[Soccer] Europeanized American Soccer - Amateur Divisions (Huntsville and Little Rock added!)

[mamiller99]

no wonder this is a fantasy league because about 95% of this post is bad. bad branding, bad colors and bad logos. what is with all the muted, flat, and faded colors? especially alot of colors that don't work together. You know when designing logos its good to try to incorporate flags and crests, but you need to understand the culture of the city/area. For example why is that out of both teams in Texas neither is red and blue. think about color schemes and good designs before putting crap like this, so that some people can avoid seeing it.

There's such a thing as constructive critisism, and this is not it. You sound like an annoying little kid spewing this out. If you don't like what he's doing, tell him what he can improve on, not just say its bad. So what if none of the Texas teams are red and blue? It's his series, and I want to see you do better.

NP, for a non-American, you are doing fantastic. Keep at it.

Agreed Naoned Pride. Don't listen to this little D-Bag. I think everything about this project is great, I just haven't warmed up yet to the photo realism of Columbus's crest.

[Tony Spike]

Hey everyone !

- And finally, but that's really personnal and hardly defensible, the names of the teams. These are really specific to North America, and I've never quite enjoyed it. In Europe and beyond, it's often more generic names such as FC Nantes, FC Barcelona, Manchester United, VfB Stuttgart, Olympique Lyonnais, etc. Of course you could say there also are clubs which names don't fit that such as Blackburn Rovers, Tottenham Hotspurs or Glasgow Rangers, but these are really a minority.

hey their ...im from europe too (england) and i like these concepts but with my extensive football knowlege i would just like to point something out

i wouldnt really class european club names as generic since they all have meanings in some way shape or form

for example most english clubs take names from the town coupled with something related to the area, Arsenal for example were formed by a cannon foundry (the Woolwich Arsenal) hence the name, Sheffield Wednesday were formed by the Sheffield, Wednesday Cricket Club (so called because they played their matches mid week) and clubs with names like City, Rovers and Athletic are more common than you say and all have interesting meanings (that i cant tell you right now cos im not sure im actually correct about what they mean)

what i find strange is when american teams have a tendency to take european names without really understanding their true meanings ....Real Salt Lake for example, takes its name from teams like Real Madrid, Real Betis and Real Zaragosa ect but im not sure they realise that they are called "Real" because the club has links to royalty in some way,

Real is basically a spanish version of Royal (like Royal Charleroi of Belgium) and im just not sure that Salt Lake City can really be considered a royalist community (Mormon certainly) lol ...or at least i don't see the connection,

another culprit (though admittedly i don't think its as bad since it could be true) is Sporting Kansas City, .."Sporting" as you probably know is a derivative of the SC team prefix witch basically means Sporting Club, and is usually used by teams that were formed as part of a community athletics club, or a club with traditions in other sports, (another derivative would be the "AC" in AC Milan witch means Athletic Club, or the "Olympic connotations of Olympic Marseilles and Olympic Lyon) and whilst this one could be plausible (im sure Kansas City is a multi sport community ..i mean they have the Chiefs and im sure they have athletics ect) its not strictly true unless the teams owners also own the football team or the team has some kind of other sports facility's

to me i think that american clubs should stick to the tradition they have established in other sports for the last 50 years, of giving the club an impressive sounding nickname (or at least they are nicknames to me, i mean lets face it if my club was american we would be Sheffield Owls, ...because our nickname is The Owls) it just makes more sense and gives the club a more american feel by calling the club NY COSMOS rather then NY Rovers'

the only club that takes its name from somewhere else that i can understand is Club Deportivo Chivas USA, ..they are a offshoot of CD Guadalajara (or Chivas for short) and thus the club reflects this, plus a lot of Mexicans live in California (hell mexico owned the damn place at one point) so at least the club name makes sense,

this is just my opinion of course

[1clkgtramg]

while I do like nicknames as the official names on most sports (AFL, NFL, CFL, Hockey, Basketball, Baseball, Lacrosse) I don't like it in Soccer and I have stated this opinion before. Of course you will have a few exceptions but the majority is true.

Soccer has been around North America for quite some time but its arguable that the current state is more popular than ever. It seems as though since adopting the European name format, the league has gotten more international exposure and is viewed as a legitimate professional league - just don't ask those who bitch about Sports Channels covering soccer on social media lol. If we jump over to hockey for a second, you will notice that in Europe, they stylize their hockey as they do Soccer. It's mostly limited to each country and many teams uses the name HC, EC, IF, EHC, etc. followed/preceded by the city name. It is evident that regions following this method aren't doing to well financially and aren't even known around the world unless you are a die hard hockey fan. The KHL is slowly altering their league into an North American style. Using team nicknames and expanding beyond just one country. Sometimes we have to let go of the fact that "our" way just isn't the best way. Unfortunately the North American soccer naming has flopped quite a few times, it's been over 40 years and it wasn't until they went to the European way that the league became a success. But that's just my opinion from a domestic point of view.

