Digby

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.

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.

Yeah, with the rebrand and moving to a real stadium, Sky Blue made it out okay. The Breakers were a real mess playing in a barely-acceptable stadium at the end. I've had hopes that, absent the Revs ever playing in or near Boston, an NWSL team could maybe find a smaller-but-closer stadium to play in and really fill the city team role. But I don't know what stadium fills that role and who'd want to run the team.

Galaxy are due for a brand refresh. Nothing radical like last time, but a new crest that feels more modern and, ideally, more LA (somehow) would be nice. Also more teal, please. Building a new stadium seems like an enormous waste.

Trust me, I'd love to have NWSL in Boston again and think it's a no-brainer of an expansion spot ... but the last incarnation of the Breakers did not meet professional standards and, it turns out, were running a visa fraud scheme through the team. I think that brand was already buried.

If Pittsburgh can use the Reverse Retro as inspo for a perma-alternate, then Boston should do the same and replace their black boring B alt. Plus restores the traditional equilibrium of one black/yellow team having a black alt and one having a yellow alt.

Vaporwave, sorely underused aesthetic in soccer design. The type looks a little basic to me but the design and color scheme are great. Nice to see NWSL teams really go for risky designs and distinctive looks!

Hope the Cup has a nice travel case for all those subway rides.

Kidding! I'm kidding. Really, no, it's not the New York market per se, but USSF schedules matches there as much or more than New York-area stadia given cheap rent and being proximate to both New York and Boston. For the purposes of this conversation, that's just another reason why I wouldn't assume any USSF games if I were building an NYCFC stadium, especially since USSF will be loathe to give up that NY/NE crossroads location given that they've abandoned Foxboro as an option.

the CEO said to the Athletic or someone that they’re keeping the secondary jersey, just with the new logo. So the pro shop was probably just jettisoning ANYTHING with the crayon flag to make room for new stock. Too bad because the secondary jersey sucks and you should probably go all-in on your color scheme when unveiling a rebrand, but what do I know!

Portland has stayed pretty conservative in its design elements ever since going away from the neon-green days, so I'm not too worried about that. Easy enough to just not use a design print that looks like bird :censored:. Just athletic gold with dark green for things like the collar, cuffs and Adidas stripes is all you need; I think when using a colorway that's pretty unusual for MLS that you have more leeway for a "boring" design. Also occurred to me: what about gray? Sort of like that Blazers grayscale jersey from last year or whenever it was. Some kind of gray Portland rain clouds theme. Not what I'd bet on but seems like a sorta reasonable idea.

I’ll go on the record as having a problem with it! I mean, the numbers themselves being different, I guess is primarily a logistics issue for the equipment staff so not really my problem. But the diagonal schtick is stupid here and it’s stupid in its wavy Isles version too. I like the Blues using a guitar string look as a striping pattern, something both hockey-ish and nontraditional. But not if it’s placed on a diagonal; that’s a step or two too cute.

I'm not sure that's a gap that needs to be filled, honestly. MetLife will always get the CONCACAF final type matches. USSF appears less than eager to put games in the NY market these days (at least for the men's team), and already has Red Bull Arena and Rentschler Field in their rotation for when they do. Any stadium for NYCFC really needs to stand its own with their games alone, and if you're doing that, seems best to keep it in the low 20k's like all the other SSS venues.

The only plausible explanation is that the new ownership felt the need to make the team their own, so to speak, by leaving the old logo in the Precourt years. (And, lest we forget, that they even changed the name of the team for about 10 days). I guess that's not as bad as letting the stadium rot and refusing to stock the toilet paper, or whatever Precourt did, but still a total unforced error and dumb ego move to squander a pretty decent reservoir of goodwill. The 2015-20 Columbus roundel is my favorite MLS96 update that doesn't totally nuke its own history, and it's a real shame to lose it for a stupid carabiner.

I've been hoping for a yellow Timbers kit since day one. Can't go wrong with an athletic gold/yellow kit with their usual dark green trim, even if it's simple. My other reasonable pitches/hopes are as follows: give me a new Revs kit with a red sash to match the new logo. don't care about the shorts color as long as they aren't navy. Philly bringing back the center stripe, but instead of metallic gold, make it light blue and yellow to match the Philly flag (and the wild success of their '21 away) Vancouver and SKC stop using the same away kit all the time