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Superleague USA


Whittier S

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On a number of occasions, I've tried to come up with the concepts for a 50-team American soccer superleague. I'm inspired to try again. This time, I'm assuming a two-tier league with promotion and relegation, with 25 teams in each division. There will be no geographic divisions or conferences.

The first step was determining which cities to award franchises. First off, I looked at a list of the 50 largest cities in the US, and compared it to a list of the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the US. Any city that appeared in both lists automatically got a franchise. Metropolitan areas containing more than one of the fifty largest cities only got one franchise, with the largest city being the official host of the metropolitan area. These rules produced the following list (given in the order in which I figured out their entry, not necessarily by population):

New York Apollos

Los Angeles Constellation (I SWEAR it won't have anything to do with Galaxy branding...)

Chicago Chill

Houston Explorers

Dallas Wildcats SC

Philadelphia Brothers United

Phoenix Tricksters

San Diego Frigates

Washington Dream

Atlético San Antonio

Detroit Diesels SC

Techno San Jose SC

CD Internacional Miami

Atlanta Groove

Boston Gaels FC

San Francisco Dragons

Indianapolis Crossroads FC

Jacksonville Juggernaut SC

Columbus Aviators FC

Austin Academics FC

Minneapolis Spirits

Memphis Blue Devils

FC Baltimore City

Charlotte Gems FC

Seattle Rock

FV Milwaukee Eagles

Nashville Athenians FC

Denver 5280

Las Vegas Silverbacks

Portland Greens

Oklahoma City Travelers

Kansas City Blues

New Orleans Mystics

Cleveland Foresters

Sacramento Rush

Virginia Beach Neptunes

This left me with 14 franchises to award. If one of the remaining metropolitan areas did not contain one of the fifty largest cities, but in real life hosts a MLB, NBA, NFL, or NHL franchise, it was in:

St. Louis Showboats

Tampa Flame FC

Pittsburgh Triad FC

CD Orlando Salsa

Cincinnati Flyers

Buffalo Electric SC

Salt Lake City Miners

Raleigh Triangle FC

To determine my final five franchises, I first looked at my nine remaining cities and 6 remaining metropolitan areas. If a city was in a state that already had a franchise, it was ruled out. If a metropolitan area bordered or nearly bordered a metropolitan area with a team already, it was ruled out. This gave me five:

CD Albuquerque Rams

Omaha Pioneers SC

Ali'i Honolulu

Wichita Aeros

Birmingham Magic FC

Then I realised I miscounted! I needed another city! I had three metro areas that fit the qualification of coming close to another metro area with a team (Hartford, Louisville, Providence--not doing Riverside-San Bernardino because I don't want too many California teams). Of the three, Providence has gone the longest without a major-league franchise (yes, I'm counting the ABA), so that makes Team #50:

Providence Machine

I will only be doing logos, no unis. And all team names will contain the name of the city--not a state or region--in the team name, because I am dedicated urbanist. :)

I'm looking forward to seeing how this develops.

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FV Milwaukee Eagles

If you want to reference Milwaukee's German heritage, may I suggest something along the lines of FV Milwaukee 48ers or FV Wisconsin 1848. The first wave of German immigrants to Milwaukee were called "Forty-Eighters" and it references the year Wisconsin became a state (1848).

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jaha32: Thanks for reminding me of the Las Vegas Locomotives. I was thinking of Silverbacks because of the silver mining history. I'll also think of other names, I'm sure.

I also intend for this to be a long-term project, and I'm basically restricting my graphic design projects right now to this and PuckDrawn contests. This is just a pastime for me, but I think by taking on a long-term project, it gives me a chance to get regular practise and improvement. A logo a week will put me at a year. I'm also much faster at making logos than uniforms, which is part of why I'm not making uniforms. I've sketched a couple out, and a couple more I'm pulling up from past attempts at this project.

illwauk: The reason I'm going with Eagles is that the eagle is the animal symbol for both the United States and Germany, and will be playing off that. Also, one of my rules for this project is city names only, so it has to be Milwaukee.

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Ah... I see. In that case, feel free to use this. It's a mock-up of the Milwaukee civil war flag which shows the German influence and can be found on the current butt-fugly city flag (if you ask me, the civil war flag should be the official city flag, but I digress).

Here's a few other suggestions you may use if you wish.

Albuquerque Sol

-Sol is the Spanish word for "sun" which can also play off the Zia, the Pueblo sun symbol that's found on New Mexico's state flag.

Twin Cities United or North Star FC

-No team from Minneapolis has ever gone by that name unless a team from St. Paul was in the same league. Barring that, I would go with a name like Left Bank FC, which alludes to Minneapolis' place on the left side of the Mississippi River.

Detroit Internationals or Inter Detroit

-Detroit on the Canadian border and connected to Canada by way of the Ambassador Bridge.

Phoenix Copper Stars

-There's a copper star on Arizona's flag, and Phoenix is the state capital (usually designated on maps by a star).

Tulsa Roughnecks

-This team would replace Oklahoma City and bring back one of the best identities from the original NASL.

Crossroads FC

-Indiana is known as the "Crossroads of America" and Indianapolis is where four major interstates intersect.

