NANAIMO -- The City of Nanaimo has unveiled its new West Coast League (WCL) baseball team, which will have two names, one for evening games and one for afternoon matches.

For evening games, the team will be the Nanaimo Night Owls. If that wasn’t sweet enough, the team will also be referred to as the Nanaimo Bars during day games.

The announcement was made Wednesday night at the newly lit Serauxmen Stadium, which is the first ballpark in the city to install stadium lights, and where the NightOwls will also call home.

The team decided on its two names after receiving 123 different suggestions from the community, including: Prospectors, Tubbies, Bastioneers, Coalcats and Jinglepots.

The team's name, the NightOwls, was ultimately chosen to pay tribute to the Nanaimo Owls baseball team, which played in the city over a century ago. “Night” was added to the name to recognize the city’s contribution in bringing the new team to the Harbour City.

“We wanted something fierce and solid and Nanaimo Owls is a great name, but we wanted to be able to recognize the city for what they’ve done in putting the lights up,” said Jim Swanson, General Manager of the Nanaimo NightOwls Baseball Club.

If the team went by popular demand, the Nanaimo Bars would have been the team’s sole name, inspired by the world famous dessert square that was invented in 1952 in Nanaimo.

“Just to be able to be called the Nanaimo Bars in other cities around the league and certainly in the sports world, I think people will take note of that,” said Swanson.

During every road game, the team will be bringing Nanaimo bars to be sold at concession stands for fans.

The colour schemes for the team’s NightOwls uniform will be navy, gold and white, with ‘NightOwls’ scripted across the chest. Their road uniforms will have grey pants and a navy top with ‘Nanaimo’ in block letters across the chest. As for their delicious looking Nanaimo Bar uniforms, the colour scheme will be a yellow base with a cartoon logo across the chest.

On Wednesday, the NightOwls also revealed their mascot, an owl named Ney-Te (pronounced Nate) the night owl. The name is a tribute to former Nanaimo mayor Frank Ney.

The NighOwls will now be focussing on hiring coaching staff and working on partnerships within the community.

They plan on throwing out the first pitch at the start of the WCL 2021 season.

The team's website has been launched and can be found here.