Digby

Footy Headlines says this year's Atlanta away kit will be mint green with darker green logos/trim, which sounds like Rapids from last year reprised. Seems like an odd choice to me??

People complain about MLS teams that aren't "Generic FC" being unsoccerish and lacking dignity, yet they want the "FC" thing to spread to other sports... why? Maybe DC FC and red/black/no gold uniforms will be their parallel-universe brand, in the modern ViceHeat tradition.

Yeah, this is about the usual time the past few years. I'd think releasing new merch before the holidays would make more sense, but I'm not paid to make these decisions! Saw a tweet purportedly source to Austin FC's kit man that they're unveiling a new away jersey in January, and they may have hit the famous threshold for a third kit too. I guess it's easier to do when it's year one and everybody has to buy their first jersey at the same time.

I'm not aware of a team anywhere in the French-speaking world that uses "Club du Foot" in its name. Now we know why. Quebec French isn't THAT different!

Sounds like we'll finally find out if NWSL can support teams in Utah and KC at the same time!

I really like the Athletic and I think it's worth the full price. Of course I kept finding Cyber Monday deals along the way, but still. The gap between how engaged I am by the Athletic's homepage right now and the NYT Sports' page is large! Hope they keep it a separate property.

Two DC institutions that could not be more diametrically opposed. And we thought it was bad when the team in* (near) the seat of federal government took its name from the slur of the people it genocided.

10 bucks says they rebrand within a few years, double or nothing on a terrible color scheme to follow the Jazz?

Years of allegations of a toxic environment at Washington really got a little too literal this season.

It's the NFL translation of "We were inspired by European soccer clubs..." Plus the opening to unveil a more traditional-but-not-throwback away in the new style by year 3 or so.

98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston just set a bunch of listenership records I think. First across the board, at least with that men 25-54 demographic. Of course that's share and not raw listeners, so I don't know how that shakes out, but it seems like they're the one last big radio station that everyone will flock to when all the other radio, incl. non-sports, fizzles out. That may back up your last sentence, Boston being a major market for sports at least. Worth noting that that's one of the stations CBS Radio had to divest separately during the Entercom sale; I'm not even sure who owns 98.5 now... but it's just been the same story for the past decade regardless of ownership, slowly sucking up market share, and media rights to everyone but the Red Sox, away from WEEI. WEEI continues to circle the drain, and also cycle through the same voices who've been doing milquetoast radio in Boston since the 90s (plus Lou Merloni who fits right in). Doesn't seem like anyone's at the wheel or knows what to do anymore. Gave up on their half-hearted pivot to right-wing talk radio once Callahan and Minihane each departed for podcastland and took their audiences of racist uncles and domestic abusers with them, and I don't know what the mission's been ever since.

Self-quote for this nutty stat. And ISO Joe even sank a jumper in garbage time! Keep him for the year, I say.

I'd agree there... the current scripts with a good block letter or serifed DC cap logo might tie together nicely, but that's almost too many Twins similarities to bear at that point. The curly W works at least. (But whatever they do needs to not have a corny, literal American flag art pushed into it.)

The Celtics are marking the 20-year anniversary of trading rookie Joe Johnson by bringing him back as a covid emergency ringer. What a time to be alive.

I've always thought "the valley" was meant to at least vaguely hint at the sunburst motif, with the slanted text/chest band, gradients, off-centered number. Of course this new set is yet another different take on the sunburst motif. It is interesting that they have two very strong traditional looks, "Sunburst" vs "Arched text". I'm always Team Sunburst personally.

Gonna need some more context. Leak for what? Are they dumping their main set after 5 years? I guess the previous one only made it 4, so maybe.

The Nats used to be so close to threading that needle between "Washington the metonym" and "D.C. the place where people live." Too bad with this, especially, they went hard to the former. Even more than the other pro teams that play in D.C. proper, feels like the Nats entire business model is "let's be the 2nd team for congressional staffers and think-tank employees who moved here from away." In fairness, seems like it worked better for them building a fanbase than a lot of other MLB teams in transplant cities.

You're right, no one's actually making that case particularly for the latter two, the original poster for this digression said it was a thought experiment, though I might call it an attempt at trolling and fomenting conflict where none exists to get people all worked up. I guess it worked! Gonna be a long lockout!

Agreed that returning to consistent contending squads should be priorities 1-3 for Galaxy. But beyond that, I think refresh (and not rebrand or overhaul) is the right way to go ... Keep the name and colors, just make the logo more modern and serious, and ideally incorporate the five stars. Something a la Brazil's federation logo seems right for the moodboard.

Apart from the (nothing new) opposition to the Braves and their chant, none of these team names have actually prompted any real opposition of note. Except in the minds of people who want to start another PC war/mod-edited thread burn-up, apparently.

they literally had Zlatan???

And the Helvetica-ish numbers! What a weird choice.

I mean a pretty significant issue is that, since Arena left, the Galaxy are in their most sustained run of relatively bad finishes in their existence, no? Despite the Zlatan, Chicharito, etc. signings and everything. And bad timing for that to happen while LAFC showed up with a "cool" brand, better stadium and mostly-excellent results. I don't really have a sense of what the core LA Galaxy fan is now, and yeah, they've probably lost the downtown creative $4500/month-for-a-studio-loft crowd, which is too bad, but I got the sense their attendances had stayed pretty high for MLS even after LAFC.

The harsh filtering means I can't tell if this is a real kit or an edited photo, but official communication from the Revolution seems to suggest they're using the roundel/team name logo on their jerseys. And probably recolored on the away. Lame!

I think that weird, simple, bent-staple-looking T hat logo was interesting, from the Ryan years. It was awful, but interesting. Similarly, I do think the current Rangers look is a natural progression from the 90s look, if that progression's been done with nobody original, just empty trend-chasing at the wheel. Add black for a while? Sure. Oh black isn't cool anymore but powder blue is? Got it. I almost respect that they went back to a jersey script but it's too bad they plucked that script out of a pre-Brandiose minor-league generic void.