Great Lakes Premier League (GLPL)

[seattlesonicsofsacramento]

I know this isn't exactly breaking news, but it's probably new for most of yall, and even for me, an Ann Arbor resident, I'm just now finding out about it, thanks to some recent developments. Basically the Great Lakes Premier League (GLPL) will be having its inaugural season this year, starting in May, featuring 5 teams from Michigan, Wisconsin, and Illinois who will play a round-robin season with no postseason. The league will qualify teams for the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup via its United States Adult Soccer Association membership, so it does "matter" (you might see one of these clubs playing your favorite MLS team!).

I'll be posting the team logos and uniforms ITT, starting with AFC Ann Arbor (starring TJ Tomasso, former New England Revolution keeper). Feel free to contribute if you have any logos or uniforms that I miss.

First, AFC Ann Arbor's placeholder logo used during their Indiegogo fundraising campaign last year:

Thankfully, this was recently upgraded, and also thankfully it wasn't done by the Browns' designers:

There's also a roundel logo on their website, which may be their secondary (I'm not sure):

As for the uniforms, you can see in the above pic that they're just practicing in generic clothes right now, but they posted this concept on that Indiegogo page last year:

However, based on the logo changing from blue and green to double blue, and also due to their Indiegogo page mentioning to "show up in your sky blue and orange next spring when AFC Ann Arbor takes the field to battle the likes of Detroit City, Lansing United, and the Indiana Fire", I'm betting that the uniforms they wear in May will look much different.

[raysox]

Yep! Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, and Oakland all weren't accepted into the NPSL, and they formed their own league. I created the Oakland United logo, and just got a text about my league logo being accepted as the official one.

[randyc]

Yep! Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, and Oakland all weren't accepted into the NPSL, and they formed their own league. I created the Oakland United logo, and just got a text about my league logo being accepted as the official one.

Congratulations!

[1clkgtramg]

Is it sad that the placeholder logo for such a low tier is better than half the MLS logos? Ok, embellishment, maybe 5 MLS logos, but at least that's being worked on.

I like both logos, but I'm torn on the colours. I made an Ann Arbor concept last year and chose Double Green and White but I think the Double Blue looks nicer and stays away from the NCAA teams.

And that's awesome Raysox!

[seattlesonicsofsacramento]

Yep! Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, and Oakland all weren't accepted into the NPSL, and they formed their own league. I created the Oakland United logo, and just got a text about my league logo being accepted as the official one.

Congrats!! And yeah, it's pretty cool that those Michigan clubs banded together and got some pretty historic Midwest Croatian-American clubs to join in.

Is it sad that the placeholder logo for such a low tier is better than half the MLS logos? Ok, embellishment, maybe 5 MLS logos, but at least that's being worked on.

I like both logos, but I'm torn on the colours. I made an Ann Arbor concept last year and chose Double Green and White but I think the Double Blue looks nicer and stays away from the NCAA teams.

And that's awesome Raysox!

Yeah, as much as I love double green and as fitting as it is for the ARBOR part of Ann Arbor, it's tough to avoid the connotations with our main sports interests. I agree that the best course of action is to avoid maize & blue and State green, which sky blue and orange would accomplish (although I hope that's just a 2014 relic of the Indiegogo campaign, since we're not NYC), but as a U-M alum I'm sorta glad we get to keep a Michigan blue as half of the double blue.

They're going to play at Pioneer High School (across the street from the Big House), and that school's colors are purple and white, so I wouldn't have minded them factoring that in. The other two major Ann Arbor high schools are Huron (green and yellow, too State for me, even though I graduated from there) and the recently created Skyline, who are sky blue and white. Would I want the team to be sky blue and purple? idk, worth a concept at least.

EDIT: Ok, I found out what the sky blue and orange was referencing in the Indiegogo campaign. The team's original concept was Ann Arbor City FC, and to further capitalize/rip-off from NYCFC they chose a similar color scheme:

Luckily this idea was scrapped in favor of something more original.

[mamiller99]

This is really awesome! I would like some Northern Ohio teams, but that's beyond my control. Seeing that leagues are popping up is great for designers, perspective owners, and fans of the sport. I need to keep watch of this league.

[1clkgtramg]

This is really awesome! I would like some Northern Ohio teams, but that's beyond my control. Seeing that leagues are popping up is great for designers, perspective owners, and fans of the sport. I need to keep watch of this league.

I also had an idea for Toledo. I think they could easily use that brick chimney thing in their flag. I think I used a roundel with that in it, although it's simple, it's a very unique object.

You know what, this GLPL thing is very inriguing, might look more into it.

[raysox]

Yep! Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, and Oakland all weren't accepted into the NPSL, and they formed their own league. I created the Oakland United logo, and just got a text about my league logo being accepted as the official one.

Congrats!! And yeah, it's pretty cool that those Michigan clubs banded together and got some pretty historic Midwest Croatian-American clubs to join in.

when I was first given details about the league, a team in Muskeegon was originally named. Milwaukee Bavarians and another club out of Chicago were also contracted in an attept to provide stability in the league.

[seattlesonicsofsacramento]

I'll finally get back to showcasing the existing logos and uniforms for the rest of the league now. Next is Croatian Eagles SC, c. 1922 (!). They've got a pretty decorated history for a U.S. semi-pro club:

Here's the logo from their website:

I think this is a legit post about their kits for the upcoming season. There's a lot of images you can check out there, but here's a look at their primary:

Yep! Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, and Oakland all weren't accepted into the NPSL, and they formed their own league. I created the Oakland United logo, and just got a text about my league logo being accepted as the official one.

