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Revisiting the California Soccer League! (SERIES FINALE)


TheGiantsFan

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We have finally reached the final team of the CSL, and it's the defending champions in Oakland!

 

Bay Area Division

Oaktown SC

Oakland, California

Founded: 1970

Championships: 1*

 

*Defending champions entering the 2019 season

 

ORIGINAL POST:

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Oaktown (a popular nickname for Oakland) is one of the seven founding teams in the California Soccer League, albeit the least successful (in terms of championships) of the original seven. The soccer team shares the yellow-and-green color scheme with not only the Oakland A's baseball team, but also the Oakland city flag! As for the crest, it's a very simple circular logo featuring an oak and "Oaktown SC" on top.

 

The home kit is a very simple, predominantly-yellow jersey and shorts with green trim and NOB. The clash kit plays on the shape of oak leaves on a green jersey. The kits are supplied by Adidas and the sponsor is Kaiser Permanente, a hospital system headquartered in Oakland.

 

After decades of misery and heartbreak, Oakland is finally home to a championship-caliber team! First of all, the crest has been given the Borussia Dortmund treatment with the oak taken directly from the city flag. Although the home kits are still gold and the clash kits are still green, they have received numerous tweaks after the 2015 season. The home kit has a sublimated oak tree pattern, and the clash kit has a rectangular "checkerboard" pattern inspired by the shipping containers at the Port of Oakland

 

Oakland will rock a CSL Champions scudetto-style patch in the middle of their kits throughout the 2019 season, with the trophy being a four-legged (with two in the middle) trophy with the California grizzly bear on top of a soccer ball

 

The NOB for Team No. 49 also has significance as our newly-inaugurated 49th Vice President is a daughter of Oakland!

 

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I still have to make the kit compilations, but for now here is a compilation of all 49 team logos and a completed map of the CSL:

 

CSL Team Logos:

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Map of all CSL Teams:

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If you're wondering what's next, I have decided that I will be making the second-tier California Soccer League II! I had to leave behind quite a lot of fun places in the more urban parts of California to give the CSL a true representation of the entire state, but they will have a place in the CSL2. I have the locations set, but I haven't quite figured out the league structure just yet. Stay tuned for that! :)

 

(I actually contemplated creating this second league back in 2016, but I never actually went forward with it back then)

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Guest darkpiranha
18 hours ago, ItsSlothy said:

Any chance for a potential return to Los Altos somewhere down the road?

Agreed!  Make Los Altos one of the other divisions.  Back in the day (1990s) my overall league had a fictional 51st state called New Eden that was just somewhere off the coast of New York.  It had its own league, but would regularly compete with my fictional New York based league.    

 

Let them fight!

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23 hours ago, Section30 said:

Well done all around on this series, definitely one of my favorites in a while

 

I can't wait to see what you come up with for the CSL2!

 

8 hours ago, element7ero said:

what a fantastic series!

bravissimo 👏

 

So many beautiful uniforms and logos.
Well done!

 

I'm glad you all enjoyed this series! :)

 

6 hours ago, darkpiranha said:
On 1/24/2021 at 9:01 PM, ItsSlothy said:

Any chance for a potential return to Los Altos somewhere down the road?

 

Agreed!  Make Los Altos one of the other divisions.  Back in the day (1990s) my overall league had a fictional 51st state called New Eden that was just somewhere off the coast of New York.  It had its own league, but would regularly compete with my fictional New York based league.    

 

Let them fight!

 

Although Los Altos concepts aren't my top priority right now (my social media followers are likelier to appreciate real-world fictional teams than fictional teams for fictional places), I might consider revisiting those concepts later on down the road! :)

 

5 hours ago, MDTrey4 said:

Such a good series all-around. My favorite in a long time. It's probably wishful thinking but this would be a great feeder into a US Champions League. Maybe after CSL2 is done... 👀

 

Thank you very much! :)

 

There was a time around 2015 or so when state-specific concept started popping up throughout the forums. Off the top of my head, there are state-specific leagues for Florida by @soflo_sports (none of the pictures work anymore, though), Minnesota (I think there's another Minnesota league somewhere on the Concepts board), and another California league by @rsaline. I may have missed a few, but I hope my California series inspires some new state-specific series from other people, and possibly a massive US Champions League down the road!

