Midwestern Soccer Association: A.F.C. Cleveland (6/18)

[crashcarson15]

I’ve been working on this for a while, and it’s pretty much there, so it’s time to start unveiling this stuff.

The (full) backstory:

Following World War II, soccer’s popularity in the United States grew rapidly. A 1947 re-start of the American Soccer League was consistently drawing five-digit crowds in the Northeast, and in 1950, the California Soccer League quickly became the nation’s second-best league.

The Midwest, however, had its share of soccer culture and quality clubs, with Chicago Sparta, Harmarville Hurricanes (Pittsburgh) and St. Louis Simpkins-Ford ruling the region in the U.S. Open Cup, drawing crowds north of 10,000 for big matches.

It led a group of area investors to form a 10-team, professional league in the Midwest, with three teams in Chicago, two in St. Louis and the Cleveland area, and one in Detroit, Milwaukee and Pittsburgh. Each of these clubs have different backstories — some were new clubs, others mergers of local ones, while others were simply teams “promoted” to the professional ranks — but they came together to form a successful league.

Unlike the leagues in the northeast and on the pacific coast, the MWSL (as it was known then) owners were wary of expansion, only adding six more clubs over the next 17 years. With soccer’s growing popularity, this left many successful clubs on the outside looking in, eventually forming four different leagues — the Lake Michigan Soccer League, the Erie Soccer Association, the Tri-State League, and the Western League — in the region, all with the aim of competing with the MWSL.

In early 1970, the United States Soccer Federation and the Canadian Soccer Association started the process of unifying each country’s various domestic leagues, with the aim of consolidating into one pyramid. While this happened in Canada, there was much resistance in the United States, where more than half of the teams in one of the three “big” leagues, the ASL, MWSL and what had grown into the Pacific Coast Soccer League, would have faced relegation in a nationwide league.

That led to the creation of a four-league setup, governed by geography. Each state was assigned to one of four regional soccer boards, and each board would run a league competition in their region. It led to a pair of MWSL teams leaving the region — Pittsburgh United and Niagara SC Buffalo — while introducing most of the membership of those four “rival” leagues. It became a solution supported by both the big and small clubs, and from there, a pyramid was integrated with a two-division setup.

The issue of a schedule needed to be resolved, with the MWSL historically playing on a “summer” calendar, with the ASL and PCSL playing on the standard August-May “International” calendar. With southern investors also preferring the traditional soccer model, the Midwestern clubs lost out, and shifted to a August-May calendar in 1971; thus, there was no crowned champion that year. The league compensates for the cold winters by taking a 10-week winter break over the holiday season.

The winners of the four first-division leagues — the ASL, the PCSL, the new MWSA First Division, and the Southern Professional Soccer League — would meet annually on Memorial Day to play for the Gaetjens Cup, the trophy awarded to the USSF National Champion. The event, with semi-finals on Friday and the final on Memorial Day, would be hosted at a neutral site, rotating each year between the four leagues. (A Midwestern side hosts in mod-2 years.)

In 1974, following the World Cup, the United States and Mexico joined CONMEBOL, placing American teams into Copa Libertadores. Initially, only the national champion and National Challenge Cup (US Open Cup) winners progressed to the continental competition, but recently, a third berth has been awarded to American teams, allowing the national runners-up to also progress.

When the MWSA founded its new league for the 1971-72, it established a two-tiered setup; the 14 carryover sides, dubbed the “Old 14,” consisted the inaugural First Division, while the better sides from the other leagues in the region competed in the first Second Division. Two teams were promoted every year until the league reached 22, at which point normal promotion and relegation began.

Initially, professional sides who weren’t amongst the 44 teams in the first two divisions competed at the Open Level, the then-third tier of competition, mostly consisting of semi-professional, smaller-city clubs. Two teams were eligible for promotion each year to the professional ranks, however, a team had to meet certain standards; this meant there were many years in which no team was promoted to, or relegated from, the Second Division.

But in 2000, when the number of professional clubs in the region hit 60, the MWSA created a new Third Division, moving all professional teams out of the Open ranks — it means a team can only be relegated out of the professional tier if that year’s Open champion commits to achieving the necessary goals for promotion.

Over the years, the size of the First Division has been reduced to 20 and then to 18, to reduct fixture congestion, and today, 18 teams also compete for the Second Division crown, leaving 24 teams — split into two geographic groups — to make up the Third Division.

The tl;dr version:

League founded in 1953 amidst growing popularity of soccer in the United States.

In 1970, USSF mandated the unification of leagues into four regions, the Midwest being one of them.

At the end of the year, on Memorial Day weekend, the four regional league winners meet to determine a champion of the Gaetjens Cup.

The US is part of CONMEBOL, and its teams compete in Copa Libertadores.

The National Challenge Cup was never re-named the US Open Cup.

There are, today, three tiers of professional teams, with the First Division holding 18 teams.

