Sykotyk

1 hour ago, SSmith48 said:

This idea doesn't solve all of the problems I have with the logo, but using just a simple silhouette design would have made the look feel less clipart-y and a bit more refined/professional.

fifa world cup logo (designfootball.com)

Though now it looks like the epic face palm it is. 

45 minutes ago, ujju2 said:

The antler may have been an objectively good look, but it was not a subjectively good look.  The EE is iconic in Edmonton, and going away from it (or the Esks name for that matter) was a mistake in the first place.

I think had they moved up the Elks name but kept the EE helmet the transition to using the antler helmets part time would've been accepted and lauded. Instead there was push back by the anti change crowd regardless what the change was. 

2 hours ago, McCall said:

 

They'd probably refer to Ryan Leaf in the same manner.

Stars do self destruct. 

Pittsburgh isn't moving to Acrisure. Based on the deal with Canton, I'm fairly certain that the team will be on hiatus and a Canton or Ohio themed name will be used next year. 

 

A lot of this depends on the XFL. I doubt they start in Houston if the XFL is still going. Another hiatus. Denver, Oakland and Arizona the likely options for a new city that has the ability to host. 

1 hour ago, tBBP said:

I hadn't realized SKC and CITY played each other already.

 

Let's check the uni matchup and...

 

 

 

Well that's...different.

 

Also...what is MLS' aversion to contrast in their kits?? Both those kits would look better with navy shorts (IMO).

Seems to be a recent trend.

 

SKC always had interesting uniforms. Usually a lot of stripes with their designs (horizontal, not vertical):

 

 

 

but this was what they won their title in:

 

 

At least they gave up the mismatched sleeve look. I tried looking back because I swear they had dark blue shorts in the past but none of the quick photos I could find showed them.

 

Here's a few randoms. This appears to be 2016:

 

 

Anything is better than this (1996):

 

 

52 minutes ago, ManillaToad said:

 

A team from Kansas City calling themselves the Blues would be great for the rivalry with St. Louis if any of them cared about soccer

Yeah, it is a bit of an oddity. Closest I can think is that Columbus Crew are black and yellow, owned by the Browns' owner whose chief rival is the Steelers who are black and yellow.  But at least the names are different.

 

What's REALLY strange is that KC/STL are in their first true rivalry. Royals/Cardinals played for a World Series title against one another. And interleague lets them play. But year-to-year, what happens with their games really doesn't affect the other team much other than the W/L outcome. They're not competing for the same playoff spots or division titles.

 

In the NFL, the Rams are no longer in St. Louis. But even then, the same general situation as the Royals/Cardinals. AFC/NFC, and not much of a rivalry when they did play. Chiefs went 6-0-0 against the Rams in the regular season.

 

NHL, Kansas City doesn't have a team. NBA, neither have teams.

 

MLS? Both have teams and both in the same conference. So, it's not just getting another 1 or 3 points. It's you are hindering your rival by beating them for the same playoff spots you're both playing for.

 

That's surprisingly new for Missouri*.

 

But, of course, Sporting KC is in Kansas. HAHA

 

 

As for caring?

 

 

 

Yeah, obviously don't care.

9 minutes ago, Dilbert said:

FCC, The Orange and Blue, FC Cincy, Knifey Lions, and The Garys are the several nicknames Ive heard for FC Cincinnati, but never just the Lions. Thats Orlando.

Never heard Knifey Lions, but that's funny. Orange and Blue I would say has been the most common name I've heard from afar (other end of the state) or just FCC/FC Cincy.

9 hours ago, the admiral said:

"AFC" as in "American Football Club"? I thought "American football" was "handegg." That wouldn't work. 

 

The women's soccer names are a little corny, but at least they're relatively true to North American sports conventions, which I think is more important than respecting sport-specific conventions. Hockey is a Canadian sport but there's a Swedish team called HV71. You get the picture.

 

Even if there are going to be teams called "[city] FC" officially, they should still have well-known nicknames. What am I really supposed to call Nashville FC, Charlotte FC, Cincinnati FC, St. Louis City FC, etc.? It's boring.

HOWEVER, American Football teams tend to name themselves American names when in Europe. They're trying to be like what people know. That's why there's a Vienna Vikings and Tirol Raiders.

 

As for names, they come up on their own. Some reference the club, team, city, fans, etc.

 

Toronto FC - Reds

FC Cincinnati - Lions/Orange and Blue

Minnesota United - Loons

Atlanta United - Five Stripes

Sporting KC - Blue/Blues (The Cauldron/Blue Hell is their stadium nickname):

 

Nashville SC - Coyotes

FC Dallas - Hoops

Austin FC - Verde/El Verde/The Verde

Orlando City SC - Lions

NYCFC - Pigeons

LAFC - Black and Gold

St Louis CITY SC - (too early to tell)

 

 

4 hours ago, BadSeed84 said:

If they just gave the X a shiny coat of reflective gold it would look much better.

Without the shine, it just looks like mustard was spread over it and dried.

