WHAT IF: The NASL never died?

[WideRight]

You all probably get the idea of this.  What if the NASL did not die out in the early 80's but instead remained the dominant soccer league in the USA through until today.  Obviously this means the MLS does not exist and the teams in this NASL are the top tier US squads.   I will limit myself to actual NASL teams, though the names may get "Europeanized" in some cases, the logos updated in many cases, and the kits will be more current than some of the designs in the actual NASL.

 

For this project I will work on logos and then use the PES Kit Creator to design the uniforms.  It is such a great tool, why try to do it on my own when it has millions of options. 

 

So, first up, a team that would not change names, that does not need to radically alter their logo/crest, the most iconic of all NASL teams. 

 

 

The only tweak here is a more modern soccer ball, with the "swirl" colors included and a slightly updated font.  Yes, it is FC, as most clubs will be.   As for the uniforms, the Cosmos are going with an Adidas Convivo design that allows them to add in some of the color swirls from the logo.   White with Green is the primary.  Green with gold is the clash.   Their jersey sponsor is jetBlue. 

 

[vtgco]

As a Sounders fan (and one who prefers our NASL-era look) I'm certainly intrigued by this idea for a series. 

 

I'm not sure I'm feeling the changed Cosmos logo. The ball and font feel dated more than updated, and this is an iconic/classy team, so I'd just stick to the IRL 2011 logo.

 

The jerseys with the swirls are solid, but I'd go with white collar and stripes on the green kit for a more Cosmos-specific look (currently feels like a Rowdies jersey!)

 

I'm curious to see how you envision some of the wackier teams like the Tea Men or the Caribou!

[WideRight]

I thought about a more green/white combo, but I really wanted to add more from the logo, so I added some gold, light blue and dark blue.  The font is actually the font from the original Star Trek series, which I thought worked well for the Cosmos. 

 

You mentioned the Rowdies, and they are the next team up. 

 

TAMPA BAY ROWDIES

Another team where I did not want to deviate too much from their classic look, at least for the home kit.  The logo is shrunk to be their crest and to make room for a sponsor.  The home kit is pretty close to their original look.  I went with another Brazil vibe for the away kit, with a lot of blue.  The sponsor, Goya, is huge in the Latin market, particularly Caribbean (Cuban, Puerto Rican). Unlike the Cosmos, the Rowdies went with a slightly less expensive kit producer, Kelme. 

 

 

 

I promise that some teams will have a radically different logo, though I will try to incorporate some element of the original.   And coming soon we have the Teamen, the Sting, the Aztecs and the Blizzard. 

 

[Brian in Boston]

2 hours ago, WideRight said:

And coming soon we have the Teamen...

 

Tea Men... they were the New England Tea Men. The team name was a nod to both the Boston Tea Party and the fact that the franchise was owned by Thomas J. Lipton, Inc., aka Lipton Tea Company. I loved that team! Here's hoping that you haven't strayed far from its iconic Umbro uniforms and the original logo. I was fortunate to have a summer job working for Umbro, USA while the company was serving as the Tea Men uniform supplier. Great memories of the team's three seasons in New England.

     

 

Really nice job on both the Cosmos and Rowdies to get things started! This ought to be a great series.

[Skycast]

I grew up in the Tampa area and have fond memories of going to Rowdies games as a kid...the Tampa Tarpons Red's minor league team played next door to the old Tampa Stadium too. I can still hear the Rowdies song rumbling through my head. Small world...turns out the athletic director at my kid's high school (in Colorado), played for the Rowdies during that time period too.

 

Oh, and I'm just betting the Tea Men get ribbed all the time with that name!

[WideRight]

Brian, I hate to say it, but I don't think you will like what I have in mind for New England.  Still the Tea Men, but not so much like the photos you posted.  

 

But, first things first, before I unveil more teams, I thought I should give some setup.  In 2020 the NASL, as America's top flight soccer league, has 26 franchises, structured in 2 divisions (East & West) with 13 teams each.  Each team plays a home-away series with each division rival (24 games) and 1 game against each inter-division foe (another 13 games) for a 37 game season.  

 

The top 5 teams from each division make the playoffs, with the division winner getting a bye.  The top 4 overall teams (the 2 teams in each division championship) are then eligible for CONCACAF tournaments.  

