Joseph M. Villanueva

In 2024, the Anaheim Ducks underwent a massive rebrand. The rebrand brought massive changes which aligned with future developments surrounding the team’s arena and took the unique cultural background of Orange County, California communities into consideration. Conversely, another Anaheim professional sports organization renamed itself to belong to a neighboring city, which has not sat lightly with Orange County locals. The purpose of this article is to contribute to understandings of why considering legitimacy is vital in a professional sports environment when considering rebranding or making major changes. To that end, two forms of legitimacy—cultural and pragmatic—are explored and how such legitimacies are imperative to consider when rebranding. The latest rebrand has been viewed a success by the Ducks front office staff, fans and Orange County locals, and both cultural and pragmatic legitimacies are apparent in the rebrand.

Keywords. Legitimacy, organizational change, rebranding, professional sports

Citation: Villanueva, J. M. (2025). Building a rebrand: Considering cultural and pragmatic legitimacy when developing an organizational rebrand in professional sport. International Journal of Sport Management, 26(3), 348-355.

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