On 5/18/2023 at 6:37 PM, BrySmalls said:

San Diego FC or FC San Diego

FSDC

 

It's the best of both worlds! 

 

2 hours ago, SCMODS said:

Something random: Denver could play Miami in the NBA finals 30 years (1993) after both cities' MLB franchises began play (Rockies & Marlins). 

I was just thinking how the Colorado Avalanche and Florida Panthers played for the Cup Colorado's first season. 

 

Broncos and Dolphins can't in the NFL, but for as successful as they've been making the Super Bowl never faced off in either the AFL or AFC Championship Game. 

1 hour ago, BrySmalls said:

The whole 2026 logo identity/package is a slap in the face for the most prestigious event in the sport.

The design is even worse than the 2012 Summer Olympics logos, which were a laughingstock!

At least that had the redeeming quality of looking like Lisa Simpson playing her saxophone. 

7 hours ago, ujju2 said:

Um... Why is Toronto anything other than red and white? They come up with a logo and can't even do the city-specific colour correctly.

Since when did the Sounders move to Toronto?

9 hours ago, raysox said:

After sitting on it for a night and seeing more designs come out around the brand, I see what they were going for. I don't agree with a logo PNG front and center, but like, they went for a country neutral route for the biggest world cup yet. But there's a lot of interesting elements in the entire brand. It's a flexible logo for a world cup that spans 3 countries.

But then again, i've matured enough to see what the NFL is doing with the super bowl. That's what this is.

 

I' m not going to let you polish this turd. This is bad and there's nothing redeeming about it. This not a logo. This is clipart disguised as a logo.

2 hours ago, MJWalker45 said:

It think what you could see as well is the East-Central-West pairings for setting up schedules, but a single table where the top 16 to 20 teams make the playoffs and getting seeded out based on the current playoff setup.  I believe the four time zones thing was a US Soccer issue, not FIFA, so they would just get that overturned pretty quickly. It's part of what helped kill off the NASL. 

This would be good for an All Star setup, but I think fans in the East would want the LA teams to make the trip out, and fans in the West would want to see the best Eastern teams play in their stadiums as well. 

 

I think we may see a two-stage approach to the season as well.

 

Take the 40 teams. Split them into 10 team conferences, everyone plays everyone else twice (18 games), play everyone in another conference once (10 games). That gives you 28 games in the first stage.

 

Take the Top 8 from each conference (32 teams), and put them into groups of 4 (random draw, by placement, whatever, just 8 groups of 4). 4 teams from each of the 4 conferences, one each. Have home and away (6 games).

 

Take the winner and runner-up of each group (16 teams), and hold first round, quarterfinal, semifinal, and the MLS Cup Final.

 

That's 28 games for 8 teams, 34 games for 16  teams, and only 16 teams will play more. Whether it's single elimination (preferable) or two-leg (acceptable), that's between 38 and 41 games for the finalists depending on tournament format (single or two-leg)

 

One thing for the first stage is, after 3 years you'd play everyone in the league at least once, after 6 years you'd play everyone both home and away. Plus, the second stage would be played against two teams that are entirely new that year.

 

The playoff tournament could be seeded one of two ways:

 

Group A #1 hosts Group B #2, Group B #1 hosts Group C #2, etc.

 

OR

 

Take the 16  qualifiers and seed them #1 through #16 based on total points for all Stage 1 and Stage 2 games.  #1 v. #16, #2 v. #15, etc. This still gives impetus to do well in Stage 1 once you're assured of a position in Stage 2.  And keeps teams wanting to win even if they know they're #2 in a Stage 2 group, a win might help them in seeding the elimination tournament.

1 hour ago, WestCoastBias said:

 

I think a 20 team eastern and western conference is the most likely, with the two conferences only meeting each other in the MLS Cup final or US Open Cup and other tournaments. 

Years ago FIFA had rules about top flight leagues in countries. Not sure if it still exists, but I don't think a top flight league can only cover parts of a country. Unless things have changed.

 

I think in an east/west scenario, you'd still have to play cross-conference games. I don't think too solid lined leagues would work. Especially since the middle of the country would lose out on some chief rivalries just due to being near the imaginary border.

 

If you took the 30 right now, and split east west, this would be the leagues:

 

WEST

Vancouver

Seattle

Portland

San Jose

LA Galaxy

LAFC

San Diego

Real Salt Lake

Colorado

Austin

FC Dallas

Houston

Sporting KC

Minnesota

St. Louis

 

EAST

Chicago

Nashville

Atlanta

Cincinnati

Columbus

Orlando

Charlotte

Miami

Toronto

DC

Philadelphia

Red Bulls

NYCFC

Montreal

New England

 

No STL-CHI? No MIN-CHI? No STL-NASH?

 

That'd be a tough plan to sell to the teams in The Middle™

 

1 hour ago, gosioux76 said:

I don't know how anybody looks at that logo and doesn't see the clear intent to combine both a D and R. Knowing the XFL 2020 team was called the Dallas Renegades makes it even easier to draw a conclusion about the sequence of events here. 