 

Since there is no relegation between the NASL and the 2 second tier leagues (Canadian Soccer League and United Soccer League), the NASL devised an alternative tournament for the bottom dwelling teams.  The bottom 4 teams in each division play in a "Relegation Tournament" which does not impact their place in the league, but does impact the losing franchise financially.  The 8 teams play, with the winners spared and the losers continuing to play, until there is a single elimination game, played the night before the league championship.  The loser of that game is "Relegated", which in the NASL means that they receive none of the leaguewide television revenue.  It is what has been dubbed "The Shaft" by NASL fans.  The NASL's multi-network TV contracts bring in approximately 260 million dollars, so the each team garners about 10 million, with the league champion receiving an additional share for 20 million (with a requirement that at least 51% of the additional share be distributed to the players as a championship bonus) while the Shaft "winner" gets no television money.  You can imagine that this creates a huge incentive for the teams to avoid that ignominy (and cash flow problem).  

 

Ok, That sets it up.  And so you can keep track, here are the 26 cities in the league.  No team names (except those already released) so that there is some mystery to this.

 

EAST                                                   WEST

Atlanta                                               Anaheim

Boston                                               Dallas

Chicago                                             Denver

Detroit                                                Edmonton

Ft. Lauderdale                                   Los Angeles

Memphis                                            Minneapolis

Montreal                                            Portland

New York Cosmos                           St. Louis

Philadelphia                                      San Diego

Rochester                                         San Jose

Tampa Bay Rowdies                       Seattle

Toronto Blizzard                              Tulsa

Washington DC                                 Vancouver

And here is the next squad, as I start with the teams that need only minor logo adjustments (many will need a lot of change). 

 

Toronto Blizzard

Sponsor: Air Canada

Colors: Claret & Sky

 

The big change here is the color scheme as someone in the NASL needs a West Ham, Aston Villa scheme of Claret and Sky.  The home kit features a "snowfall": cascade on the jerseys and color shifting on the shorts and socks.  The away uniform shifts the colors with a white jersey and claret shorts, and shifts from a snowfall pattern on the jersey to a sublimated mountain or iceberg. 

 

 

[WideRight]

Edmonton Drillers

Sponsor: Virgin Mobile

Colors: Orange & Blue

 

Decided to leapfrog over some of the other Eastern teams and add a Western team who, once again, do not need major logo adjustments.  The Edmonton Drillers logo remains largely the same (new ball).  For the uniforms I decided to emulate the Oilers a bit, so orange jerseys are the home kit.  For the clash kit i decided to keep the same uniform design, but change up the colors to something completely unique from the team colors (we will let the boys in marketing come up with their usual BS about how the green reflects the joy of spring or the mown pitch, blah, blah, blah, heritage, blah, energy, blah fans, etc.)

 

[B-Rich]

On 6/11/2020 at 10:58 PM, WideRight said:

TAMPA BAY ROWDIES

Another team where I did not want to deviate too much from their classic look, at least for the home kit.  The logo is shrunk to be their crest and to make room for a sponsor.  The home kit is pretty close to their original look. 

 

Sorry, but this:
 

 

is not "pretty close to their original look", and it does in fact "deviate too much from their original look".

Which was this, throughout the life of the ORIGINAL NASL Rowdies:

  

 

 

Those unis were classic and beautiful and fun and as '70s as the movie "Dazed and Confused".

 

 

What you are showing appears to be a variation on the current unis of the SECOND incarnation of the team, which also played in the the SECOND incarnation of the NASL (and currently play in the USL Championship League):

 

Those unis are hideous, and an affront to the legacy of the original NASL original Rowdies. 

 

Even more baffling is that when they returned the name with the new NASL, the team DID wear nicely updated unis that honored the heritage in their first few years:

 

 

[-kj]

I still think the green/yellow hoops looked great... unlike that abomination of a wordmark.

[FCMacbeth]

7 hours ago, B-Rich said:

 

Sorry, but this:
 

 

is not "pretty close to their original look", and it does in fact "deviate too much from their original look".