 

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As promised, here are the compilations of every home and clash kit in the California Soccer League!

 

CSL Home Kits

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CSL Clash Kits

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Now that the original California Soccer League has concluded, I would like to thank all of you that have taken the time to look at my California teams! Thank you to all that have commented here and there, and a huge shoutout to @MDTrey4, @TheHealthiestScratch, @CaliforniaGlowin, @Megildur, @FlyingLamprey, and @darkpiranha for the very detailed and helpful feedback regarding the development of these teams! There's also a couple of y'all that also commented on my original hand-drawn CSL six years ago, so thank you for following along all these years! :)

 

Oh, and please check out my California Soccer League post on my Behance for all the hand-drawn and digitized teams together!

 

I'm not sure when exactly I'll begin the CSL2 teams, but please stay tuned for those! I'll be continuing this thread with new concepts in the coming weeks~

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It all looks great!  Everything stands solid on its own and works perfectly together as a whole!  It's hard to pick favorites, but there are some real solid ones all over - Monterey, Reno, Chico, Mammoth Lakes, Olympic LA, Solvang, Visalia, and Fresno all stand out to me personally, but they're all great imo.  Great job, and looking forward to the designs and cities for CSL2 (bigger cities like Riverside, Irvine, and Chula Vista seem like shoo-ins, but maybe more obscure places like Morro Bay? Lake Havasu? Owens Valley?)!  Also, how do you end up finding these logos for the sponsors?  I always have trouble finding editable SVG versions of a lot of sponsor logos!

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Drink water and try to have fun!

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On 1/26/2021 at 12:34 PM, PascalHugo said:

A really good job mate! 😉 You have improved some logos a lot, and I find the way you digitized them fantastic.

 

Thank you very much! I'm glad you liked the digital versions of the teams! :)

 

On 1/26/2021 at 6:23 PM, soflo_sports said:

Awesome work as usual man. I've been a close follower of this since the beginning and I think your crest designs are second to none. Damn near perfect. Thanks for the shoutout too, I've got something in the works 👀

 

I'm glad you enjoyed the series, and I look forward to seeing what you're doing next!

 

On 1/27/2021 at 1:23 PM, FlyingLamprey said:

It all looks great!  Everything stands solid on its own and works perfectly together as a whole!  It's hard to pick favorites, but there are some real solid ones all over - Monterey, Reno, Chico, Mammoth Lakes, Olympic LA, Solvang, Visalia, and Fresno all stand out to me personally, but they're all great imo.  Great job, and looking forward to the designs and cities for CSL2 (bigger cities like Riverside, Irvine, and Chula Vista seem like shoo-ins, but maybe more obscure places like Morro Bay? Lake Havasu? Owens Valley?)!  Also, how do you end up finding these logos for the sponsors?  I always have trouble finding editable SVG versions of a lot of sponsor logos!

 

I'm glad you like the variety of teams! It was fun to work on 6 years ago, and it was fun remaking them now; there'll be much more of that coming up~

 

As far as CSL2 teams, Riverside and Irvine will definitely be one of the larger cities that will have a team (Chula Vista actually has the CSL's Coronado SC, but neighboring National City will have a CSL2 team). I also have a couple of more obscure places in CSL2, but I will only be having teams that are easily accessible to or within larger metropolitan areas, as these second-league teams might not have the traveling budgets of the bigger CSL teams (which means that places like Lake Havasu and Owens Valley would be out of consideration, unfortunately).

 

As far as the sponsor logos go, a good chunk of larger companies (such as Boeing for Lancaster-Palmdale and Corona for Yuma) have SVG logos on Wikipedia/Wikimedia Commons, or on websites such as Brands of the World. Sometimes, you have to look harder for an SVG file, as I sometimes looked through a company's website for sponsors such as Ballast Point for Real San Diego. The third way is through the good 'ole Image Trace tool, as so many logos online exist only as PNGs or JPEGs; the PNGs are a little easier to vectorize, but you'll inevitably run into logos that vectorize into so many shades of the same color and demand a little more work.

