Brian in Boston

Salt Lake City

21 hours ago, GeauxColonels said:

I’m truly curious, does anyone like the centered, stacked logo design? I’ve never been a fan.

I agree with you. Personally, I can’t stand when a soccer club’s badge, the uniform manufacturer’s logo, and a sponsor’s insignia are all stacked in the center of the kit.
 

I much prefer that the club’s  crest be positioned on the upper left chest of the jersey - over the heart.  A tastefully-sized  manufacturer’s label - not so large as to distract from the club badge - can then occupy the space on the upper right chest. And the now ubiquitous sponsor’s mark - again, one would hope not too garish - can be positioned in the center of the jersey’s chest.

Washington Warbirds

17 minutes ago, WideRight said:

CHICAGO

Black, orange, dark grey

Yes, please! I like the sound of that.

Chicago

Salmon over trout? I can live with it.

Chinook.

3 hours ago, WideRight said:

Also, if you are so inclined, I am open to hear name suggestions for any city you vote for.

Portland Steelheads

Portland Cutthroats

Either paired with a color scheme of Olive Silver Red

Portland

Crawdads

Boston

Copperheads

USL Championship expansion club Rhode Island FC has reportedly signed Cameroonian forward Albert Dikwa - the league’s reigning MVP and Golden Boot winner - to a multi-year contract.
 

The signing of Dikwa, who played for the Pittsburgh Riverhounds the past three seasons , is expected to be formally announced tomorrow.

Dallas

St. Louis Kings

Orlando

The Athletic is reporting that the New England Revolution is finalizing a deal to secure the services of Caleb Porter - an MLS Cup-winning manager with both the Portland Timbers and Columbus Crew - to take the helm of the club.

According to the United States Soccer Federation Professional League Standards...

II. Division 1 Men's Outdoor League:

a. Composition; Play
           i. League must have a minimum of twelve teams to apply. By year three, the league must have a minimum of 14 teams.
           ii. U.S.-based teams must participate in all representative U.S. soccer and Concacaf competitions for which they are eligible.  

To the best of my knowledge, the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup is a representative U.S. Soccer competition. As such, unless granted a waiver from the USSF to sit out of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, all U.S.-based Major League Soccer teams must participate in said competition. If MLS unilaterally pulls its teams from the competition, it will be in violation of the USSF's standards for a Division 1 Men's Outdoor League and subject to having its sanctioning stripped. Without said sanctioning, MLS would become an outlaw league.

Which begs the question, will the United States Soccer Federation stand its ground and insist that Major League Soccer comply with the standard in question? While I think it's obvious that the USSF won't call Major League Soccer's bluff, I have to say that it would be interesting to see what the response - from Garber, CONCACAF, FIFA - would be if they did.

Further, one wonders how an attorney for any of the plaintiffs who have alleged over the years that too cozy a relationship exists between the United States Soccer Federation and Major League Soccer would paint the federation electing to not enforce its sanctioning standards in this case?

12 hours ago, Walk-Off said:

Ballpark Digest: Goodbye Chowdahheads, hello New England Knockouts

 

The Frontier League's new club in Brockton, Massachusetts has changed nicknames before the team has played a single game.  The new identity pays tribute to Brockton's boxing heritage, which includes being the hometown of professional boxing champions Rocky Marciano and Marvelous Marvin Hagler.

New England Chowdahheads was moronic, but New England Knockouts sounds like promotional copy for a strip club.

"Coming to the Boardroom Cabaret's Platinum Stage... gentlemen, make some noise for your New England Knockouts!!!" 

Frankly, I was shocked that Knockouts wasn't just selected by team ownership from the get-go. The summer collegiate wood bat team that they operate out of the same ballpark in Brockton is dubbed the Rox, a nod to both local boxer Rocco "Rocky Marciano" Marchegiano and the MLB team that plays just under 20 miles away. There's already signage at Campanelli Stadium bearing a Rox logo that features a boxing gloves hanging by their laces from the team's former, stylized word mark. I wouldn't be at all surprised if, in the name of saving a few bucks, the owner doesn't just brand the Knockouts with a similar logo.

They should have named the team the Brockton Shoemakers. The notion that this ball club is going to draw the interest of baseball fans from throughout New England is ridiculous, so why pretend that's the case with its place name? Hell, if you want to play that game, New England Shoemakers makes just as much sense. The entire New England region was home to shoemaking factories in cities and towns including Brockton, Brookfield, Haverhill, Lynn, Marblehead, Marlborough, Natick, Randolph, and Newburyport in Massachusetts; Barrington, Dover, Farmington, and Rochester in New Hampshire; Berwick, Brunswick, Lewiston, and Wilton in Maine.    

