The CEBL is still really young when it comes to sports leagues and their logos are very interesting. All have been done in a similar art style that can at times make the league feel a little generic, but they are cool none the less. I thought it would be a good bit of fun to rank the logos, because who doesn’t love a good ranking?

Everyone will have their own opinion about these and we want to hear it! Leave your rankings in the comments blow!

7. Niagara River Lions

For some time, the River Lions sat a little higher on my list, but the longer that I looked at it, the more I began to wonder what exactly this thing is. I’ve never really been one to say that you need to colour animals the way they are actually couloured in real life, but this has gone so far off the deep end and I’m not sure why.

Neon green, silver, and black look decent together, but I can’t say I love it when they are the colours of a Lions. Not to mention that the lions depicted here looks kind of dopey and disinterested. Almost like it’s about to fall asleep.

This was clearly and attempt to mix in some cool colours that would look cool on merchandise, and while it does that, it misses the mark as a stand-alone logo. There are cool elements, but not my cup of tea.

If I had a say in the design process of this logo, I would definitely want to go with a bit of a different art style. Something a little more classic, but that’s probably not in line with that the CEBL want’s to see, so instead we have to settle with this.

6. Guelph Nighthawks

I must say, this logo started pretty high on the list even cracking the top three at one point, but I’ve officially placed it at number six despite some elements that I think are amazing. Let’s start with the birds head, if it was just that without the ‘G’ that forms the body, it would likely be much higher on this list.

I was going to mention how dark the logo is as a negative, but their name gets them out of it. Overall, the colour selection is alright with the blue, black, and silver. As mentioned before, the bird is the thing that makes this logo. If I could re-do this one any way I wanted, it would simply be to blow the head of the bird up into the focal point of the logo.

There is just t0o much extra clutter around the place for me to put this one higher on the list.

5. Fraser Valley Bandits

For some reason, I had a really hard time deciding where to place the Bandits logo in this ranking. Some days I would open this ranking and think it’s one of the worst, and others I would open it and think it’s a whole lot better than that. But that all being said, I’ve decided that this is a little weaker than some of the others in the list.

Right in the middle of the pack is where I decided to stick this one and it mostly comes down to the head of what I think is a fox. I really can’t decide what emotion it is showing here. It might be angry, it might be happy, and it might just not care. It’s likely down to the minimalistic and modern art style used league wide and there really isn’t too much the team can do about it.

The orange and black work well together and then you toss in some of that off-white or cream colour and it’s really good working. It’s solid but could see some improvement. Not the worst, but also not the best.

4. Edmonton Stingers

While the Edmonton Stingers came out victorious when the CEBL hosted the Summer Series in St. Catherines in 2020, they won’t be so lucky when it comes to winning the logo championship. Some would argue that winning on the court is more important, but this is probably just as important. Well, maybe not.

This is actually a pretty nice logo all things considered. Normally, I don’t love wordmarks being a part of the primary logo, but every team in the CEBL has it even if it doesn’t show it on this list.

The reason that they are as low as they are here is because of the proportion of the wasp compared to the words. The focus of the logo should be on the wasp, but instead, it’s over powered by the strong black text. The text by itself would work fine as the font on the chest of the jersey, but this is an example of a logo that would do better without text.

The wasp itself is very modern and edgy. Crisp is the best way to describe it. If it was allowed to breath a little bit more, we might be looking at a top three spot if not the top spot.

3. Hamilton Honey Badgers

Unlike the River Lions, the Honey Badgers have managed to put their colours on an animal the right way. Additionally, this logo is Hamilton through and through. Everyone has seen that honey badger video at one point or another, and if you haven’t you will have to google it yourself as it isn’t really safe for work, but it perfectly illustrates why this is the perfect mascot for Hamilton.

The honey badger is a tough animal and goes perfectly with Hamilton’s tough nature. Keeping the yellow and black colour scheme shared by the Tiger-Cats and the Bulldogs is also a fantastic move.

Once you get over the yellow on the head of the honey badger kind of looking like some kind of swimming cap, this logo is fantastic.

2. Ottawa Black Jacks

The CEBL’s newest club calls the nation’s capital home and is still yet to play a game in said home, but hopefully that is coming sooner rather than later. The BlackJacks are one of the only teams in the league that have a little bit of a different flair to their logo varying slightly from the standard art style in the league.

I had thought for a while that the rabbit was riding a pogo stick, but then I actually looked at it and realized that it was it’s front paw. It’s just a cool looking logo. It’s not super intimidating or sharp like some of the others, it’s unique and cool.

The long floppy ears coupled with some of the cool details in the rabbit’s face put this over the top. Last but certainly not least, they share something with the city’s CFL team, the Ottawa Redblacks that I think is cool. The wordmark is half black and half red, something the Redblacks also so. On purpose or not, it’s cool.

1. Saskatchewan Rattlers

Ok, every single logo on this list changed spot at least once except for this one. I started with the Saskatchewan Rattlers in first and it’s ending with them in first. This logo is actually perfect and there isn’t one thing I would change about it. I love every single aspect.

Let’s start with the colours here. A dark green with cream/off white is one of my favourite combinations of all time. Sprinkle in some white in the snakes eyes and teeth to really make things pop and you have the base of the leagues best logo.

The font around the top looks really good and fits the theme and the minimalistic design helps the snake not become too busy. There’s not too much else to say about this one. It’s just a really good looking logo.

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