The Cleveland Cavaliers, the city’s NBA franchise, have a completely different appearance from the new Cleveland Sirens of the WNBA, and there is a very crucial reason for this separation of identities.
Cleveland’s new WNBA franchise, the Sirens, debuted with royal blue as its primary color and a name inspired by Lake Erie and Greek mythology. The Sirens’ executives deliberately chose the Cavaliers’ maroon-and-navy color scheme to make them appear completely different from the Sirens.
On August 4, 2026, Sirens executive Allison Howard addressed the media. She meticulously outlined the reasons behind the team’s deliberate attempts to disassociate itself from the Cavaliers.
Howard said, “We don’t want to be the Lady Cavaliers, and we don’t want to be a lightning bolt. We really need to be very separate, very distinctive. We love our Cavaliers, and they’re such an important part of this organization, but this team (Sirens) can exist. It’s very much on the independent side of the Cavaliers.”
“We don’t want to be the Lady Cavaliers.”
Cleveland Sirens exec Allison Howard explains why the city’s new #WNBA franchise chose to go a different direction from the Cavs brand and colors. pic.twitter.com/tDwzvKfcQa
— Jeremy O’Brien (@thejeremyobrien) August 4, 2026
Furthermore, Howard described how the two franchises are aiming for completely distinct audiences.
“The demographic is totally different. The demographic that will come to Rocket Arena in 2028 for the Sirens game is going to be very different than (sic) the ones that come to the Cavaliers. They eat different food. They drink different drinks. They get here earlier. They purchase merchandise differently. And they come from all over the state and even outside of the state.”
In June 2025, Cleveland got the nod for a WNBA expansion team. Now, the Sirens, owned and operated by Rock Entertainment Group and its Chairman Dan Gilbert, are set to make their debut in 2028.
One of the Sirens’ first orders of business was hiring Howard as their president of business operations. After working as an executive vice president on the Cavaliers’ business side, she took over for the Sirens.
During the brand’s launch on Tuesday, Howard made it very clear why it was important to choose a name for the new WNBA team that would stand on its own, rather than necessarily bank on the Cavaliers.
“It had to be separate.”
“What came back was (that) this brand needed to be very distinctly and authentically Cleveland. The biggest thing we wanted to do was tie it back to our greatest asset, which is Lake Erie,” Howard told cleveland.com.
The management finally landed on the name “Sirens” after a 13-month process that included market research, polls, and community talks. Officials from the team performed a 10,000-person market research study. Seven potential names – Breakers, Racers, Founders, Crown, Riveters, Novas, and Sirens – were included in trademark applications filed in May 2026 under a franchise-related corporation.
“Sirens beat out everything on all the other names,” Howard confirmed.
With Lake Erie at the core of the franchise’s DNA, Howard described the team’s brand identity as rooted in civic pride, fearlessness, and strength. She added that the siren represents tremendous, community-driven women’s sports fandom finally rising into the limelight.
The leading “S” of the Sirens logo hides the letters C, S, and CLE. The tip curls into a trident, and the five waves of hair on the siren symbolize the five Great Lakes and the five on-court players.
The Sirens’ logo accentuates the Sirens’ movements. The Sirens wordmark’s side accents are designed to mimic waves of rebounding sound.
The Sirens’ blue color scheme reflects Lake Erie’s gradient. Cleveland will hold the WNBA’s proprietary blue color palette, “Sirens Blue” and “Erie Blue,” providing the team a distinct visual identity that no other franchise can match.
