Proposed Seattle MLS Logo & Uniform Designs

[eRay]

After reading all the posts and throwing in my own ideas, I think they should use the logo for Seattle FC 2, but replace "Seattle" with "Sounders" in the logo and name, and use the colors from #4.

Then we end up with a green and blue team named Sounders FC and a pretty sweet badge on their jerseys.

[agentrygraphics]

Ditch the Sounders homage and name the team....

FC Starbucks.

[ShinyHubCaps]

Is it Seattle Sounders or is it Seattle FC, or Seattle FC Sounders? Soccer in the U.S. will never catch on if these are the best names they can come up with.

Oh, and it's boring.

Hmmmm, thats interesting since no one has said it before.

The top is AC Milan. the best is the last. And Seattle will never get a team, although very deserving.

I mean on the whole. These names suck, but all MLS teams named "FC ________" or "___________ FC" or "Real _________". It's like having a league where there are multiple teams named "Lions" or "Tigers," or maybe like having a league where half of the teams go by just the city name/first name and have no nickname. Because essentially, these have no nickname. And wouldn't it be SC instead of FC?

[ykiki5]

After reading all the posts and throwing in my own ideas, I think they should use the logo for Seattle FC 2, but replace "Seattle" with "Sounders" in the logo and name, and use the colors from #4.

Then we end up with a green and blue team named Sounders FC and a pretty sweet badge on their jerseys.

You know, I like your thinking. Sounders FC has a nice ring to it. Keeping the traditional name and colors, while using a logo that features one of the city's most recognizable landmarks is a great idea.

[Fred T. Jane]

Rumor has it that Paul Allen (yes... the multi-billionaire), Adrian Hanauer (yes... the owner of the USL-1 Champion Seattle Sounders) and Joe Roth (yes... the movie producer) are pretty confident their ownership group will be granted a team to play at Qwest Field (yes... the Seattle stadium managed by Mr. Allens's First & Goal, Incorporated).

Stay tuned.

If/when Seattle gets an MLS club, and they use the Sounders name, what happens to the USL club?

[-kj]

Doesn't matter if they use the name or not, the USL-1 club's going under.

[Fred T. Jane]

Doesn't matter if they use the name or not, the USL-1 club's going under.

Going under as in moving? Or going under as vanishing?

[rams80]

Doesn't matter if they use the name or not, the USL-1 club's going under.

Going under as in moving? Or going under as vanishing?

Vanishing, IIRC...

[cyandlux]

And Seattle will never get a team...

I wouldn't bet on that.

Rumor has it that Paul Allen (yes... the multi-billionaire), Adrian Hanauer (yes... the owner of the USL-1 Champion Seattle Sounders) and Joe Roth (yes... the movie producer) are pretty confident their ownership group will be granted a team to play at Qwest Field (yes... the Seattle stadium managed by Mr. Allens's First & Goal, Incorporated).

Stay tuned.

I hadnt heard any of that! Very interesting. I use a Mac.

[Evan]

MLS to expand to Seattle

"According to an earlier report by the Herald News of New Jersey's Ives Galarcep, the Sounders ownership group will have a big hand in the new MLS club, and the expansion team will also be called the Sounders."

but then

"MLS spokesman Dan Courtemanche denied a deal with Hanauer and Roth was imminent, but did say, "Things are moving forward with [the Seattle group], but we've had no finalized agreement. Should they decide to use the Sounders name, uniform and colors, that's a discussion we'd look at.""

BTW, I love the designs posted here. I got to see a Sounders game 2 summers ago and had a great time. Light blue and a deeper green just scream Seattle to me. Perhaps its the deep forrests and the bodies of water that exist in Seattle, but I think those two colors ARE Seattle

[Brian in Boston]

With deference to a certain college football program in West Virginia, the fan campaign to maintain Seattle's most traditional soccer team brand for use by a Major League Soccer franchise in the city should revolve around a simple, heartfelt, resounding call-and-response.

WE ARE! SOUNDERS!

