Downtown is ready to chuck its Queenstown moniker

Sault Ste. Marie's Downtown Association is spurning suggestions it return to its old Queenstown branding.

What Saultites refer to as the Downtown Association was born in 1976 as the Queenstown Association.

The business group changed its name in 1998 to the Downtown Association "for marketing purposes" and briefly re-assumed the Queenstown name in 2015.

Since then, the organization has reverted to calling itself the Downtown Association, even though it's still the Queenstown Association for legal purposes.

In May, board member Michael McAdams started talking about Queenstown fandom merchandise.

"Queenstown. There's a lot of different things we could do with that for events: T-shirts, different things like that," McAdams said at the time.

More recently, the Downtown Association has been looking at sprucing up its image with a new logo sporting a new font and colours, but directors decided at their June board meeting that yet another name revision would just muddy the waters. 

"I actually like the name Queenstown," said board chair Nicholas Rosset.

"If you're looking for branding power – and this is just my opinion – the more changes, the more confusing and watered down things get," countered Ward 3 Coun. Angela Caputo.

"I like the Downtown Association. I think people have become more used to it," Caputo said. "This is very clear and concise."

Caputo added, however, that she might support calling the group "The Sault's Downtown Association" to ensure people associate it with Sault Ste. Marie.

"But if you want to make changes, I think like the logo needs a little bit of work. I would be very down for a professional to look at that," she said.

Coming up with an entirely new name was similarly rejected by the business group.

"The third option, I think would be not a great plan, just because then we're adding to the mix of potential confusion," Rosset said.

The group is preparing to call for tenders for a rebranding initiative.