 

Hope this helps in your search for sponsor logos!

 

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The CSL2 is almost ready to begin, as I got a basic league framework set up and I'm working on the first two teams right now. I'll have those two teams and the introduction to the 70-team CSL2 within the next few days! :)

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19 hours ago, TheGiantsFan said:

As far as the sponsor logos go, a good chunk of larger companies (such as Boeing for Lancaster-Palmdale and Corona for Yuma) have SVG logos on Wikipedia/Wikimedia Commons, or on websites such as Brands of the World. Sometimes, you have to look harder for an SVG file, as I sometimes looked through a company's website for sponsors such as Ballast Point for Real San Diego. The third way is through the good 'ole Image Trace tool, as so many logos online exist only as PNGs or JPEGs; the PNGs are a little easier to vectorize, but you'll inevitably run into logos that vectorize into so many shades of the same color and demand a little more work.

 

Hope this helps in your search for sponsor logos!


Interesting!  I normally use Wikimedia for most of my SVG logo needs, but I wasn't aware about the other site so I'll definitely have to take a look at that.  I don't use Illustrator so I won't be able to use image trace, but I can work with new websites/digging around for random sponsors.  Thanks for the heads up!

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Drink water and try to have fun!

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Welcome to the California Soccer League 2!

 

Much like the USL ecosystem, the CSL has a second-tier team of its own. My main motivation behind creating this league was to create teams for exciting places throughout California that unfortunately did not make the 49-team cut for the CSL. Unlike the CSL, however, the CSL2 will consist only of teams in California, with many of the league's teams being located in the major urban areas of the state. 

 

The CSL2 consists of 70 teams across 7 geographic divisions, and you can see all of the teams on this map. While I already have ideas for several CSL2 teams, I'm very willing to outsource idea generation to the forum as I'm all ears to any suggestions for teams! While I'm quite satisfied with the cities that I have selected*, I'm also open to team "relocations" as long as the cities aren't extremely remote and are relatively close to the other teams and major urban areas (these teams won't have the huge traveling budgets of the CSL teams).

 

*The team names that are italicized in red aren't super finalized just yet

 

Some of the teams may have affiliations to CSL teams (much like the MLS reserve teams on the USL leagues), but I'm not 100% sure how I will be pulling that off just yet. I also don't wanna be lazy and simply slap a "2" onto the CSL team identities 😂

 

With that little intro done, here are the first two CSL2 teams!

 

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Western Division

Fremont Dynamo SC

Fremont, California

Founded: 2012

 

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The biggest landmark of Fremont today is Tesla's first factory, and it's no surprise that Fremont's team started out as a weekend hobby for a group of Tesla factory workers. The crest combines a thunderbolt with an "F" for Fremont, and is inspired heavily by the Geelong Greys FC concept by @mcrosby. The colors are Tesla red and the electrifying Atlanta Hawks volt*

 

*Am I in the minority of people that actually liked the Hawks' 2015-2020 look?

 

The home kit is a red kit with a large volt-colored thunderbolt in the middle, and the clash kit is a volt jersey with a white thunderbolt striped pattern (angled to match Fremont's location on the East Bay). The kits are supplied by Nike, and the shirt sponsor is obviously Tesla.

 

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Southern Division

Irvine SC

Irvine, California

Founded: 1990

 

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For those unfamiliar with the city of Irvine, it is basically a massive Orange County suburb characterized by cookie-cutter homes of varying shades of beige and overpowered homeowners associations (HOAs). The crest features the hot air balloon of the Orange County Great Park, which was converted from a decommissioned Marine Corps air station. There are two shades of Orange County orange, and the inevitable Irvine beige.

 

The kits are simple and very HOA-friendly! Both are striped jerseys with an orange home jersey and a clash jersey that resembles the mission-style residential architecture that's all over the city. The kits are supplied by Umbro, and the team is sponsored by the Irvine Spectrum Center.

