BagelHK Posted April 21, 2016 Share Posted April 21, 2016 Alright, so. Last year when I was still in high school, this guy decided that he wanted to join the Cascadian independence movement. For those unfamiliar, Cascadia is a hypothetical nation typically composed of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, although borders vary. They have a pretty sweet flag, and you'll see it around the Pacific Northwest fairly frequently, but it's mostly a symbol of regional pride, rather than an expression of secessionist spirit. However, there are some (like the guy at my school) who genuinely do want Cascadia to become a sovereign nation. So I got to talking with my bud Griffin about how if Cascadia were to become a country, we'd love it if they had soccer leagues structured like Europe's countries. The result is the Cascadian Premier League, and to a more limited extend Cascadian Leagues 1 and 2, and the Cascadian Football Association–the governing body of soccer in Cascadia. It's structured like this: 20 teams in the CPL, with the bottom 3 being relegated to League 1. We're up in the air on if there would be playoffs or not to determine a champion. The top 2 teams from League 1 are automatically promoted, and the next 4 play for the last promotion spot. Just as in the CPL, in League 1 the bottom 3 are relegated, with the top 2 teams of League 2 promoted directly, and the third spot going to the winner of a 4-team playoff. There are also a few non-league teams scattered about. The other day I finished designing the CPL, so I'll now be releasing teams fairly steadily. If you guys have C+C that is welcomed, but it might take a while for me to make adjustments. Is this whole project unrealistic? Of course. A sustainable league system? Not at all. But it's me and Griffin's little dream of what the ideal situation would be if Cascadia were to become a country. Some teams are pre-existing, like the Timbers, Sounders, and Whitecaps, others would be connected to other sports teams as if they were truly a "club," and some are entirely new. As for the thought process behind each of the logos: The CFA logo is a soccer ball with a center shape made up of 6 circles. 2 sections are blue, 2 are white, 2 are green–each representing one of the states that make up Cascadia, with the colors matching those of the flag. The CPL logo is a stylized map of BC, Washington, and Oregon, with chevrons running through them to symbolize the forests of the Northwest and the Cascade Range of mountains. I've taken inspiration from raysox's Yakball and APL series, as well as pcgd's America League, all of which are amazing series both in concept and execution. I'm not nearly as good as either of those guys, but they're what I'm striving for, and I hope you'll join me as I take you through Cascadia's soccer system. Beaverton SC Bellevue Rainiers Bend FC Burnaby Eagles Delta United Eugene FC Harbour United FC Hillsboro Hops Medford Rogues North Coast United Portland Timbers FC Puget United Richmond Lords Rose City Thorns FC Seattle Sounders FC Spokane FC Springfield Isotopes Tacoma SC Vancouver Whitecaps FC Victoria Royals SC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LA_Angels Posted April 21, 2016 Share Posted April 21, 2016 Cool. Looks good so far..... Only small tibit that i have is that i personally think that there should be a soccer ball included on here somewhere, because right now it could be a logo for anything. Looking forward to Kelowna FC! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest darkpiranha Posted April 21, 2016 Share Posted April 21, 2016 20 minutes ago, LA_Angels said: Cool. Looks good so far..... Only small tibit that i have is that i personally think that there should be a soccer ball included on here somewhere, because right now it could be a logo for anything. Looking forward to Kelowna FC! Agreed. What if you made the circles into soccer balls, probably not fully formed ones, but to where the intersection is a hexagon? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BagelHK Posted April 21, 2016 Author Share Posted April 21, 2016 Updated the first post with a new logo for the CFA. That was definitely one of the least developed concepts, so thanks for the feedback to make it seem more soccer-y. I still took the idea of converging circles, but changed it around to look like a soccer ball. An improvement, I think. I'm gonna go ahead and get started with the first team release: The MLS Cup champions, the Portland Timbers. This actually wouldn't be the team that I'd be supporting in the CPL--this is more Griffin's territory with the west side of Portland. They lose their star, but other than that their crest is the same as it has been for this season. Too good to change. The home kit is a recreation of the infamous throwback kits from their cup run, with some sublimated chevrons, matching the crest: one for each iteration of the Timbers (MLS, USL, NASL). The necktape reads "Bury