[gordie_delini]

I mean on the whole. These names suck, but all MLS teams named "FC ________" or "___________ FC" or "Real _________". It's like having a league where there are multiple teams named "Lions" or "Tigers," or maybe like having a league where half of the teams go by just the city name/first name and have no nickname. Because essentially, these have no nickname. And wouldn't it be SC instead of FC?

to the FC/SC debate - Either is appropriate. As mentioned in previous threads, the term Soccer is an old school boys' abbreviation for Association Football (what the World refers to as Football, as opposed to Rugby Football, Australian Rules Football, or American Football). Soccer comes from the 'soc' in association, but again, it's an abbreviation of Association Football. So either SC or FC would be appropriate. They could even go with AFC, which might have a nice ring to it as well.

As to the other part of your comment, entire or half the league with just the city name.....could you mean leagues like the Barclays Premier League? Or perhaps the Italian Serie A? What about the Spanish La Liga? It's entirely conventional for football leagues the world over to have just the city name. Most football teams don't have nicknames. However, there are certain clubs that don't go just by the city name, but for reasons specific to the clubs foundation, not just to have a team nickname. Two classic examples come to mind:

1) Arsenal FC. Originally, when founded in 1886, the club was named Dial Square FC, named for the part of the Woolwich Arsenal Armament Factory in which the founding members of the club worked. When the club turned professional in 1891, they changed the name to Woolwich Arsenal, another reference to the factory at which the club was founded. When the club moved from its ground in the district of Woolwich to Highbury in 1913, the club dropped the 'Woolwich' from the name, and became Arsenal, and have had the moniker ever since.

2) FC Internazionale di Milano is the other club that comes to mind. For a long time, AC Milan (Associazione Calcio di Milano - notice it's just the name of the city with FC preceding it in Italian, of course) would only allow Italian-born players to join the club for the most part. In 1908, a group of Italians and Swiss men decided to leave AC Milan and formed their own club, with the idea to be open to any player from any country, hence the name Internazionale (commonly shortened to Inter).

When you get multiple clubs in one city, you often find that one will be named just for the city, the other will have some other distinguishing moniker - take for example Manchester, which houses Manchester United and Manchester City.

So when it comes down to it, naming a club after a city is quite commonplace in the football world, and I have no such problems with clubs like FC Dallas or Toronto FC. I think in the future it would be cool if the Colorado Rapids ever moved to another state, they could pull a Woolwich Arsenal and just refer to themselves as Rapids FC. Anyway, there you have it.

[Gothamite]

Look... I understand what Major League soccer is trying to do. The league is desperately trying to establish credibility amongst soccer purists by apeing the branding conventions of club teams in traditional soccer hotbeds around the globe. I have my doubts as to whether such moves are going to convince expatriate international soccer supporters to suddenly embrace Major League Soccer en masse with the same sort of fervor they typically reserve for their favorite homeland-based sides. Rather, I think the primary appeal of such branding is going to be amongst already "captive", soccer-loving poseurs.

Just want to be sure where you're coming from: are you equating "soccer purists" with "poseurs"?

If that's the market they're going for, they'll be sorely disappointed.

That having been said, I really hope they keep "Sounders" as well as all the team history. Like to see that continuity, and the name is great.

[ShinyHubCaps]

As to the other part of your comment, entire or half the league with just the city name.....could you mean leagues like the Barclays Premier League? Or perhaps the Italian Serie A? What about the Spanish La Liga? It's entirely conventional for football leagues the world over to have just the city name. Most football teams don't have nicknames. However, there are certain clubs that don't go just by the city name, but for reasons specific to the clubs foundation, not just to have a team nickname.

So when it comes down to it, naming a club after a city is quite commonplace in the football world, and I have no such problems with clubs like FC Dallas or Toronto FC. I think in the future it would be cool if the Colorado Rapids ever moved to another state, they could pull a Woolwich Arsenal and just refer to themselves as Rapids FC. Anyway, there you have it.

Well I think the discrepancy comes basically with American Soccer teams, e.g. Real Salt Lake (imitates Real Madrid among others), or FC Dallas, or (I know it's not U.S.) Toronto FC. It's because American culture prefers nicknames than just city names. Colorado Rapids, for example, sounds considerably more American than FC Dallas. Colorado Rapids follows suit with American team names like Colorado Rockies, Denver Broncos, Denver Nuggets. It seems like, at least for MLS, American culture squares off against soccer tradition in how teams are named.