 

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I'm so excited to take on new visual styles and cities with this series, and I'm excited to see what suggestions for teams and identities you all send my way! :)

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Great start! 
 

As for ideas, I grew up in Morgan hill...they have the Orchard Valley Toros FC that you could borrow: http://www.ovysl.org this is named after El Toro, the prominent hill at the west end of town. There’s also El Toro Brewing Co. to support the toro idea. 
 

but don’t stop there! Morgan Hill is also the only place in the world that grows a beautiful rock known as Poppy Jasperhttps://www.google.com/amp/s/www.barlowsgems.net/amp/morgan-hill-poppy-jasper/


also, the first high school in town were the Live Oak Acorns. We had the slogan “go nuts!”, and an anthropomorphized acorn holding a lightning bolt. Pretty boss if you ask me!   https://thewaterproject.org/community/profile/live-oak-high-school

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Others to consider: 

 

gilroy—-rival to Morgan Hill. Known for their Garlic Festival. Also there was a shooting a couple years ago that made national news. also has. Gilroy Gardens 

 

Watsonville—strawberries. Very large farm worker population.

 

Palo Alto- Stanford, has the big particle accelerator/collider. Could go the “isotopes” route. 
 

San Jose 2–could go with any one of the mini valleys that comprises the big city—Almaden, evergreen, coyote, etc

 

santa clara—has a mission, catholic university, also large amusement park, Levi’s stadium

 

carmel—richies...its right next to 17 mile dr, lone cypress, pebble beach. I think Lone Cypress FC is a great name and the tree would make a great base for a crest. 
 

Santa Maria—steak! Maybe name it after the Hitching Post 

 

antioch—something about the delta, ships, or wind. Tons of wind there, and windmills nearby. Though you already have a windmill concept 

 

Yuba City—twins (w/ Marysville) 

 

woodland—tomatoes!

 

roseville—trains 

 

folsom—lots of cyclists here, also unexpectedly there’s a small zoo
 

 

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San fernando valley Stars. many movie stars lived there (and it's known for other movies 😉). 

 

Fremont's colors are great!

 

Burbank could have an aviation theme.

 

Compton needs a street/graffiti theme! There are not enough of those in sports.  Colors: dark asphalt gray, light concrete gray, brick red.

 

Temecula could have wine colors: dark red and pale yellow.  Or a cool rose color.

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On 2/2/2021 at 12:26 PM, FlyingLamprey said:

Interesting!  I normally use Wikimedia for most of my SVG logo needs, but I wasn't aware about the other site so I'll definitely have to take a look at that.  I don't use Illustrator so I won't be able to use image trace, but I can work with new websites/digging around for random sponsors.  Thanks for the heads up!

 

Ah, that makes sense for your situation. Usually I do a Google search of "___ logo vector" and it usually leads me to Brands of the World or other similar sites. It's quite a search, though. I'm happy to help! :)

 

On 2/2/2021 at 3:46 PM, element7ero said:

this is quickly becoming one of my all time favorite series/threads. I'm looking forward to many further great ideas that you bring creatively to reality. 👍

 

Thank you very much! I'm glad you like it~ :)

 

On 2/2/2021 at 9:29 PM, woody86 said:

Great start! 
 

As for ideas, I grew up in Morgan hill...they have the Orchard Valley Toros FC that you could borrow: http://www.ovysl.org this is named after El Toro, the prominent hill at the west end of town. There’s also El Toro Brewing Co. to support the toro idea. 
 

but don’t stop there! Morgan Hill is also the only place in the world that grows a beautiful rock known as Poppy Jasperhttps://www.google.com/amp/s/www.barlowsgems.net/amp/morgan-hill-poppy-jasper/


also, the first high school in town were the Live Oak Acorns. We had the slogan “go nuts!”, and an anthropomorphized acorn holding a lightning bolt. Pretty boss if you ask me!   https://thewaterproject.org/community/profile/live-oak-high-school

 

As someone who passes by Morgan Hill all the time as I travel between Salinas and the Bay Area, I surprisingly know very little about Morgan Hill. I appreciate the feedback, and I'll probably make an acorn-themed team (although mushrooms are a thing there too) with the Poppy Jasper's color scheme for Morgan Hill! :)

 

On 2/2/2021 at 9:47 PM, woody86 said:

Others to consider: 

 

gilroy—-rival to Morgan Hill. Known for their Garlic Festival. Also there was a shooting a couple years ago that made national news. also has. Gilroy Gardens 

 

Watsonville—strawberries. Very large farm worker population.