The inspiration and aim:

I’ve long been gripped by the idea of alternate American soccer histories, and have wanted to do something along these lines for a while. You’ll see a variety of backstories, and hopefully something that seems somewhat realistic.

The designs:

I’ll draw heavily off existing logos and teams in a fair number of ways, integrating them into this series as I go. As far as self-created crests are concerned, they’re going to be geographic in style; I’m not a great drawer — which is why I stick to soccer — so you’ll see a lot of shapes here.

This league has promotion and relegation:

Which means that every major city in the reason may not have a team in the First Division. Just like in England, where Leeds doesn’t have a side in the Premier League, there’s a couple major cities in this one without their clubs. For the time being, I’m not planning on a full reveal for the Second and Third Divisions, but I’ll probably post these clubs as “bonus” concepts.

Also: Please don’t discuss the merits of promotion and relegation in American soccer in this thread. We’re operating in an alternate universe, so… don’t think about it too much, please.

Anyway, next post will be the first, and most-successful club, so we’ll go from there.

[crashcarson15]

Chicago City F.C.

Major Honors:

League Championships (16): 1953, 1956, 1966, 1972, 1975, 1979, 1980, 1993, 1998, 2000, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2012, 2015

National Championships (4): 1975, 1979, 2005, 2012

National Challenge Cups (7): 1957, 1963, 1976, 1979, 1990, 1999, 2005

Club Info:

Founded: 1953

Joined MWSA: 1953

Stadium: Soldier Field (61,500)

Nickname: Citizens

2014-15: 1st

The backstory:

Founded as one of the league’s original 10 sides, these guys are the Manchester United, the Juventus, the Real Madrid, the Bayern Munich, of the Midwest. In contrast to the other two original Chicago sides, the Citizens were founded as a new club, immediately becoming the “money” club of the city. They won the first league title and haven’t stopped since; 13 years is their longest title drought.

The Citizens lead all Midwestern clubs in League titles, National titles, and Cup titles, and are the richest of all clubs. They hold a fierce rivalry with Olympic A.C. — we’ll see them next — as well as with their other Chicago-based clubs, Sparta A.B.A. and A.A.C. Eagles, who should come in a few.

They’ve always played at Soldier Field, and were created to give the city at large a team to root for, as Sparta and Eagles have their origins as ethnic clubs in Chicago. They always draw well, and annually lead the league in attendance; their per-game crowd is larger than the capacity of every other stadium in the league.

The design:

Unsurprisingly, this one rolls with the Chicago city colors, with black thrown in as an accent color to the design. Much like a lot of the Midwest, the Citizens went with a European-style name, which has always been “in,” and wore vertical stripes on the kit. Both the home and road kits you see here are the traditional designs for the team, who are celebrating their 16th league title this year. Emirates joins in as the sponsor for the biggest club in the region.

The crest draws a level of inspiration from one I remember raysox doing a few years back. I originally purposed it for an Atlanta concept a couple years ago, but repurposed it here for a solid, bold, geometric look. (And, of course, shout-out to him for letting me develop a Paint version of his great template. I’ll post that soon enough.)

Harry Shipp — a young, rising star with the club — models the kits.

Home kit:

Road kit:

Olympic A.C. should be next, but I’ll waiting for y’all to sound off on this one first… Let me know how I did!

[upperV03]

Chicago looks really good, IMO. One change I would make would be to reverse the sky blue and the white on the home shirt so the stripes mimic those from the crest. Also, maybe incorporate some sky blue in either the shorts or socks from the home kit, and do the same with black in the away kit. Doesn't have to be much, just a little touch of sky blue and black to help with color balance on each kit. Otherwise I think it looks fantastic.

[RBRND]

Soccer, soccer everywhere.
Another thread that I'll be following, then.

[McCraeWilliamsProductions]

What program are you using, the picture isnt very clear.

[MJWalker45]

For the numbers they need to be solid so they'd be recognizable on these. Not a bad start for Chicago City. I'd also shrink the league patches on these. right now they'd take up the majority of the sleeve.

[Philsphan]

So many soccer alternate universes! I really like your league backstory and I like your start on Chicago City. But I would minimize or drop the black. I think the logo would look much sleeker and better feature the beautiful colors of the Chicago flag.

[timberwolf]

Ahaha I developed a Paint.net version of the template a couple weeks ago and posted it, as well!

Chicago looks great! The only nitpick I have is the sky blue on the clash kit. It looks out of place. Excited for Olympia AC!

[jdp]

Chicago looks really good, IMO. One change I would make would be to reverse the sky blue and the white on the home shirt so the stripes mimic those from the crest. Also, maybe incorporate some sky blue in either the shorts or socks from the home kit, and do the same with black in the away kit. Doesn't have to be much, just a little touch of sky blue and black to help with color balance on each kit. Otherwise I think it looks fantastic.

Pretty much what I was going to say. Although I'm not a huge fan of the blue with the black and red, just a little more black on the home kit, and it will at least look more balanced.

