The American Super League (Association Football / Soccer) C&C always welcome

[Davidellias]

The American Super League is something I had fun making for the hell of it. It's another one of those "What if" leagues that represents what a tiered American Soccer System could look like.

A brief history: The ASL was formed in 1960 when a pair of regional leagues, along with a few independent teams merged and gave themselves the name the "American Premier League". in 63 it was changed to the "American Super League". The league slowly grew from the original 15 to 20 and in 1972 the ASL purchased a relatively young but financially unstable league called the Southern States. Aside from one team in Richmond, VA, there were no Southeastern teams at the time. This purchase also lead to a land rush of teams and even a merger with a west coast league. By time things settled down in 1988 the ASL had 3 divisions with the ASL League 1 at 25 teams and League's 2 and 3 at 20 teams. In 1990 the ASL started one last land-rush for teams when it announced intentions to start a fourth division by 1996. When 1996 came, the ASL announced quite an unusual Derby. The 15 expansion teams would face a randomly draw opponent who had finished in the bottom five of one of the other 3 divisions. If that team won by aggregate, they would replace the team they defeated. Controversial as it was, for the most part the expansion teams lost. The only major upset was Playa FC a Long Beach,CA based team defeating Memphis Egyptians FC (3-1 1-1). Playa FC turned out to be a major influence in the league. It is said with out them the ASL wouldn't be where it is today without them. This is mostly due to their 2007 signing of an an aging English megastar, which many people say is the turning point in ASL's journey from cult status to the mainstream in American sports culture.

Today the ASL consists of a 25 team first disvision, 20 team second and third Division and an 18 team fourth division.

NOTES: a lot of logos here go for a minimalist look not unlike something you'd see at home in the Bundesliga. Teams like Hannover96, Borussia Dortmund and Hamburger SV were big inspirations here.

I will be posting the first two teams in a few minutes, C&C is more than welcome and is in fact encouraged.


EDIT: Took down the league logo, the fact I wasn't happy with it, combined with the comments McCraeWilliams made, made me want to go back to the drawing board with it.

[McCraeWilliamsProductions]

Division logo is lacking a lot of realism. Try and revise it before you start on some other crests. Did you make the logos in power point?

[Davidellias]

Division logo is lacking a lot of realism. Try and revise it before you start on some other crests. Did you make the logos in power point?

It's funny you say that. I actually made a few of the teams crests well before I thought of this. In fact I did a major faux pas and designed a few uniforms before I even did the logo.

I'm honestly not happy with that logo either, but I really couldn't think of any better Idea. I guarantee most of the Crests are better.

Anyways, here's a team

Commonwealth SC

CSC as it commonly known, is the 'footballing' arm of the Commonwealth Sporting club of Richmond. CSC established a team in 1958 two years before the start of the ASL,t he team was the only one located int he southern US for the first twelve years of the leagues existence. Through the rapid expansion of the 70s and 80s, CSC stayed consistent and never dropped out of the First Disvision. The bad times came toward the late 80s though as they tanked hard. They went from finishing 5th in the First Division in 1987 to being demoted to the third division in 1991. It looked bleak for the franchise,especially with the impending fourth division starting up, but by some blind luck they pulled out of their funk and were able to reach the first division by 1996. What was this twist of fate? At the behest of the teams sponsor they signed the one of the CEO's kids. Despite coming from a small obscure North Carolina school, he managed to flip the teams fortune's, The Red-Gray's as they are called have pretty much stabilized First Division since then.

LOGO

UNIFORMS

Home:

Away:

The ASL uses Home and Away jersey designations rather then the Primary / Clash designation. Also yes I am aware there is no crest on the uniform.

NOTES: Ok So I wanted the logo to look like they haven't changed it since the teams inception. So this is what I whipped up. As for the uniforms, these were the first ones I made so they are mostly simple uniforms to test out the template with. Went with a simple Red w/ Gray sleeves for the home. and a simple black-grey fade for the clash/away.

C&C welcome.

