The Kansas City Monarchs: a rebrand, a partnership and a championship

Abstract

Despite success on the field, the minor league Kansas City T-Bones baseball team was struggling financially and was suffering from press. As the brand image suffered, the ownership moved to sell the team. The new ownership immediately sought to rebrand the team, at first just by changing the logo and colors. During the COVID-19 pandemic the 2020 season was cancelled, and the ownership group entered into a partnership with the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (NLBM) to use the historic Kansas City Monarchs’ name and brand. The author used in-depth interviews and oral history methodologies to collect stories from members of the Monarchs front office staff to uncover the details behind the Monarchs’ rebrand. Applying Scola and Gordon’s (2018) Five Practical Areas of Retro Marketing in Sport, the case study provides a retrospective look at the Monarchs first season post rebrand as well as a practical application of theory to a novel and ongoing case.