Me in Green and Gold," from a Timbers Army chant, and the back of the neck has the Stand Together logo. For the away kit, a Nordic-style cross runs across the front, inspired by Portland's flag (which can also be seen on the back neck detail). -- The class of the CPL, and the only former MLS team to have brought an MLS Cup to Cascadia, it's hard to find a better club than Portland Timbers FC. Some Timbers Army members left to support the Eastside Portland club, but there were no shortage of fans on the season ticket waiting list eager to take their spots. The Army's epic ballads that loop continuously for minutes makes Providence Park the place to be on match days. Providence Park was expanded to meet incredible demand--complete with a new drainage system that meant a grass pitch could finally come to one of the greenest cities on earth. Since breaking off from the MLS, the Timbers have continued their success due to an already-established academy system, and retaining most of their core players from the MLS days. The Willamette Derby between the Timbers and [Eastside Portland] is a spectacle to be seen--a game on most CPL fans' bucket lists to experience--but both teams can stand together in their hatred of Seattle Sounders FC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FORTTE Posted April 21, 2016 Share Posted April 21, 2016 Wow, last night, I was reading some articles about Canada and a little bit of your story and I found about Cascadia. I was thinking to writing/designing a league of soccer about regions like that. So cool this concept. Looking foward for the league, indeed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JosiahWVU Posted April 21, 2016 Share Posted April 21, 2016 This is gonna be good! Love Portland, so I'm guessing the Sounders and Whitecaps will be in this league too? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BagelHK Posted April 21, 2016 Author Share Posted April 21, 2016 1 hour ago, JosiahWVU said: This is gonna be good! Love Portland, so I'm guessing the Sounders and Whitecaps will be in this league too? Yep, they're all there! A quick note as to why the Timbers don't have their traditional Rose City Red clash kit: the other Portland team is rose-themed, and it felt weird to continue that theme with the Timbers when their local rival would be–for lack of a better word–rosy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoE38_Concepts Posted April 21, 2016 Share Posted April 21, 2016 Good work on the timbers. Excited for the rest of this series! @noe38concepts (Instagram - Twitter) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JosiahWVU Posted April 21, 2016 Share Posted April 21, 2016 3 minutes ago, BagelHK said: Yep, they're all there! A quick note as to why the Timbers don't have their traditional Rose City Red clash kit: the other Portland team is rose-themed, and it felt weird to continue that theme with the Timbers when their local rival would be–for lack of a better word–rosy. Nice! Even though I'm from WV, my MLS team is the Whitecaps. Can't wait! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BagelHK Posted April 21, 2016 Author Share Posted April 21, 2016 Thanks guys! Gonna keep rolling to a brand new team, re-branding existing teams isn't exactly the aim with this concept, so starting with the Timbers wasn't quite representative of the project. The Bellevue Rainiers. An eastern suburb of Seattle, Bellevue is a pretty big place as far as suburbs go, with a population of over 100k. The team takes its name from the nearby Mount Rainier (and not from the beer company that was featured on this site not too long ago). The crest is a simple shield, topped with a very stylized depiction of Rainier, and a sash running down the left side. The monogram is just a B and R combined, which I thought worked to complete a somewhat classy look. The home kit is white, with a sash on the left side to match the crest. The Rainiers wear navy from head to toe in their clash kit, with a sublimated mountain on the front. Both kits have the latitude and longitude of Mt. Rainier on the necktape. And you'll notice that the kits are manufactured by Columbia Sportswear–an unusual choice for sure, but was founded and is headquartered in Portland. I thought that if Cascadia's soccer culture were to be as strong as a European country's, then a large but local sportswear company would try and work its way into the soccer kit game. -- There aren't many places tougher for an upstart club to win fans than Seattle. Although the area is filled with soccer fans, most were dedicated to the Sounders, and wouldn't be budged. But when the Rainiers were created, they were able to pull from fans that lived in surrounding communities--those that didn't want to or couldn't make the trip into crowded downtown Seattle for Sounders games. Bellevue's stadium on the banks of the Puget Sound isn't a goliath stadium like CenturyLink is, but is a respectable 19,000--a capacity that is regularly pushed to its limits by the Rainiers' passionate fanbase. Early and consistent success, and a fan-favorite look means that Bellevue gear can be seen throughout King County. Though the rivalry between the Sounders and Rainiers isn't quite on the level as Sounders-Timbers or Sounders-[Seattle team to be revealed later], the teams' success has brought many heated and important matches throughout their short history. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BagelHK Posted April 22, 2016 Author Share Posted April 22, 2016 bump for Bellevue? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CodeG Posted April 22, 2016 Share Posted April 22, 2016 The only thing I see wrong with Bellevue is the patch in the neck of the clash kit. On the home and logo Mt Rainer has blue mountains and white peaks, but the clash has white mountains and blue peaks, it throws me off a little. Other than that good work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FORTTE Posted April 22, 2016 Share Posted April 22, 2016 Solid logo to Bellevue, I liked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XenonDesigns Posted April 22, 2016 Share Posted April 22, 2016 I really like the little neck-details you make! Great work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoE38_Concepts Posted April 22, 2016 Share Posted April 22, 2016 That logo for Bellevue is amazing. Also love the monogram! @noe38concepts (Instagram - Twitter) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BagelHK Posted April 22, 2016 Author Share Posted April 22, 2016 Spokane FC Spokane is one of the few major cities in Eastern Washington, and is nicknamed the Lilac City. The identity is based around that, with the team's nickname being the Lilacs. The crest features a prominent lilac flower, surrounded by SFC and the date of the club's founding. I thought purple and white stripes would look really clean and distinctive for the home kit. The details on the home are inspired by Ryan Lewis – Spokane native and Macklemore's producer. In my head, Lewis would be excited to see a pro soccer team in his hometown, and would buy into the ownership, or at least be a celebrity fan. To honor this, the necktape has lyrics from Can't Hold Us, reading "I got my city right behind me." Then, on the back of the neck there is (part of) the seal of Spokane, which is a play on having your city behind you–they're right there on your back. For the clash kit, I took inspiration from the LA Galaxy's sash kit, and put it into Spokane's colors, with gold sticking out as a completely unique color to the CPL. -- Partially owned by Ryan Lewis, the Lilacs are the pride of Eastern Washington. The CPL's summer schedule means that road trips to the heat and altitude of High Bridge Stadium can be rough, with Spokane consistently sporting one of the best home records in the league. But for whatever reason, the Lilacs have never truly transferred that consistency onto their away games, and have become a perennial mid-table team. But at SFC's founding, Gonzaga University's soccer program began to flourish because of new found interest in the sport in Spokane, and the Lilacs appear to have several young talents in development, offering a glimmer of hope in their chase for glory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CodeG Posted April 22, 2016 Share Posted April 22, 2016 Good job on Spokane. I was wondering if you would make this a fictional history league like Veras' AFA and Hawksfan PHL? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BagelHK Posted April 22, 2016 Author Share Posted April 22, 2016 16 minutes ago, CodeG said: Good job on Spokane. I was wondering if you would make this a fictional history league like Veras' AFA and Hawksfan PHL? I don't think so–at least not for now. Maybe once every team is released it could be turned into a Football Manager mod to play around with. I don't really have a history thought up for these teams, other than a few general ideas about what a team's culture would be like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jvhn177 Posted April 23, 2016 Share Posted April 23, 2016 For the Lilacs change the adidas on the secondary to black, it's really hard to see, and are we going to see third kits for these teams? because there is a pretty obvious third kit opportunity for Spokane Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BagelHK Posted April 23, 2016 Author Share Posted April 23, 2016 1 hour ago, Jvhn177 said: For the Lilacs change the adidas on the secondary to black, it's really hard to see, and are we going to see third kits for these teams? because there is a pretty obvious third kit opportunity for Spokane ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Dunno about thirds. Is there really such an obvious 3rd kit for Spokane? Updated the adidas to be more legible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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