By the way, I'm not completely ruling out all the nicknamed teams, many have strong histories - Whitecaps, Earthquakes, Sounders, Timbers, etc. - but for new teams, it's probably safe to side on the European way.

[Tony Spike]

actually ours is failing cos we plain dont like hockey or baseball ..or anything else as much as we do football (soccer), , i would assume the same for other countries as well to be honest

its not the quality of the league or the naming traditions, its the sports, .....we have used american hockey names for years (Sheffield Steelers) and it does nothing

[1clkgtramg]

actually ours is failing cos we plain dont like hockey or baseball ..or anything else as much as we do football (soccer), , i would assume the same for other countries as well to be honest

its not the quality of the league or the naming traditions, its the sports, .....we have used american hockey names for years (Sheffield Steelers) and it does nothing

Britains Elite League is a little different though. When I was there, the arenas were old and small and it was evident that there wasnt much demand. Thats understandable due to football and rugby having such great backings. Looking at Switzerland, Austria, Czech, Slovenija, Slovakia, Latvia, Russia, Sweden, Norway, Finland and a few others, they are much better at hockey and are always well represented in the IIHF. The problem is that many of these players play in North America but they also play majority in their native country. There are very few British in the Elite League, whereas say the Swedish League is almost full of Scandinavian players. The KHL has recieved some big NHL players since its revamping in 2007? and the same goes for the MLS with big names from Europe and such.

[Naoned Pride]

Interesting opinion Tony Spike. You are right in many ways, that's why I stated that this was hardly defensible in the first place.

I know that most teams take their names with a little bit of history (though my club FC Nantes does not particularly). In France, lots of teams are a fusion of several local teams (Paris FC + Saint Germain FC = Paris Saint Germain FC).

Of course, I've never hidden the fact that I choose the names in this series quite arbitrarily, with aesthetic purposes. "Athletic New Jersey" sounds better to me than "New Jersey FC" or "Sporting New Jersey". It might sound stupid, but I don't have the time nor the knowledge to investigate the cities' sport history and come up with such names. Especially when my series is somehow a fictionnal league, with clubs far far older than the actual franchises.

I've discussed many times this issue on several forums, and one of the many things I've been told is that it gives the teams identity. While I think that more "generic" names doesn't prevent one team to build its own identity anyway, hence the numberous nicknames (if FC Nantes were american, it would be Nantes Canaries, because that's the nickname we've been given for our yellow and green colours back in the 50s).

Now I believe that the main difference between North America and Europe (can't speak for the rest of the world) when it comes to sports - tell me what you think - is that american people tend to recognize a team for its franchise while european fans identifies the cities more.

Hear me out, I support a couple of foreign clubs mainly and almost exclusively based on the city it's based in. As a breton (let's say the french equivalent of Cornwall or Wales hehe), I'm kinda into stateless nations, and so it's translated through my support for clubs that live in culturally singular areas: Bayern Munich (Bavaria), Athletic Bilbao (Basque Country), Cardiff City (Wales), Udinese (Friul) and Celta Vigo (Galicia).

While in the USA, a franchise that moves from city to city often keep a strong fan base from the cities it's been in. That's what I did not want to include in my series: just a city team, institutionalized, created as the city's team and not moving away in any way. I just can't imagine if we had franchises in Europe and the owner of Manchester United decided to move to London.

Now this opinion is based on the couple of people I've talked to about this, so I'd be interested in having a few more ones.

[Tony Spike]

why does everyone insist on calling me tony spike when clearly tony is a first name lol

anyway ......hey im not questioning your naming choices im just pointing out something that gets on my nerves their and telling you european names are far from generic (me and 1clk had a talk about the interesting origins of the name dynamo just last night)

and i always say the reason we dont do franchising is because 100 years being a communitys club is more important to us

i mean it was only in 2005 we had Wimbledon FC trying to move to Milton Keynes (a place built in the 50s that had no team) and the F.A. ruled that they had to give up their trophys and history to AFC Wimbledon, (the club the fans formed in protest)

cutting a long story short Wimbledon FC became MK Dons and AFC Wimbledon has now taken the old teams place, the football association considers MK dons a team formed in 2005 with nothing to do with the old team (in a continuity's sense) AFC Wimbledon is the continuation

fact is if Manchester United moved they would lose the right to the name Manchester United, and any trophys or historys or prestige associated with it, to start a new club in london (London Red Devils?) .........witch no club owner wants to risk doing, ....if they cant take the name and prestige with them then whats the point

in america they have been franchising since baseball began, so its ingrained in them and only natural that they should carry it over to soccer

plus their league is new ....each club hasnt got the history their baseball and american football teams have so owners will be more likeley to do it

but to us it isnt the done thing just because we have history, and possibly more respect for fans, but dont quote me on that

[Wgeddes122]

I think the thing is that alot of people miss when they post on here is that when they have a concept like this one that they have change everything. and the fact is you don't. now i am mainly talking about the MLS logos, the lower divisions I like better. when you have a concept it shouldn't just be about change. change is not necessarily good, change has to be about improvement of the team name, colors, and logo. example sporting kansascity is a good name and logo, the one thing i would change is to have the word sporting above kansas city so that it reads better. I currently am doing my own hand drawn so called edit of Major League Soccer, but I am not changing stuff just for the sake of changing it, and that is what i feel is the biggest problem with this post. the work and time it took to make is definetly visible and appreciated, but i think the target was missed.

