Digby

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

Yeah, I'm putting those with in the "90s best to be forgotten about bin", along with Calgary and STL going weirdly diagonal and the Burger Kings. I might grant an alternate timeline where the Isles successfully integrate teal into their scheme

Ah, that's a relief, my mistake. I guess I was thinking about how they're, apparently, stuck with a navy kit/not a red kit for another 2 years.

In my perfect world, Columbus rolled out that grayish-white kit last year in preparation for a black/yellow stripes or hoops shirt this year. If only.

Believe it's already been stated that this year's Chicago Fire kit will still use the navy oval nightmare logo, due to production lag time, though the club will use their new logo everywhere else. Sort of like how Columbus did this past year I guess, at least for the later months. Seems weird but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. One of the Revs FO people said in one of the recent articles about the rebrand that they're keeping their (terrible) away kit last year for another season despite the new logo, though I'd imagine that one will have the new logo added to it. For Austin, I imagine they'll keep the home kit but change the away, since the latter was using that 2020 template?

Lack of a proper Hatch reference seems glaring! Maybe it’s because prints were my entry into design. But this only confirms my suspicions… it’s knockoff-brand all around.

I asked because that omission seemed glaring. Can't help but wonder if a.) they didn't want to have a formal partnership because they'd have to pay royalties for the idea, which is kind of uncouth, or b.) they knew that this is a real bastardization of that distinctive letterpress look and the Hatch people wouldn't roll with it. Based on images posted, seems there's been a relationship between the two in the past, which I think is a nifty thing. But makes this whole situation a bit sadder. I'm a proponent of people around here having some Design 101 knowledge, but Hatch prints is a level obscure enough that I don't blame people here for not getting it if Nashville isn't going to make the acknowledgement. OTOH, locals are more likely to see the connection (and, if they have taste, think this application of it sucks), which speaks to this board not being the target audience of much of what we critique.

Has the team acknowledged the Hatch Show Print influence formally? That's the kind of obscure local reference detail to make the NBA City Edition proud. Can't blame Nike for this one! Should've screenprinted the jersey then, the effect is lost with the medium.

Hot damn, 7.2 million viewers for the Thanksgiving Day MLS playoff game. Wish it was a bit more of an open flowing game, probably didn't win many "soccer is boring" converts. But that's a massive number for MLS. https://showbuzzdaily.com/articles/showbuzzdailys-thursday-11-25-2021-top-150-cable-originals-network-finals.html

It was a funny thing when the NBA took that away in favor of putting the Nets at home for the Christmas noon game when they first moved to Brooklyn. (One of them I went to, not because I'm Jewish, just a heathen Catholic. It was the only time I'd ever seen life in Barclays.) Still, all of that is relatively new, as well; the NBA was always more into scheduling whomever would be a big draw, especially back in the 90s and early 00s when they'd only have 2 or 3 games during the day. The NBA going wild with the five-game Christmas thing has maybe given them opportunity to retroactively anoint traditions like that one, sort of the opposite direction of the NFL scheduling the third "something good, please" game to make up for the garbage possibilities from Dallas and Detroit.

Of all the mystifying things of recent times, that Canada is now who dictates all things CONCACAF is maybe the wildest.

I get the argument of wanting to get the other team uncomfortable but our guys will be uncomfortable too! In the States we don't play outside that time of year for obvious reasons, and the European winter leagues do not see those sorts of conditions. IDK, I really can't not see yet another Pulisic injury happening here on a frozen pitch, and bone rattling chill. I also get the home-field advantage thing, but Jesus, the Costa Rica thing at RBA is really living in their heads forever huh. The center of American soccer shifting from Europhile big cities to college football country has been an interesting subplot over the past 5 or so years, but this playing USMNT games exclusively in Middle America is taking that a little too far. And if you'd like to win the battles for dual-national recruiting, seems like running away screaming from any Hispanic neighborhoods is maybe not going to help.

I think it works for SF and could work for KC but doesn't work for LA. Don't ask why! I guess maybe just the Dodgers seem more "untouchable".

If I didn't know any better I'd 100% assume that was one of those wholesale blanks from the Blackhawks' WC jersey, adapted for a men's league team of proud New Jersey expats. I kinda like the drop-shadow number treatment at least, for something fresh.

Was pleasantly surprised that ESPN reported on Enes Kanter's criticism of LeBron and Nike during the Lakers/Celtics game the other night, but then the sideline reporter threw it back to Doris Burke and Mike Breen, and they totally ruined it. The real problem is that Kanter didn't privately talk to LeBron first? As if LeBron is taking calls from Enes Kanter? Pretty embarrassing and feckless.

Let's take a look at that win percentage column. I don't think the coach is the issue.

I have a soft spot for the robo-penguin mostly because of that wacky asymmetric alternate being an early awakening to design for me. And in a vacuum it's a nice attempt at fitting into the NHL tradition of modernist logos. (I also kind of like said wacky alternate of the time.) But the classic abstract-ish NHL logos weren't ever replacing something equal or better in terms of design and on-ice performance, that I can think of, so it's hard to make the case that it's "right" for Pittsburgh. I do think it's odd to make that inconsequential change if they're bringing back the diagonal lettering jersey, but I also think it's weird to bring that back from the start.

Good lord. Already thought it was a little much to give Ohio two games in the same qualifying cycle and now they want to give Columbus a second, and Minnesota in January crosses the line of "uncomfortable" and into "dangerous" to be playing an outdoor soccer match. Costa Rica at RBA forever living in USSF's heads, I guess.

It's the squeezed C that bugs me -- doesn't match the all-caps Cleveland wordmark, which in turn doesn't really go with the Guardians script. Not exactly sure what I would have done differently, but that's the part that's really not working for me.

This could be a me problem, but I don't like heavy use of bright teal on grey uniforms. It's a weird clash thing in my eyes. Most bright colors face this issue, but for some reason, Seattle/original Florida tealish/aquaish hits this problem the most for me. Just not a big fan of that look in a world where grey away uniforms are the requirement.