Tuesday, July 22, 2008

MLS Reconstruction

The Stormy Present takes on MLS

On a slightly different note, but still related...MLS teams need to lose their nicknames. No more Columbus Crew, San Jose Earthquakes or Kansas City Wizards. They also need to lose the fake names like Real Salt Lake, Houston Dynamo (Why didn't they use this one? It would've been a great name and pretty good logo) and Chivas USA. As weird as it might sound, why can't the teams just exist as entities as they do in other places? DC United, FC Dallas (formerly the Burn, GREAT change) and Toronto FC are heading in the right direction.

Why can't we just call them Columbus, Seattle, San Jose or Kansas City? Or use other names to identify them without nicknames. How about Sporting Seattle instead of the Seattle Sounders (though I do really like their logo and shirt prototype)? I actually like the Red Bull New York name, as long as it's not the New York Red Bulls. There are European examples of the sponsorship name like Red Bull Salzburg and Bayer Leverkusen. As long as these don't go overboard (ie, Visa Chicago or Nike LA) it could work to make the names seem less like dorky youth soccer team names.

If the club names can start getting an overhaul as the uniforms and sponsorships have, we could have a much more attractive league visually and nominally. Or we could follow Trey's example and just have the team's in dumb locations move.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

How about you fuck yourself with your worthless opinions? The principle argument is incorrect from its inception as you wish to label them nicknames while in reality it is the name of the team. While some of the original Nike names may suck (Wizards) some are endearing and transend into the NASL past(Earthquakes). If you pulled your head out of your ass long enough to see the light you might just recognize a movement in the opposite direction by fans. Sounders is a prime example of this where they resolutely opted to keep the Sounders.

Again, thanks for dressing your opinion as fact.

Michael Orr said...

Haha, fair enough. This blog purports to be nothing but opinion, so I don't know why it was taken so seriously.

I know there is a connection with the Earthquakes, but that doesn't change the fact that it's a gay nickname. The nicknames are just too Mickey Mouse for me most of the time. I'm glad they're moving away from them (MetroStars, Burn, etc) for the most part and I just with the rest would do the same.

I actually like the nickname of Sounders for the Seattle team and I'm glad the fans chose it. But fans are not always right in choosing a name. Just look at the Washington Wizards (though admittedly that's a better name than the one that came in second which was Sea Dogs).

Anyway, these posts are nothing more than my opinion and if that offends you then you're just too high strung to have a reasonable discussion.

Anonymous said...

I'm just excited somebody else read the blog. Is that 4? With a 25% rate of intense dislike? Probably better than we do with the people who've actually met us...

Anonymous said...

How does one go about fucking yourself with opinions? I'm also confused as to where you expressed your opinion as fact.

Anyway, as you know I am all for your opinion to change the names. But I disagree with you in one area. I don't like the F.C. because F.C. stands for football club and no one in America calls it football.

So why not make the move to Dallas S.C.

I like that.

That said, Sounders is a pretty good name. So why not use it the way EPL teams do and just say the teams name is "Seattle S.C." and their nickname given to them by their fans is "the Sounders". The same what Liverpool isn't the Liverpool Reds, but everyone knows that that's their nickname.

ps the previous opinions are all fact in an entirely objective sense.

Michael Orr said...

Good point about SC, that makes a lot of sense. And I do like having nicknames (Man U - Red Devils; Chelsea - Blues; Liverpool - Reds) as long as they're not the actual team names. Sounders is a great nickname, but couldn't that be an interesting name the fans could give themselves? I don't know, it just seems so hokey to me with the Fire, Wizards, etc.

Anonymous said...

for some (you), ignorance is bliss and freedom to sound stupid

Anonymous said...

How is favoring S.C. over F.C. ignorant? We are aware of the letters stand for, so what in this argument are we unaware of, thereby making us blissfully ignorant?

Anyway, I totally agree with the idea to use the nickname as something the fans came up with to call themselves. And just have the team officially sanction the name the fans come up with. that way you could prevent the fans from naming your team something offensive.

ps, washington wizards is a terrible name.