[davidmiller5]

The number on the shorts wouldn't be visible because soccer players always wear their shirts untucked. There is a reason why soccer kits always go at the bottom of the shorts.

Also, the tiny double outline around the letters in the logo would be almost impossible to replicate on a patch on the jersey. The crest doesn't need them.

[McCraeWilliamsProductions]

Thoughts on CSC: I think a oval with the letters CSC is not a very well thought out crest. Also the font is very playful, go online and look for some different fonts, not just your generic Apple or PC fonts, maybe even look at fonts by Conrad. He has a lot of very good "realistic" fonts for a soccer crest.

The kit is a whole other story... Like davidmiller5 said, no soccer club will ever wear their number on the hip, its always on the leg (usually above the kit sponsor). If you also want this to be more realistic there are a few more things you have to do; first is re-choose your number and player font. No club is gonna put players name in Times New Roman... And finally I'd pick something more interesting than just a gradient for the Clash Kit.

Then some little things, I'd increase the size slightly for the crest patch and put the crest path on the right leg of the shorts.

What program did you use?

[TheRoyalsFan20]

Pretty nice start. I think the color scheme is pretty unique. My only issue on the away is why is it black? Maybe make it red or white, but that's sort of a nitpick.

I hope this series gets completed, it looks extremely promising.

[Davidellias]

Thoughts on CSC: I think a oval with the letters CSC is not a very well thought out crest. Also the font is very playful, go online and look for some different fonts, not just your generic Apple or PC fonts, maybe even look at fonts by Conrad. He has a lot of very good "realistic" fonts for a soccer crest.

The kit is a whole other story... Like davidmiller5 said, no soccer club will ever wear their number on the hip, its always on the leg (usually above the kit sponsor). If you also want this to be more realistic there are a few more things you have to do; first is re-choose your number and player font. No club is gonna put players name in Times New Roman... And finally I'd pick something more interesting than just a gradient for the Clash Kit.

Then some little things, I'd increase the size slightly for the crest patch and put the crest path on the right leg of the shorts.

What program did you use?

I do have most Conrad's Font Pack. I did have a reason for picking such an over simplistic crest design though. I really wanted to go with non-traditional looks for a lot of these teams, with an emphasis on overly simplified design as you see with CSC. Specifically with CSC I wanted a log that looked like it was designed in the late 1950s and never changed since. That's why I went with the choice of Mutter Krause, as I felt it looked like the kind of font that would be used in the late 50s. As for the Numbers and player name that's not Times New Roman. I ended up using Clarendon. At first I had planned to use unique fonts for each team (Can you tell I don't watch much soccer ) and wanted something that would look at home with the trends of the old days to fit CSC's vintage look and the Clarendon font fit the bill. I was so pleased with how it looked, I decided to use it league wide. My Justification for using it league wde is that the ASL really never bothered to change the leaguewide font and kept something that looks fairly outdated by most standards.

As for the simplicity of the uniforms, CSC was my first one, so I wanted to play it safe on the design and not over complicate things.

Also with my designs I try going against the grain on a lot of times and try doing things from a different angle or perspective.

The next team: Is Austin City

While the team doesn't have the history or prestige of CSC, it does have a bit of an odd history. The team started off as the Austin branch of the Lone Star Athletic Club was known as LSAC Austin. In Fact, the LSAC actually had two teams in the ASL as the LSAC's San Antonio branch also had a team. For most of its lifespan LSAC Austin stabilized itself as a mainstay in the second division. It wasn't until the late 80s did they get a taste of the First Division, but it was short lived and after a few more years the team found itself in the Third Division. Not only was the team struggling on the field, behinds the scenes there were issues. the LSAC couldn't afford both teams and Austin was put up for sale. A group of investors bought the team in 1993 and totally rebranded the whole club. LSAC Austin became Austin City. The name a nod to the Television show and music festival the city is famous for

LOGO:

UNIFORMS

Home

Away

V1

V2

Which Version if Any looks better.