Giorgio Chiellini Announces Retirement From Professional Football

We're going to miss this guy in Los Angeles. One of the most wonderful experiences of my life was getting to introduce my son to him after a Los Angeles Football Club match last year. Giorgio couldn't have been kinder and my son was absolutely thrilled. We were blessed to have him suit up for the Black and Gold.

Molte grazie, Giorgio. Non puoi essere sostituito, né in campo né nei nostri cuori. Ti vogliamo bene!

The Columbus Crew are the MLS Cup Champions for 2023! Can their "Hell Is Real" derby rivals FC Cincinnati shake off a gutting loss in the 2023 MLS Eastern Conference Final and add a Cup win of their own to the 2023 Supporters Shield? Will 2024 see Luis Suarez join Lionel Messi at Inter Miami? Have LAFC stars Carlos Vela and Giorgio Chiellini played their last games in Major League Soccer? Can Robert and Jonathan Kraft convince the Massachusetts Legislature to approve construction of a soccer-specific stadium for the New England Revolution? Does Commissioner Don Garber's solution for addressing schedule congestion involve decreasing MLS participation in the U.S. Open Cup? How successful will USL Championship side Rhode Island FC be in its inaugural season? What will the arrival of Bay FC and the return of the Utah Royals mean for the National Women's Soccer League? Will the launch of the USL Super League as a second Division 1 women's circuit be a boon for the sport? The New Year will hold the answers to those questions and more.  

I'm pulling for Colorado School of Mines in the NCAA Division II tournament. Why?  Because you have to love a team dubbed the Orediggers that sports a logo in which a a burro named Blaster grips a lit stick of dynamite between his teeth. Classic.

53 minutes ago, MJWalker45 said:

I like the ESPN+ setup, but I think this will help the league get that much more exposure. Does this include the USL W League as well? 

Thus far, there's nothing to indicate that the United Soccer League's new multi-year rights agreement with CBS Sports calls for coverage of any matches but those of USL Championship and USL League One sides.

The USL Championship and USL League One are the only United Soccer League competitions mentioned in the press release and their respective emblems - the Championship's  and League One's  - are the only individual USL league marks that accompany the story announcing the agreement. In addition to the main United Soccer League website, said story only appears on the USL Championship and USL League One home pages.  

It could come to pass that match coverage of the United Soccer League's women's competitions - USL Super League and USL W League - are added to the deal. However, that doesn't seem to be the case at the moment. Might the current rights agreement between CBS and the National Women's Soccer League preclude the media company from airing the games of another women's domestic soccer league?   

   

On 11/3/2023 at 10:51 AM, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

It's preferable to measure distance with units of distance, so I will say that I do indeed know that Rockford is about 80 or 90 miles away from Chicago...

 

Still, the point remains that naming a team after the big city in the region is unobjectionable, even if the team is located in an area that is, strictly speaking, outside the big city's recognised metropolitan area.

 

The point is to be more attractive to advertisers, and also to have the listing look better on a TV schedule.

Branding a Rockford, Illinois-based sports franchise with Chicago as its place name is the equivalent of branding a Springfield, Massachusetts-based team with Boston as its place name. Which is to say, equally asinine.

Glomming on to the place name of a higher profile, more populous city located 70 to 80 miles away from your actual home market isn't likely to convince anyone living in the larger municipality to take a rooting interest in your team. What's more, locals in the actual host community could regard the decision to brand as a franchise from the larger city as being dismissively disrespectful. It makes absolutely no sense to risk alienating the potential fans in your own backyard by attempting to "be more attractive to advertisers" who, quite frankly, would have to be brain dead not to realize that your team isn't operating in the locale you're claiming it does.

The Chicago Rush (of Rockford) is the minor-pro sports equivalent of cosplay.   

Minnesota Wild = St. Paul Saints

The Frontier League's Brockton, Massachusetts-based New England expansion franchise has revealed the five finalist identities for team name. They are...

New England Nor'easters
New England Grinders
New England Chowdahheads
New England Knockouts
New England Chowdah Monstahs



If you're so inclined, you can vote in the New England Professional Baseball "Name Your Team" contest HERE.