One more try. Just get rid of the corner and balance it out with the SC. Kinda like the loons logo. Or DA logo
General MLS Discussion
- Thread starter Shwafta
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One more try. Just get rid of the corner and balance it out with the SC. Kinda like the loons logo. Or DA logo
They are removing Crew from the official name and using it as a nickname instead. And they're keeping the colors. I'm not feeling the outrage. But that's just me.
However, the current logo is great and the proposed is a serious downgrade. So that's a headscratcher. Hopefully the leak was intentional to take the temperature of the fan base and they go back to the drawing board, or better yet, leave it alone.
However, the current logo is great and the proposed is a serious downgrade. So that's a headscratcher. Hopefully the leak was intentional to take the temperature of the fan base and they go back to the drawing board, or better yet, leave it alone.
Columbus Soccer Nation
Black & Gold Nation, assemble: this one’s for you. Rep the team from Columbus with a super-soft tee straight from the 614 that’s just as big on Black & Gold pride as the fans in Nordecke. Columbus ‘Til You Die!
www.homage.com
Or this.
Brian Straus absolutely nails how stupid this whole idea is - indeed, how disturbing it is that MLS keeps going in this direction.
WRT outrage, I think this is a typical online situation where it is easy to misread volume for passion. There are a lot of people who think this is wrong or stupid, including me. There's so many in fact it feels like outrage, but on the spectrum of things I care about this barely registers, and I expect it's true for a lot of people. But it's the topic of the day so we all weighed in. Mix in a handful of people who might actually be outraged and the professional pot-stirrers who figure that outrage and vehemence generates clicks and it's pretty easy to overestimate the overall level of aggrievement.
WRT the badge, you seem to be suggesting that the team should keep a badge with the word "Crew" even though that's not their name any more. That's pretty unusual. While examples might exist, it is pretty uncommon for unofficial nicknames to be featured on official team badges and logos.* If you're OK with changing the name then I think a badge change is inevitable. That doesn't mean you have to support the specific new badge they chose, but once you get rid of "Crew" some new badge is going to happen. Especially because it's pretty clear they do not want to be known officially as the Crew. The whole point of the rebrand is to drop the icky American culture team name, so they are not going to keep that on the badge. The statement that fans can keep "The Crew" as a nickname is just a de minimis recognition of reality. The club cannot prevent people from using the word "Crew" so they feign benevolence, telling us we are allowed to keep using the word as a nickname as if they could stop us anyway. They might even keep selling some merch, because why not, more money is more money, but the uniforms, training gear, club website, stadium signage, stadium name, letterhead, MLS website, etc, will all call the team Columbus SC in any formal or semi-formal context.
* To the extent examples do exist, I expect they will be situations where the club started with a generic club name like AC or FC or AFC, etc, and then a nickname grew organically and the club decided to embrace and adopt it semi-officially. Here we have a club actively and expressly shedding a name they chose and then used for 25 years. If they wanted to keep it on the badge they wouldn't change the name. I suppose they could keep the badge exactly as is and just remove the word "Crew," but once you hire rebrand and design consultants they don't prove their value and necessity by half-measures.
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I was pretty flippant in an earlier post and then I read the Athletic article and- well...
Here is an excerpt:
Friday’s meeting was the first time most of the members of the Nordecke board, many of whom played significant roles in the #SaveTheCrew movement that helped keep the MLS original club in Columbus in 2018, were told of a rebrand. They didn’t take the news well. One member became so incensed that he ripped off his shirt in the middle of the meeting to reveal a tattoo of Columbus’ now-defunct former crest.
“He took his shirt off, kind of pointed to his chest, to the crest and was like, ‘This is what we saved. This is the Crew. What am I supposed to do with this? You just took this away from us,’” said now-former Nordecke creative director Ethan McKinley, who was at the meeting on Friday and resigned from his position on Monday afternoon.
The unfortunate thing about life is that things change. Some things can’t be helped and others can. That said, The”Crew Stew” does appear to be a tale riddled with nefariousness.
Here is an excerpt:
Friday’s meeting was the first time most of the members of the Nordecke board, many of whom played significant roles in the #SaveTheCrew movement that helped keep the MLS original club in Columbus in 2018, were told of a rebrand. They didn’t take the news well. One member became so incensed that he ripped off his shirt in the middle of the meeting to reveal a tattoo of Columbus’ now-defunct former crest.
“He took his shirt off, kind of pointed to his chest, to the crest and was like, ‘This is what we saved. This is the Crew. What am I supposed to do with this? You just took this away from us,’” said now-former Nordecke creative director Ethan McKinley, who was at the meeting on Friday and resigned from his position on Monday afternoon.