[Wgeddes122]

Tony, Sporting KC makes sense, I grew up in Kansas City and that is my team that i like. Sporting works both in the sense that the club has helped develop other sports in the city such as lacrosse and rugby, but also the Hunt family, from kansas city, who owns them also owns the kansas city chiefs, fc dallas, and the columbus crew. and again this stuff comes from not being in the US but sometimes people need to do more research in order to understand their own concept

[Naoned Pride]

That's what I wanted to do through this series, Tony, institutionalize teams around a city. Hence my history work on soccer in the cities I've worked on.

Now concerning the european twist, it's just a matter of originality. To answer Wgeddes, I don't see the point in not changing logos in a concept series. I've seen series on here where nothing was change on logos, and I didn't come here for that. I'm not saying that's a lack of work (most series matching that description are often kits-oriented), but I like to see brand new things and ideas.

In the end, this is an original concept series, but I understand that the many changes I've put on most clubs might make american fans cringe, as they could take it as if there league wasn't good enough. I'm not saying my concepts are better than the originals, I just wanna make a fantasy league of my own, where US Soccer is called Football and teams are community-driven clubs instead of franchises.

Who knows, maybe if I really catch some motivation, I could try the other way round: Amercanized European Soccer. With Manchester Red Devils, Liverpool Liverbirds, Munich Bavarians, Royal Madrid, London Gunners. It's all about creativity.

[Tony Spike]

Tony, Sporting KC makes sense, I grew up in Kansas City and that is my team that i like. Sporting works both in the sense that the club has helped develop other sports in the city such as lacrosse and rugby, but also the Hunt family, from kansas city, who owns them also owns the kansas city chiefs, fc dallas, and the columbus crew. and again this stuff comes from not being in the US but sometimes people need to do more research in order to understand their own concept

thats why i said that it wasnt as big of a sin because i wasnt sure, as i said it could have been plausible,

[Naoned Pride]

Tony, Sporting KC makes sense, I grew up in Kansas City and that is my team that i like. Sporting works both in the sense that the club has helped develop other sports in the city such as lacrosse and rugby, but also the Hunt family, from kansas city, who owns them also owns the kansas city chiefs, fc dallas, and the columbus crew. and again this stuff comes from not being in the US but sometimes people need to do more research in order to understand their own concept

Well, in my concept, which is a fantasy league, Kansas City is the union of the two cities of KS and MO, hence the name. I didn't take "SPorting" away because I thought it was bad, just that I wanted to create something brand new, which led to this idea of unifiying the two cities behind one single team.

[Naoned Pride]

I wanted to give away 3-4 teams at once, but I'm heading to Paris this week-end. Been asked by a friend of mine to accompany two californian girls he met in England who want to visit "Parisss", how could I refuse ?

So I give away DesMoines.

Really classic way of working here. But I first thought of having a Black-Brown-White colour scheme, inspired by Catholic Monks outfits, since the city has been named after the DesMoines River which means '"River of the Monks" in French. But it didn't work out very well, looked a bit odd, so I went more classic on this one.

Anchorage is next, already done, but need some time for the kits. Will be released on Monday. Keep suggestions coming !

[mamiller99]

Hace fun with the ladies! This past kit is great, I'm a fan of the color not being balanced on the home kit.

[Chilton92]

Nice job, probably one of your best. I'd personally love to see you do a team from Alabama, but that's up to you.

[Naoned Pride]

Hace fun with the ladies! This past kit is great, I'm a fan of the color not being balanced on the home kit.

I did ! Two gorgeous Los Angeles girls in a nice city, one of the best trips I've had. Never thought I'd have enjoyed Paris that much hehe ^^

Might end up going to LA next year, hope I'll keep in touch with them, that would be awesome.

Anyway, back to the concept, as I said before, here is Anchorage.

I didn't modify much things because I think the seal is really great looking and recognizable, very easy logo to make but yet I think it looks pretty nice.

[mamiller99]

This looks really good, the badge is pretty awesome. And I just read your Americanized European Football, please do it! That would be the best series ever.

[Naoned Pride]

American sports logos are really different from soccer logos you can see in Europe or elsewhere. I might try it, but I don't know if my style fits the styles. I'll sure give it a try when I feel like it.

I'll go on with this one, maybe have at least 1 club per state. But I can always work in parrallel, just like I do with my alternate France regions logo concepts.

[Naoned Pride]

An Alabama team, as requested. I went with Huntsville since they host the highest-ranked team in the State, Rocket City United.

[Naoned Pride]

Here's a small addition. Didn't have much time on my hands lately to make more.

Little Rock FC