Louisville City Football Club will wear its traditional purple and gold crest for the 2020 season as it continues to work through the process of a new logo.

The team said Tuesday in a news release that it plans to hire a “world-recognized branding expert” to assist with the redesign process and engage fans and supporter groups to "build branding that will unite our community."

Howie Lindsey, director of public relations for the club, said by phone Tuesday that the branding expert has not been chosen yet, but the club has talked to different companies and hopes to make a decision soon.

Last month, Louisville City Football Club dropped its new logo just three days after it was unveiled to the public at its downtown team store at Fourth Street Live. The redesigned crest — which dropped the gold color for a black, gray and white color scheme to accompany its trademark purple look — faced immediate backlash, particularly on social media, from fans and supporters who felt excluded from the process. The redesigned crest also incorporated key elements from Louisville's former city flag, including the circle of stars and the fleur-de-lis.

"We had the best intentions, but we lost sight of our responsibility to engage you in the process," Louisville City FC President Brad Estes said in a statement after the new design was dropped. "We make no excuses; we simply commit to making it right."

Louisville City worked with local marketing firm Doe-Anderson Inc. on the redesigned crest, which went through about 100 different variations over a roughly three-month period. Lindsey said Doe-Anderson is still working with the team, but the branding expert will be taking the lead on the redesign process.

In Tuesday’s news release, the club said it has brought in hundreds of supporters to share their design ideas, brainstorm logo and color combinations with the team and offer input on the process in the spirit of transparency and collaboration.

“We are very appreciative of the time and effort our fans put into sending us their suggestions for our new crest,” Estes said in the release. “We collected hundreds of responses and we are encouraged by our supporters’ passion for this project. Together, we found several designs that we genuinely liked, but we want to make sure we are devoting the proper time and resources that this process requires.”

Lindsey told me the team decided to wear the traditional crest on its jerseys for the 2020 season while it sorts through the potential logo and design ideas, which could take several more months. As we reported yesterday, the new season kicks off on April 11 in the new Lynn Family Stadium against the Birmingham Legion in a nationally televised contest.

With seating for 11,700 and a capacity reaching 14,000, the roughly $65 million Lynn Family Stadium in Butchertown will be a new showpiece for the city of Louisville when it opens. The club previously played home games at Slugger Field in downtown Louisville.

“The good news is we have a traditional crest that represents so much success, three Eastern Conference titles and a pair of USL Championship titles,” Estes said in the release. “We will be proud to wear our traditional crest in our new home.”

The Louisville City team store features items now with the traditional crest, and new merchandise is slated to arrive Friday. Merchandise featuring the logo unveiled in December will only be available while supplies last or until Sunday, Jan. 19, the release said.