 

But regardless of how it happened, the fact that the debate between whether it's just and R or a D/R exists is evidence enough that this is muddled branding.

 

I'll agree with @Ferdinand Cesarano on one point: It is a very nice logo — but for a team named Dallas Renegades. It's otherwise not a strong enough "R" on its own. 

I think the weakness of the logo is that the 'stalk' of the R is shorter than the leg sticking down to the right.

 

It almost feels like it's missing this:

 

 

That sounds like it's just in the offseason so they don't need to cut a player from their roster to bring on a rookie from this draft. But, I'm guessing sometime around training camp they'll trim the rosters back down to the usual number. I didn't see that written out anywhere or missed it.

 

Either way, this is a good thing for UDFA that still don't get picked up by an NFL team for the fall season.

2 hours ago, GriffinM6 said:

At this point, we might as well bump the league up to 40 teams and have pro-rel between the top 2 tiers. A single top-flight league with this many teams at this rate just doesn't make sense in the long run. 

No one is spending $500 million to get a spot in the league and then demoted to the second tier.

 

 

14 hours ago, MJWalker45 said:

 

I wonder if that's them playing at MetLife instead of Citi or Yankee Stadium? I could see that being in play during the European tour season in July. But playing at Yankee stadium because it has more seats, but absolute crap atmosphere in comparison, makes little sense.

Could definitely see them increasing demand so that a game at MetLife could work when they're playing Red Bulls, or if Messi is at Inter Miami and they're @ NYCFC, or LAFC comes to town, etc and they know they can expect much more than their small stadium can hold. The overflow demand from week to week might fill 80k once or twice a year. Get the league to plan the schedule right they might even bring in grass at MetLife for two games a few weeks apart in June.

9 minutes ago, aawagner011 said:

After the initial shock has worn off, another takeaway of mine is that there is a reason using actual images does not make for successful logos.

 

Also, it sounds like this will be the norm going forward. If I reading the press release correctly, it sounds like future World Cups will follow a similar brand language like the Super Bowl started using a round 2010 or so.

 

https://www.fifa.com/tournaments/mens/worldcup/canadamexicousa2026/media-releases/fifa-world-cup-26-tm-official-brand-unveiled-in-a-celebration-of-football

I absolutely despise this idea that people can't figure out it's a World Cup without a World Cup Trophy in the logo the same as the NFL did to the Super Bowl.

 

Each one is unique and memorable in its own right. By trying to meld them altogether into one you begin to forget them individually and nothing becomes remarkable. NBA/NHL/MLB has this problem with older tournaments. Who won the NBA Finals 3 years ago?

7 hours ago, MJWalker45 said:

Last October was when it was released, and the change to Arlington was made. 

https://www.dallasnews.com/sports/other-sports/2022/10/31/xfl-announces-new-franchise-names-logos-for-2023-reboot-including-arlington-renegades/

That article is from October. This article is from July where the league announced their deal with Arlington to be the 'hub' and also what cities would host teams..

 

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/sports/xfl-introduces-cities-joining-league-announces-arlington-as-football-operations-hub/3030683/

 

Either they had been working on the identities before July (extremely likely) OR they created the D/R logo AFTER agreeing to change to Arlington and call the team Arlington.

 

If it's before, then they simply liked the logo too much after the wheels were greased by Arlington and Arlington became the name.

 

OR

 

The logo was created AFTER this announcement and the subsequent city name was chosen, as an easter egg for Dallas, the chief city in the area most people know. Similar to a TC logo for the Twins. Not officially anything related to the team.

 

Either way, I just don't like it as a logo. Partly because too many clamoring for the old single letter logos of the past (Bears C, etc). Are that they were a monumental change from the older looks where teams didn't wear any sort of logos. It was colors/striping, etc that signified the teams. Logos were simple and hand painted onto the leather helmets or baked into the plastic shells. They had to be simple.

 

They're not great because they were simple. They're simple because the teams generally were already well established before logos became a thing on the uniforms.

2 hours ago, VampyrRabbit said:

And hopefully they will come up with a much more inspiring name than FC San Diego.

Charger FC

On 5/12/2023 at 8:08 AM, Digby said:

 

 

from the Outfield

 

Architect-speak might be worse than Nike-speak. I guess it reflects New York's honestly sanitizing any character it's ever had for generic silver boxy thing that could exist anywhere, but everything costs twice as much because New York. 

 

Also this: 'According to the term sheet, the team may play up to three home matches a year outside of the new stadium even after the stadium is fully operational. The reason? NYCFC’s ability to leverage a “significantly larger seating capacity”.' Why would you even say that??? Who's looking at these Citi Field games and saying, yeah, we're sure gonna miss this someday?

 

 

Sounds like a Montreal Alouettes situation. Small stadium creates scarcity and you could then leverage that scarcity into filling the larger Olympic Stadium from time to time. But without scarcity the average game loses all emphasis to get tickets in advance and you're more affected by day of game weather, etc.