After 12 years as the Gwinnett Gladiators, the minor league hockey franchise has made a slight name change to better reflect the entire metro area. They are now the Atlanta Gladiators.

DULUTH, GA (WXIA) – After 12 years as the Gwinnett Gladiators, the minor league hockey franchise has made a slight name change to better reflect the entire metro area. They are now the Atlanta Gladiators.

"We are very excited to announce that our name will transform to the Atlanta Gladiators with the 2015-2016 season,' said Joe Gelderman, team GM and vice president of business operations in a release Wednesday afternoon. "We already consider ourselves to be part of the Atlanta sports landscape, and given the absence of NHL hockey in the area, we want to make sure people understand that we are not just Gwinnett's hockey team. We are the professional hockey team for all of the metro Atlanta community.

"We hope that incorporating ‘Atlanta' into our name will allow more fans to identify with us, and will inspire people from all over the metro area to continue to support and embrace our organization. This was not a decision we made lightly, and in doing so we made sure to consult with a cross section of our fan base, as well as some of our corporate partners. The feedback we received was overwhelmingly in support of making this adjustment."

The team will update their primary and wordmark logos from Gwinnett to Atlanta, while retaining the remainder of the Gladiator logos and team colors. The Gladiators will continue to wear their traditional home white and away black sweaters this season, and continue to wear their "G-Flame" alternate sweaters introduced last January.

Beginning this season, the Atlanta Gladiators are the AA affiliate of the NHL's Boston Bruins and the AHL's Providence Bruins. The ECHL team begins its new season at Infinite Energy Arena (formerly the Arena at Gwinnett Center) in Duluth in October. Single game tickets are available at the team's main telephone number: 770-497-5100.