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The Staten Island Yankees have suspended their rebranding plans and will play the 2017 New York-Penn League season without a name change.

(Staten Island Advance/Anthony DePrimo)

Kiss goodbye to the Bridge Trolls, Heroes, Killer Bees, Pizza Rats and Rock Pigeons.

The Staten Island Yankees announced Monday afternoon that after a six-month rebranding project, the New York-Penn League team will remain the Staten Island Yankees for the 2017 season.

The five aforementioned nicknames had been the minor-league franchise's finalists put up to a public vote, but team president/operating partner Will Smith said Minor League Baseball licensing and deadline issues forced ownership to table the proposed name change.

"For the time being, we're going to continue to play as the Staten Island Yankees," Smith told the Advance. "We've been pushing hard for six months to go through the process and we learned a lot about it. I think the aggressive nature of some of the names that were out there kind of complicated the communication process a little bit.

"We tried like heck to get the rebranding process done and unveil it in time of the 2017 season, but we reached a point where things unfortunately took longer than we anticipated to get approval. We frankly ran into deadline issues with Minor League Baseball and need to suspend the process indefinitely."

Smith said the ultimate goal continues to be finding a new name for the Staten Island minor-league team.

"We had a favored name, logo and branding plan. We were prepared to move forward, but encountered obstacles that unfortunately delayed the process beyond industry deadlines," said Smith. "These delays also would have compromised the quality of the product we aim to bring our fans. I always said that until there is a new name, we are the Yankees. That remains true today."

Rebranding has been a popular trend of minor-league franchises for a couple decades and four new nicknames were announced this fall -- The Binghamton Rumble Ponies (Mets, Double-A), the New Orleans Baby Cakes (Marlins, Triple-A), the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (Marlins, Double A) and the Florida Fire Frogs (Braves, Single-A).

"We'll see where we go from here," said Smith. "I think ownership still feels it's (rebranding) the right thing to do and we want to do it, but we have time to regroup and see where it leads going forward."

Smith promised that the franchise, which last summer had all-time low attendance figures since launching in 1999, is optimistic about the future.

"We'll work hard to make this place better," said Smith of the 7,171-seat Richmond County Bank Ballpark in St. George. "To make food and beverage service better, better promotions, better parking."

So the Staten Island Yankees will go on as the Staten Island Yankees.

"The Staten Island Yankees is a wonderful name," said Smith. "I still want to find our own identity one day."