The unfortunate thing about life is that things change. Some things can’t be helped and others can. That said, The”Crew Stew” does appear to be a tale riddled with nefariousness.
I just don't understand why all these teams feel the need to rebrand in MLS. It's a pretty unique thing to MLS in this country, too -- you never see teams in the big-4 sports rebranding. Changing a logo? Sure, occasionally. New jerseys all the time, too. But a complete rebrand? Aside from the Redskins and Indians, it just doesn't happen.
This idea that "Well if we just change our team name, the fans will come" seems pretty farcical. It's executives who need to justify their paycheck, and they do it by coming up with stuff like this that just has no clear evidence that it matters. Is anyone going to more Chicago Fire games because they rebranded? Or Houston? This league should stop doing this -- if their brands constantly need refreshing, then they're not doing a good enough job making their brand mean something.
This idea that "Well if we just change our team name, the fans will come" seems pretty farcical. It's executives who need to justify their paycheck, and they do it by coming up with stuff like this that just has no clear evidence that it matters. Is anyone going to more Chicago Fire games because they rebranded? Or Houston? This league should stop doing this -- if their brands constantly need refreshing, then they're not doing a good enough job making their brand mean something.
Big 4 rebrands have usually been associated with location changes. Think of the Browns to Ravens, Oilers to Titans, Expos to Nationals, Supersonics to Thunder. The Nets kept their name when they moved to Brooklyn, but I'd still call that a complete rebrand.
The only *recent* non-location change rebrand I can think of is the Charlotte Bobcats to Charlotte Hornets, though that one they went back to the area's original team nickname.
The one thing I'll say about the whole 'teams don't rebrand' thing is that, at the beginning of soccer in general, a lot of teams had name changes early on. We can't forget that MLS is only about 20 years old, it's pretty young. That doesn't mean name changes are a given, but it also doesn't mean that it's not going to happen. Take these for example:
10 years later
Twice in 14 years.
You get the point.
To argue against my OWN point, though, is that a lot of other teams never changed their names at all - looking at most German teams, Spanish teams, etc.
We could use a goal scoring attacking mid around the age of 25:
The Philadelphia Union have signed attacking midfielder Daniel Gazdag from Hungarian side Honved, the club announced Tuesday.
Gazdag, 25, was among the best players in Hungary's top division, where he had 13 goals and six assists in 30 appearances this year. He was the driving force behind the club avoiding relegation.
The Philadelphia Union have signed attacking midfielder Daniel Gazdag from Hungarian side Honved, the club announced Tuesday.
Gazdag, 25, was among the best players in Hungary's top division, where he had 13 goals and six assists in 30 appearances this year. He was the driving force behind the club avoiding relegation.
Many of those old name changes had to do with changes in location or affiliation. Man U's original name was based on a train station where most of the club members worked. When they grew out of that, and also in connection with new investors, they changed the name to a more city-wide designation. You see a lot of English teams named after neighborhoods or churches or workplaces that then expanded and changed their name for that reason.
Generally in the US outside of soccer, as other have noted in the specifics, I think the overriding theme is there is some reason outside of branding: a city change, or a belief that an old name is no longer socially appropriate, which besides the Indians and Redskins as noted the Washington Bullets also became the Wizards. If anything, teams in other US leagues tend to keep names even when they no longer make sense, such as LA Lakers, Utah Jazz, and Indianapolis Colts. You build a brand over decades and change it only when forced
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NGL - I really love the MLS power rankings this year. Just to see the hottakes within.
www.mlssoccer.com
Power Rankings: NYCFC, Red Bulls surpassing expectations after Week 4 | MLSSoccer.com
What a week in MLS. Nani scored by cutting in to his right from the top of the box, Chris Wondolowski grabbed a couple of clutch late goals and the LA Galaxy outplayed LAFC in El Trafico. Yes, this was truly a week unlike any other.
www.mlssoccer.com
The irony of an American football league with "soccer" within its official league name but has most of its members employ euro-style team monikers.
At this point, they should rebrand the league name as well.
At this point, they should rebrand the league name as well.
Though the trend is towards FC, they seem perfectly happy to straddle the FC/SC line. The one nod to tradition in the Crew rebrand is SC. Nashville entered pretty recently as an SC, as did Orlando in 2015. I don't expect the league to change. Any league name with Football just creates confusion with American football, which has a strong priority on the term in this country. Also MLF just invites tasteless jokes.The irony of an American football league with "soccer" within its official league name but has most of its members employ euro-style team monikers.
At this point, they should rebrand the league name as well.
I was being sarcastic with a league name change.
I find it silly that we as a league embrace the soccer moniker, but not with its team names. We are an American league. Just embrace it, however good or bad it may be.
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