LaGrandeOrange

Major downgrade on that Ligue 1 logo. The existing logo has a unique colour scheme and looks like the tropy/France itself- the L and the 1 is pretty generic, there's really nothing about it that feels like France except perhaps the shade of blue.

Good batch of kits this year.

One of the toughest guys the league has ever had...and continuing a dark streak of those guys dying young. RIP.

The two C-storms are a definitely downgrade from what they have- they feel ECHL-y. The script is mediocre but at least sort of works. The C with the flags is...competent, maybe a lateral move? The Hurricanes are low-key among the biggest aesthetic disasters in the big five, though, so I can see them making this change.

I love it- it does feel like sort of a make good considering how the CANMNT got nothing new for 2022, that we got something unique. That said...despite the cursed results I think they're a little bit of a step down from the womens' kits. I'm thankful we're keeping the name/number font, which feels somewhat "Iconic" as much as anything in Canada Soccer can be.

Between that and the Jeremy Filosa situation it doesn't seem like MLS is too interested in independent reporting.

The image looks good but I think something is missing- the image isn't showing up, I had to copy-paste.

What are the names you chose? I'm guessing Olympique for MTL and Royals for Toronto.

Something of an adidas partisan but this round goes to Nike for sure.

I kind of love it! This and the night sky Calgary Cavalry kit feel like decent efforts to get some of the MLS Minnesota/Seattle/DCU meme shirt market but staying on the club's colours/theme. Helpful to build a new brand since the team is only on its' second season.

That's a good development but both of those look VERY quickly knocked off, which I guess matches the effort level that MLS Next Pro has been given.

9 minutes ago, AFirestormToPurify said:

That's a fantastic idea. I'd buy an official "bootleg" before a Fanatics replica with the cheap shiny logo anyday

Even cooler that it's an out-of-print jersey. More teams need to do that. I like that it feels like a big F You to Fanatics lol

The Habs have something similar with their heritage sweaters: https://www.tricoloresports.com/fc/ohpc0436-ouate-heritage-canadiens-1947-1948.html

These are more of an old wool sweater but they're outside of the adidas/fanatics ecosystem.

50 minutes ago, spartacat_12 said:

 

As someone who was raised as an Expos fan until they left, I didn't really fully commit to becoming a Jays fan until I moved to Toronto ~8 years ago. Ottawa was home to the Expos AAA affiliate, and they managed to stick around for a few more years after Montreal lost the team, so I briefly tried following some new teams based on who Ottawa was farming for (Baltimore for a couple years, Philly for one season). 2015 felt like the time people outside of Southern Ontario started getting more invested in the team (ending a 21 year playoff drought will do that). 

 

I think the Jays having Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has helped bridge the gap a bit. I'm too young to remember the Expos ever being good, but Vladdy Sr. was the biggest name they had towards the end.

I'd agree with this sentiment and also add that the mid-10's Stade Olympique games also earned the team some goodwill. There's definitely been a slight uptick in support, although I'd still say that baseball is at a low point in the region.

1 hour ago, BrySmalls said:

I didn't watch the match, but kudos to Montreal Impact / Club de Foot Montréal / CF Montréal for being the first MLS squad to vanquish Inter Messi CF 3-2 on Sunday.

Messi didn't play, although the others did. Coccaro was starstruck to get to play against his idol.

55 minutes ago, OnWis97 said:

A couple of days ago I went to my first Mild game since before Covid. In OT they pulled the goalie, which left me confused because I didn't see a penalty call.  They ended up scoring almost immediately and it was later confirmed to me that there was no call.

But the most interesting thing about that is I learned that in the NHL if you lose a game in which you pull your goalie OT, you don't get the OTL point.  Since I'm admittedly a casual fan these days, I am not sure whether that's common knowledge (or maybe it's not because I am sure it doesn't happen a lot). Either way, what's the purpose of the rule? 

Way back in the days of the Marek vs. Wyshynski pod they talked about this a lot- they introduced the rule simultaneous to the loser point and 4-on-4 overtime at the end of the 90's, the idea was essentially that they didn't want teams to pull the goalie as soon as they got to 4-on-4 because they already secured a point. I think the objective was to prevent overtime becoming a spectacle (which of course it kind of became once they removed one more skater a few years later!)

On 3/9/2024 at 2:28 AM, Bomba Tomba said:

There is nothing wrong with soccer players keeping their numbers in the teens and 20s instead of moving to 1-11

 

(66 still makes me wanna throw up tho)

 The Carabao Cup final must have been brutal for you!

2 hours ago, vtgco said:

Yeah, I don't think "Echo" is the greatest name ever but it's certainly among the top half of the rumored list. I figured my same design could also work with the name "Belles," though, as a bit of a bilingual pun. They're not affiliated with the Canadiens, though, right? So where does "Fabs" come from?

 

The Adidas template is partially out of convenience (since I already have the template set up), and partially because the IRL PWHL jerseys seem to have that same weird collar pentagon thing.