Which was this, throughout the life of the ORIGINAL NASL Rowdies:

  

 

 

Those unis were classic and beautiful and fun and as '70s as "Dazed and Canfused".

 

 

What you are showing appears to be a variation on the current unis of the SECOND incarnation of the team, which also played in the the SECOND incarnation of the NASL (and currently play in the USL Championship League):

 

Those unis are hideous, and an affront to the legacy of the original NASL original Rowdies. 

 

Even more baffling is that when they returned the name with the new NASL, the team DID wear nicely updated unis that honored the heritage in their first few years:

 

 

Sorry to sound harsh, but I HAVE to disagree with you. Those kits Tampa Bay are wearing now don't look to bad because of the nice combination with their signature green and gold, and the hoops.Yes, their original jerseys are the best and I do wish they brought it back today. But for now, I'm fine with what they have currently.

 

5 hours ago, -kj said:

I still think the green/yellow hoops looked great... unlike that abomination of a wordmark.

'Abomination' is not how I describe their logo. More like 'jarring' and 'wild west like'.

[WideRight]

I must admit that I misremembered what the early Rowdies uniforms looked like.  But as my goal is to update and create new designs, I think I will stick with the green & gold hoops.  With the logo reduced to a crest and the addition of a large sponsor logo on the front, I think the stripes works pretty well. 

 

On to the next team(s).  Let's head out west, where we have 2 teams whose logos just needed minor tweeking.

 

FC LA AZTECS

Sponsor: You Tube TV

Colors: Terracotta Orange & Black

 

While the name Aztecs may be a bit tricky (cultural appropriation?) I think the design of the logo minimizes any concerns.  The Aztecs go with Umbro as their kit producer, and they go with a relatively basic orange jersey & black shorts/socks combo.  The main item of interest is the feather pattern on the jersey.  Let's say it has something to do with Quetzalcoatl, the plumed serpent.  The away kit features the same feather pattern, but changes up the colors with white jerseys. 

 

Coming right up: Vancouver. 

 

 

[WideRight]

VANCOUVER WHITECAPS

Sponsor: HSBC Bank

Colors: Deep Royal, Sky

 

I decided to merge two different Vancouver logos, taking the basic shield and wave of the Whitecaps and mixing it with the earlier crown from the Vancouver Royals.  As for the logo, I wanted to do something a bit different than what we see with the MLS Whitecaps, but keeping the twin blue motif and the use of a white jersey.  With the NASL teams that are also MLS teams (Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, etc) I am going to avoid for the most part the MLS logo and current jerseys and try to pull in elements of the original NASL design.  But I decided that the hoop design of the original Whitecaps was not what I wanted for this version, though I did try to keep a horizontal hoop element, just in a new way. 

[WideRight]

One more for today, and the first one where I took the crest/logo in a totally new direction.  

 

SEATTLE SOUNDERS

Sponsor: Starbucks

Colors: Navy & Teal

 

Decided that I did not want to borrow too much from either the original logos or the MLS version, so I went with the colors from their last year in the NASL and ran with an idea to include an Orca to symbolize the Puget Sound.  

 

For the uniforms, I went with teal as the primary jersey color, and a water/shimmer effect on the jerseys.  The away jerseys use the dark blue, but also a shimmer effect, but one that is supposed to be reminiscent of a sound graph made of a whale song (maybe a bit of a stretch there.)

[vtgco]

Aztecs and Rowdies look solid, no real suggestions there.

 

Toronto looks excellent though I'd suggest a maple leaf or a snowflake rather than a mountain on the away.

 

Edmonton's jerseys are cool but the updated, shaded ball feels really out of place with the flatness of the rest of the logo.

 

While it's hard to get on board with removing the Whitecaps' classic hoop, your jerseys are really nice. The crown works alright, maybe just lower the top of the shield to compensate.

 

Your logo idea for my Sounders is fine but the execution is a bit off. I'd ditch the tails of the banner, and work on the fin & wave alignment/outling so they don't nearly meet on the left and have inconsistent line weights with the pentagon. Finally, the "FC" is skewed too much, so you could fix it, or (preferably) just replace it with "Seattle."

 

The jerseys are solid. I might switch the shorts so that we get a semblance of the '80-'82 teal/white/teal kits.

