and myself we are doing Talking Heads and other things . We just talk , man . We're talking about some of the new trends out there as far as the head community is concerned .
Again , guys , make sure you guys are back next week as we finish this episode and until then , keep grinding and always support the minor leagues . See ya , thank you .