[the_grateful_ted]

Chicago looks really good! I've been waiting for a Chicago concept with light blue and Scarlet and this one looks very nice

[crashcarson15]

Thanks for the responses, everyone! I’ll go back and take a look at the color balance on each of these. This was one of the first concepts I did for this, so I may make some tweaks.

Chicago looks really good, IMO. One change I would make would be to reverse the sky blue and the white on the home shirt so the stripes mimic those from the crest. Also, maybe incorporate some sky blue in either the shorts or socks from the home kit, and do the same with black in the away kit. Doesn't have to be much, just a little touch of sky blue and black to help with color balance on each kit. Otherwise I think it looks fantastic.

Honestly didn’t even think of that with the stripes. Might take a look at that if I do a revision.

What program are you using, the picture isnt very clear.

I use GIMP, but I don’t really use layers with it; so it’s effectively as if it’s a Paint template.

For the numbers they need to be solid so they'd be recognizable on these. Not a bad start for Chicago City. I'd also shrink the league patches on these. right now they'd take up the majority of the sleeve.

I’m a huge mark for inline numbers, so you‘ll see them throughout; this is effectively the league font.

[crashcarson15]

Olympic A.C.

Major Honors:

League Championships (12): 1954, 1965, 1967, 1973, 1978, 1995, 1999, 2003, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2014

National Championships (3): 1973, 1995, 2013

National Challenge Cups (3): 1965, 1997, 2011

Copa Libertadores (1): 1996

Club Info:

Founded: 1953

Joined MWSA: 1953

Stadium: Anheuser-Busch Soccer Park (38,116)

Nickname: Olympians

2014-15: 3rd

The backstory:

If you couldn’t guess it before, Chicago City’s biggest rival is, of course, from Saint Louis. If City is the Real Madrid of the league, then Olympic is the Barcelona; they’ve won the second-most League, National and Cup titles of any Midwestern side, but they’ve one-upped their rivals to the north in one way, winning the 1996 Copa Libertadores, becoming the first American and still only Midwestern side to take home the “Holy Grail” for any club in the Americas.

The Olympians have been owned by the Busch family for the entirety of their history, sharing Sportman’s Park with the Cardinals and crosstown rival Saint Louis S.C. before moving into the new Busch Stadium that opened in the 1960s. Attendance was always solid, however, the club often struggled to sell out the multi-purpose, cookie-cutter stadium. In 2005, the club moved out to the suburbs in the soccer-specific Anheuser-Busch Soccer Park.

The Olympians were the second champions of the league and, with the exception of the 1980s, have always been a contender. The supporters are known to think of themselves as the best in American soccer, always applauding nice moves and touches from opposing players.

The club is, of course, named after the 1904 Olympics, held in Saint Louis.

The design:

The crest for this one should be a pretty simple influence — three Olympic rings forming the letters “OAC,” the club’s initials. It’s one of those crests you draw up in your head and on paper, put it on the computer, and think, “Eh, I’m not sure if this is working. Let me know for sure!

The colors are taken both from the Cardinals, who Anheuser-Busch also owned, and the city’s flag. Kits are halved — I loved halved kits — and as a national brand, a national company is front and center on the kits in Sprint. The fleur-de-lis, a symbol taken from the city flag, appears over the crest, signifying the club’s Copa Libertadores triumph nearly 20 years ago.

The road kit takes cues from the home one, as well as a FIFA Creation Centre Adidas kit from a few years back. Of course, since both their rivals — Chicago City and Saint Louis S.C. — are with Nike, the Olympians are with the three stripes.

Kits are modeled by Vedad Ibisevic, who joined the club’s youth academy shortly after moving to Saint Louis in the early 2000s. He’s become one of the most prolific strikers in team history, and starts up front for the United States national team, after gaining citizenship a few years back.

Home kit:

Road kit:

[ECUFan25]

this may be the first time I've ever seen a mod make a concept, but boy do these look perfect!

[jaker52]

Looks nice, but I think you overdid the black outlines on the chicago logo.

[jrcollis714]

This is nice. Can't wait to see more.

[RBRND]

Gorgeous, I love the Olympic' crest.

[the_grateful_ted]

I'd probably just change the blue and red on the clash kit to just blue or just red, not both. Like the logo though

[Wgeddes122]

Change the name for St. Louis there is no reasoning for why they are Olympic, and change the ad, sprint should be the ad for Kansas City

Get rid of the black for Chicago except for the black outline on the outside that goes all the way around

[crashcarson15]

Change the name for St. Louis there is no reasoning for why they are Olympic, and change the ad, sprint should be the ad for Kansas City

Uhh

1. http://lmgtfy.com/?q=1904+Summer+Olympics

2. Pretty sure I explained why Sprint is here in the post.

3. What's to say there's a team in KC?

[davidmiller5]

This may be very nitpicky, but I think there is something off with the number font. I think it isn't quite tall enough to look good on a kit. Try stretching it vertically to 120% or so, and I think it will look better and more like a font used on sports uniforms.