 

Palo Alto- Stanford, has the big particle accelerator/collider. Could go the “isotopes” route. 
 

San Jose 2–could go with any one of the mini valleys that comprises the big city—Almaden, evergreen, coyote, etc

 

santa clara—has a mission, catholic university, also large amusement park, Levi’s stadium

 

carmel—richies...its right next to 17 mile dr, lone cypress, pebble beach. I think Lone Cypress FC is a great name and the tree would make a great base for a crest. 
 

Santa Maria—steak! Maybe name it after the Hitching Post 

 

antioch—something about the delta, ships, or wind. Tons of wind there, and windmills nearby. Though you already have a windmill concept 

 

Yuba City—twins (w/ Marysville) 

 

woodland—tomatoes!

 

roseville—trains 

 

folsom—lots of cyclists here, also unexpectedly there’s a small zoo

 

That Palo Alto idea actually sounds amazing! I'll combine it with Stanford red and Palo Alto should be set!

 

Lone Cypress FC may be a difficult name and crest due to the tree's copyright, so we shall see if the Pebble Beach Company lets a soccer team use that imagery! I'll definitely use your Santa Maria ideas, and a Twins-themed Yuba City/Marysville team sounds wonderful! Thank you for your feedback :)

 

On 2/2/2021 at 11:34 PM, CaliforniaGlowin said:

San fernando valley Stars. many movie stars lived there (and it's known for other movies 😉). 

 

Fremont's colors are great!

 

Burbank could have an aviation theme.

 

Compton needs a street/graffiti theme! There are not enough of those in sports.  Colors: dark asphalt gray, light concrete gray, brick red.

 

Temecula could have wine colors: dark red and pale yellow.  Or a cool rose color.

 

You have some solid team identities right there, but I'll be using those for different cities (Burbank for the movie stars and probably East LA for the street theme). I greatly appreciate the suggestions, and I'll definitely use those when I get to those teams :)

 

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Northwest Division

Calcio North Beach

San Francisco, CA

Founded: 1990

 

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San Francisco's third* team is first of several ethnic teams in the CSL2, and this one is for SF's North Beach neighborhood, a historically Italian-American neighborhood. The crest features the Saints Peter and Paul Church, which is the center of activity in North Beach and was famously the venue for Joe DiMaggio's wedding with Marilyn Monroe. I was kinda stuck about how to tackle this crest until I found this Juventus crest concept on Reddit. This team also maintains the Italian theme with a different take on the traditional Italian colors (taken from these badges I found on Dribbble) and a name reminiscent of Italian naming traditions, as "Calcio" translates to "football" in English.

 

The green home kit features a diagonal sash that references Columbus Avenue, the neighborhood's main avenue that diagonally cuts through SF's street grid. The clash kit is a reference to the neighborhood being the center of the 1950's Beatnik culture and the Transamerica Pyramid that's highly visible in North Beach; I wasn't able to find much about Beatnik graphic design, but I found that designs that reference the Beatniks usually have mid-century geometric designs. The clash kit is pink as it's a unique color used by Palermo and Juventus; shoutout to @alexandre and @woody86 for pointing that out! The kits are supplied by Puma (like the Italian national team) and the sponsor is the Boudin Bakery located in the neighboring Fisherman's Wharf tourist district.

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Can't believe you turned this around so quickly and are already putting out fire with CSL2. My one critique would be the difference between the home and clash for Irvine. I'm not sure there's enough contrast between the two. If the home team decides to wear red (or orange for that matter), there would be no real clash. Best way to combat that is probably mono-beige for the clash.

 

Can't wait to see what else is in store for all these smaller towns.

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