Congrats!! And yeah, it's pretty cool that those Michigan clubs banded together and got some pretty historic Midwest Croatian-American clubs to join in.

when I was first given details about the league, a team in Muskeegon was originally named. Milwaukee Bavarians and another club out of Chicago were also contracted in an attept to provide stability in the league.

This team is from Milwaukee, so I wonder if they ended up replacing the Bavarians. The other Croatian-American club is from Chicago, so that might be the one that was also mentioned to you.

[seattlesonicsofsacramento]

Oakland United FC are another one of the Michigan teams formed in 2014 that will begin play with this inaugural 2015 GLPL season. Their website only has links to their Facebook and Twitter, but it uses this logo as the placeholder for a homepage:

Is this the one you did, raysox?

I don't think there's been any uniforms released yet, so I'll post them when we get them.

[raysox]

Yep that's mine. Although for some reason the arched words aren't centered. Where did you get that logo, because it's fixed on all my recent graphics. They're ordering from the nike catalog so look for a template-y purple jersey.

But I've heard 8 team names, Bavarians and Croatian Eagles from Milwaukee, FC Gazelle and RWB Adria from Chicago, Muskeegon and the 3 Michigan teams.

[seattlesonicsofsacramento]

The other Croatian-American team in the GLPL is RWB Adria. Hailing from Chicago since 1959, they're one of the top teams in both Illinois and Croatian-North American history, even attracting Eusébio to play for them in the 70s:

Here's their logo, as on their website:

Here's RWB Adria actually playing Croatian Eagles SC ~2013:

That sash seems to be their iconic look, based on them selling it on their website's shop.

[seattlesonicsofsacramento]

Yep that's mine. They're ordering from the nike catalog so look for a template-y purple jersey.

But I've heard 8 team names, Bavarians and Croatian Eagles from Milwaukee, FC Gazelle and RWB Adria from Chicago, Muskeegon and the 3 Michigan teams.

That's one nice-looking logo. In that case it's a good thing that AFC Ann Arbor is just going with a double blue instead of incorporating purple like I suggested they could.

If Bavarian, FC Gazelle, and Muskeegon get officially announced, then I'll add them to this thread. It would make for a better inaugural season for sure, 14 games instead of 8.

[raysox]

Nope they're going with just 5 teams this season officially, but I think they want to expand in the future.

[seattlesonicsofsacramento]

Nope they're going with just 5 teams this season officially, but I think they want to expand in the future.

Then in that case, here's the 5th and final team for the 2015 GLPL season: Grand Rapids FC. A member of the Michigan startup trio that got denied by the National Premiere Soccer League, spurring the creation of the GLPL, GRFC seems to be the furthest developed among these new teams.

First, their logo, taken from their website:

For all of us CCSLCers, this explanation of their identity on their website should be interesting.

They're also the only one of the Michigan GLPL clubs to have unveiled their uniforms:

So that's the 5 inaugural members of the Great Lakes Premier League: AFC Ann Arbor, Croatian Eagles SC, Oakland United FC, RWB Adria, and Grand Rapids FC. Feel free to post any info/pics about any of these teams (or the league; I'm not sure whether there's a logo for it yet or not) ITT.

[FlyingLamprey]

This is all fascinating to me, and congrats to Raysox for making one of the inagural emblems. I like all of them really, but Ann Arbor, Oakland, and Grand Rapids really look good to me. If I may ask, Raysox, what's the significance behind the U or horseshoe shape in Oakland's crest? As a side question, what tier will the GLPL play in?

EDIT: I just realized this would be a good opportunity for Brew City FC, another potential Milwaukee club, should their plans with NASL or USL prove fruitless.

[illwauk]

Hadn't heard about this... pretty cool! I take it Milwaukee Bavarian must be involved in this somehow.

[seattlesonicsofsacramento]

As a side question, what tier will the GLPL play in?

The Wikipedia page for it says they'll be on the 5th tier of the U.S. pyramid. Anything below the 3rd tier is amateur and thus unofficial to the professional system, but 5th would technically mean it would be part of the USASA Elite Amateur Leagues, aka the State & Regional Leagues, which would make sense given this is the Great Lakes region. That would be one level under the National Premier Soccer League that the Michigan teams got denied from.

This article has more info about the setup of the GLPL and the league so far has a placeholder website.

[raysox]

This is all fascinating to me, and congrats to Raysox for making one of the inagural emblems. I like all of them really, but Ann Arbor, Oakland, and Grand Rapids really look good to me. If I may ask, Raysox, what's the significance behind the U or horseshoe shape in Oakland's crest? As a side question, what tier will the GLPL play in?

Thank you! But it's just the initials OU for the team. I modeled it after Western Sydney Wanderers.

And it'll be the same level as the NPSL, whatever that is.

[FlyingLamprey]

This is all fascinating to me, and congrats to Raysox for making one of the inagural emblems. I like all of them really, but Ann Arbor, Oakland, and Grand Rapids really look good to me. If I may ask, Raysox, what's the significance behind the U or horseshoe shape in Oakland's crest? As a side question, what tier will the GLPL play in?

Thank you! But it's just the initials OU for the team. I modeled it after Western Sydney Wanderers.

And it'll be the same level as the NPSL, whatever that is.

Ohhhh, I see the Wanderers influences now. I also like the beveling effect you used - it looks familiar but I can't put my finger on it. Regardless, great work.