I understand the international implications, but for MLS, I don't think American soccer will ever catch on if they fight American culture by team names.

[gordie_delini]

American soccer won't catch on because the quality is terrible. Any decent American players go to Europe, where the leagues are way better. Nicknames or not, it all comes down to quality of play. Don't get me wrong, MLS has made huge strides in increasing the marketability of the league and in its quality, but again, at the end of the day, people will watch the game whether there are nicknames or not if the quality of play is exciting and significantly better than it is now.

[GFB]

As to the other part of your comment, entire or half the league with just the city name.....could you mean leagues like the Barclays Premier League? Or perhaps the Italian Serie A? What about the Spanish La Liga? It's entirely conventional for football leagues the world over to have just the city name. Most football teams don't have nicknames. However, there are certain clubs that don't go just by the city name, but for reasons specific to the clubs foundation, not just to have a team nickname.

So when it comes down to it, naming a club after a city is quite commonplace in the football world, and I have no such problems with clubs like FC Dallas or Toronto FC. I think in the future it would be cool if the Colorado Rapids ever moved to another state, they could pull a Woolwich Arsenal and just refer to themselves as Rapids FC. Anyway, there you have it.

Well I think the discrepancy comes basically with American Soccer teams, e.g. Real Salt Lake (imitates Real Madrid among others), or FC Dallas, or (I know it's not U.S.) Toronto FC. It's because American culture prefers nicknames than just city names. Colorado Rapids, for example, sounds considerably more American than FC Dallas. Colorado Rapids follows suit with American team names like Colorado Rockies, Denver Broncos, Denver Nuggets. It seems like, at least for MLS, American culture squares off against soccer tradition in how teams are named.

I understand the international implications, but for MLS, I don't think American soccer will ever catch on if they fight American culture by team names.

You are assuming that the MLS wants to challenge the other leagues right now.

But I think the thing you are missing is that the MLS tried going the "American" nickname way. Mutiny, Fusion, Burn, MetroStars, Clash, etc. They tried going out and getting the "sports fan". But what happened? They all failed (or changed names). The league was extremely unstable and losing money.

Then a few years back, the MLS finally decided to stop chasing the "sports fan" and start chasing the "soccer fan". And so far it has worked pretty well. The league is somewhat stable now and they received a motherload of publicity with Beckham.

The MLS is carving it's nitch with the soccer fans right now. The average sports fan will come to them when they are ready to. I hope you can understand this.

Also, I posted my version of the Seattle MLS team in the Concepts forum, you should check it out here

[Camden Crazy]

MLS will go nowhere if they keep trying to do things the "American" way, including team names. They need to do everything that leagues like the EPL and La Liga do.

Not to mention, tradition or not, Sounders is such a ridiculously bad name. We get it, you're by Puget Sound, you don't need to name a soccer team that.

[rams80]

Not to mention, tradition or not, Sounders is such a ridiculously bad name. We get it, you're by Puget Sound, you don't need to name a soccer team that.

They have for more than thirty years. I'm willing to hazard that no other brand will sell in Seattle, which is the point some of the other folks here have been trying to make.

[leopard88]

Not to mention, tradition or not, Sounders is such a ridiculously bad name. We get it, you're by Puget Sound, you don't need to name a soccer team that.

They have for more than thirty years. I'm willing to hazard that no other brand will sell in Seattle, which is the point some of the other folks here have been trying to make.

Exactly. It isn't that Sounders is a great name (I'd venture to guess that most people would say it isn't even a good name if it was being proposed for the first time). It's that it has meaning and tradition to Seattle fans, which can be used to the advantage of the new team.

If the teams didn't already exist, no one would suggest naming teams the Red Sox, White Sox, Jazz or Packers today. However, no one would suggest changing those names either (with the exception, perhaps, of the "swap the Jazz and Hornets names because Utah is the Beehive State" crowd). Why? Because those names carry meaning and tradition.

[patsox]

MLS will go nowhere if they keep trying to do things the "American" way, including team names. They need to do everything that leagues like the EPL and La Liga do.

Not to mention, tradition or not, Sounders is such a ridiculously bad name. We get it, you're by Puget Sound, you don't need to name a soccer team that.

My point exactly...:censored: tradition, it's a stupid name.