As for the Sound's striping, it's just based on the marquee of the Radio City Music Hall, which happens to have three stripes anyway. Not meant to be Adidas branding.

During the era our CWHL team was Les Canadiennes de Montréal they were nicknamed the "Fabs" (like "Habs") and that has roughly stuck around as a nickname for the subsequent teams (the Force briefly and now Montréal PWHL).

Makes sense- everything looks great! Just was curious if that was intentional and why the adidas template since they're not involved and it's somewhat distinctive although you are right- the SP sweaters they're wearing are vaguely adidasesque.

1 hour ago, VampyrRabbit said:

If the A's were in SLC currently playing in the last dual use stadium which got flooded by :censored:water on the regular and fielded a team that was on course for a third straight 100 loss season, with the owners blatantly sandbagging, there is no way on earth they would be selling out that stadium on one day, let alone eighty one of them.

Yeah this drove me crazy as justification for moving the Expos at the end and really influenced a lot of how I feel about sports as a business. We were told we didn't deserve the team and were not good fans because we weren't going to the park for ownership who were cutting costs explicitly to kill the product so they could move the team. Why would we come out for that? I don't blame a single A's fan for basically cutting ties with the team- the ownership clearly doesn't want them. It's ridiculous that the media sometimes portrays the noble thing to do as to go out and support them anyway.

10 hours ago, FrutigerAero said:

 

-unfortunately, no map of Canada, It would be interesting to see Montreal.

 

The Jays are on national tv here and those who continue to follow the sport tend to have converted to them, although I'd say for the most part it's hanging on by a thread as a spectator sport. Of course, my experience is not the median.

edit: I'd add that if you were concerned about a potential "rivalry" that's really more of a Leafs/TFC thing, the Jays were never a traditional rivalry since they were never good simultaneously during interleague play, and we don't have that much hostility towards Toronto sports otherwise- the Raptors are pretty popular around here.

With Atlanta United, Atlanta has shown it can use its' transplant city powers as a positive feature assuming that many of those transplants don't come to the city with strong NHL allegiances. I think a thing that gets lost in conversations about places as a "good" or "bad" market is that almost every market is pretty pliable and the teams' success relies on a mix of team success/marketing/how easy the arena is to get to/how many other teams are in the area. Nobody is clamouring for Vegas or Tampa Bay or even Nashville to move, even though those are just as bad of "hockey" markets as Atlanta in a vacuum, but all have winning teams with good marketing and easy enough arenas to get to (as opposed to Tampa's baseball stadium). At least within the context of the NHL, you have Toronto and Montréal where the team will be the top story no matter what and then basically everyone else is somewhere in the middle.

Me either, I've read through a few times but have yet to feel compelled to try it, but since I saw Soren Narnia named I figured I'd mention it.

Fast Inning Baseball is a treat, as someone who likes these quicker playing games. I do think some of the means for rating hitters is a little wonky, but I haven't decided on anything better.

3 hours ago, Sykotyk said:

That's not a league, though. Regardless it's names intentions. It's just an expansion of the old Champions Cup, a tournament of league champions from around Europe. Which slowly started allowing more and more teams to participate and having a group stage that's a few games long. Teams playing in the Champions League still play their regular league schedule and compete for its championship at the same time.

 

Now, if you'd like to say that the CONCACAF Champions Cup is the premier 'league' of North America, I think you'll get some push back.

Indeed, to extend this out to its logical conclusion, the Club World Cup is now annual and doesn't limit itself to clubs from Europe...but you'd be hard pressed to find people who truly consider it the biggest league in club football.

I don't hate Echo, maybe because I've been adapting to it slowly for a while (they'll always be the Fabs to me).

Any particular reason you went with the adidas template? They'd love the striping on the Sound sweater!

On 3/4/2024 at 8:23 AM, BBTV said:

I hate the use of the term "rebuild" in sports - especially for when a team has sucked forever.  You're not "rebuilding", you're just "building".  To "re" build, you have to have been built, and too often, the term is used for teams that were never good.

 

To me, it means that your team was great, but now has some aging superstars that you want to trade a year early rather than a year late (or just on time), knowing that you may take a step back.  A "rebuild" shouldn't be used for any team that's hit Rock Bottom (I expect a C&D from The Rock for that.)

Agreed- to me it tends to flatter teams. I'm a Habs fan, I'm content to call what we're doing a rebuild since even if the Cup run was fluky, it still comes after a (conscious) Cup run and a decade+ of the Price years when the team was often a fringe contender.

The Sabres (not picking on them, they're just in our division) have been "rebuilding" for over a decade, at this point we need a new word.

adidas for sure the most bipolar kitmaker of the major companies- after a probably record high hit rate for MLS kits (maybe due to the extra exposure with regards to Messi), these are largely duds.

Have you ever played Soren Narnia's Loft? It's a fictional sport- comes with a whole book outlining the history of it.