[WideRight]

I agree that the Sounders logo may need another draft.  I tried several ideas with the Space Needle and it was just always awkward, but I see your point about the fin.  

But here are 2 more designs to keep everyone busy, and I am going with 2 teams with totally new logos. 

 

CHICAGO STING

Sponsor: Motorola

Colors: Black & Gold

 

 

For the uniforms I knew I had to keep the bee-stripe hoops on the home, but for the away I decided to use the same basic template but to do what everyone these days does with Chicago, which is a city flag homage. 

 

[WideRight]

And the second new kit:

 

DALLAS TORNADOES

Sponsor: Southwest airlines

Colors: Black, White, Red

 

 

Decided to totally scramble things up for the two uniforms.  The red-red-red uniform is now the secondary, and the primary is a Juve-influenced black and white striped kit.

 

[VancouverFan69]

On 6/11/2020 at 7:32 PM, WideRight said:

You all probably get the idea of this.  What if the NASL did not die out in the early 80's but instead remained the dominant soccer league in the USA through until today.  Obviously this means the MLS does not exist and the teams in this NASL are the top tier US squads.   I will limit myself to actual NASL teams, though the names may get "Europeanized" in some cases, the logos updated in many cases, and the kits will be more current than some of the designs in the actual NASL.

 

For this project I will work on logos and then use the PES Kit Creator to design the uniforms.  It is such a great tool, why try to do it on my own when it has millions of options. 

 

So, first up, a team that would not change names, that does not need to radically alter their logo/crest, the most iconic of all NASL teams. 

 

 

The only tweak here is a more modern soccer ball, with the "swirl" colors included and a slightly updated font.  Yes, it is FC, as most clubs will be.   As for the uniforms, the Cosmos are going with an Adidas Convivo design that allows them to add in some of the color swirls from the logo.   White with Green is the primary.  Green with gold is the clash.   Their jersey sponsor is jetBlue. 

 

New York Cosmos SC/FC.

 

 

[VancouverFan69]

Sorry, but my NASL keeps its North American brand. It's still the same sport. I can live with the FC's but I much prefer SC and the full-name, City & Official Team Name. The only change to the NASL would be is to get rid of the ridiculous points system of 6 points for a reg, or OT win, 4 points for a shootout win(no shootouts except in the playoffs) and 1 point for every goal scored up to 3. The MLS's current standings format, along with FIFA's is the best way

[WideRight]

Adding 2 more teams this morning, and then an update that shows where I am in the league reimagination project.   First up, my attempt to either please or upset BrianinBoston with the New England Tea Men.

 

NEW ENGLAND FC  "The Tea Men"

Sponsor: John Hancock

Colors: Navy & Orange

 

The premise here is that at some point in the early 2000's, with the rise of popularity of European soccer (especially the EPL) in the USA, many NASL teams started rebranding with European names, in most cases adding FC and officially dropping the team nickname, while retaining it as a secondary aspect of their identity (like NYCFC using "The Pigeons" or Orlando FC "the Lions").  The Tea Men were one of the first to do this, dropping to NEFC as the official name.  

 

The logo maintains the central image of the sailing ship, with a vague reference to the Boston Tea Party, which is identified by the year 1773 on the logo.  

 

 

The uniforms are also a radical departure from their 1970's look.  New England went "classic" with their look (ie. Basic), using a single chest stripe as their identifying trait.  Their primary kit is white with navy, while they adopted their clash kit as a salute to the Dutch national team (their coach at the time was Dutch) as a classic identity in orange and white.  The team has John Hancock (financial & insurance) as their sponsor, and Nike as their kit producer. 

 

[WideRight]

SAN JOSE QUAKES

Sponsor: Lyft

Colors: Deep red & black

 

The Quakes maintain their emphasis on red & black from the old NASL (as opposed to the blue & black of the MLS).  Their crest evolves into a standard shield, using a sash motif to hint at both the letter Q and the idea of a fault line,

 

 

The primary kits are red jerseys with black shorts & red socks, using a "fracture lines" pattern on the front to depict the motion of an earthquake.  The aways are white from Jersey to socks, with black as the only accent color, and again the fracture line pattern is used. The kits are produced by Adidas.