Gateway FC

-St. Louis is the "Gateway to the West."

Cleveland Rovers

-A double entendre that plays off a traditional soccer name and alludes to the "Dawgs" that are already part of Cleveland's sports heritage.

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Ah... I see. In that case, feel free to use this. It's a mock-up of the Milwaukee civil war flag which shows the German influence and can be found on the current butt-fugly city flag (if you ask me, the civil war flag should be the official city flag, but I digress).

Here's a few other suggestions you may use if you wish.

Albuquerque Sol

-Sol is the Spanish word for "sun" which can also play off the Zia, the Pueblo sun symbol that's found on New Mexico's state flag.

Twin Cities United or North Star FC

-No team from Minneapolis has ever gone by that name unless a team from St. Paul was in the same league. Barring that, I would go with a name like Left Bank FC, which alludes to Minneapolis' place on the left side of the Mississippi River.

Detroit Internationals or Inter Detroit

-Detroit on the Canadian border and connected to Canada by way of the Ambassador Bridge.

Phoenix Copper Stars

-There's a copper star on Arizona's flag, and Phoenix is the state capital (usually designated on maps by a star).

Tulsa Roughnecks

-This team would replace Oklahoma City and bring back one of the best identities from the original NASL.

Crossroads FC

-Indiana is known as the "Crossroads of America" and Indianapolis is where four major interstates intersect.

Gateway FC

-St. Louis is the "Gateway to the West."

Cleveland Rovers

-A double entendre that plays off a traditional soccer name and alludes to the "Dawgs" that are already part of Cleveland's sports heritage.

Thanks for the suggestions, they're really clever. Digging the Crossroads name as a native Hoosier. However, one of my rules is that the name of the city has to be included in the team name.

I almost went with Bayernische Milwaukee but thought that was over the top. And yes, the Milwaukee flag is awful, but so are the vast majority of US city flags. When compared with the seals of European cities, it makes me weep. I'm finding, though, as I develop my team identities, that the better flags are a great source for pallets, and city seals are good for picking up elements, as well. I plan to incorporate the seven stars of the Milwaukee city seal.

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This left me with 14 franchises to award. If one of the remaining metropolitan areas did not contain one of the fifty largest cities, but in real life hosts a MLB, NBA, NFL, or NHL franchise, it was in:

St. Louis

Tampa

Pittsburgh Triad FC

Sacramento

Orlando

Cincinnati

Buffalo Electric SC

Salt Lake City

Raleigh

To determine my final five franchises, I looked at my nine remaining cities and 6 remaining metropolitan areas. If a city was in a state that already had a franchise, it was ruled out. If a metropolitan area bordered or nearly bordered a metropolitan area with a team already, it was ruled out. This gave me my final five:

Albuquerque (Lights? Rams?)

Omaha

Ali'i Honolulu

Wichita Aeros

Birmingham Magic FC

I will only be doing logos, no unis.

I'm looking forward to seeing how this develops.

I'm pretty sure this is gonna be a big no from you, but how about something for Fort Worth?

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Not for this concept, but definitely another one. I was surprised to learn that Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington is the only Metropolitan Statistical Area to have 3 of the 50 largest cities in the country. The others having two: Los Angeles-Long Beach, Phoenix-Mesa, San Francisco-Oakland. When I get the chance, I'm going to post the lists of largest cities and metros, I think it might be a handy reference for folks.

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Not for this concept, but definitely another one. I was surprised to learn that Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington is the only Metropolitan Statistical Area to have 3 of the 50 largest cities in the country. The others having two: Los Angeles-Long Beach, Phoenix-Mesa, San Francisco-Oakland. When I get the chance, I'm going to post the lists of largest cities and metros, I think it might be a handy reference for folks.

Yeah.... 4th largest in the country. lol.

But I just wanted to ask. Thanks anyway.

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Running into some problems with my computer. I'm going to have to replace it. In the meantime, I'm going to be able to work on the logos at home, but my computer is no longer accessing the internet, so I will have to put everything on a flash drive and upload things elsewhere. It also means that, if I need a reference picture for a logo, I have to upload it elsewhere onto my flash drive and then putting it on my home computer. I hope to replace my computer in the next few weeks. In the meantime, I guess I will be focussing more on team names.

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Cleveland Rovers

-A double entendre that plays off a traditional soccer name and alludes to the "Dawgs" that are already part of Cleveland's sports heritage.

I think Force or Crunch would be a better option for Cleveland. There used to be a very popular indoor soccer team in the city with those names.

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Thanks for the suggestions, they're really clever. Digging the Crossroads name as a native Hoosier. However, one of my rules is that the name of the city has to be included in the team name.

What about Crossroads FC of Indianapolis or Indianapolis Crossroads FC

I almost went with Bayernische Milwaukee but thought that was over the top.

And there is this club in real life, which was originally founded as FC Bayern.

And yes, the Milwaukee flag is awful, but so are the vast majority of US city flags. When compared with the seals of European cities, it makes me weep. I'm finding, though, as I develop my team identities, that the better flags are a great source for pallets, and city seals are good for picking up elements, as well. I plan to incorporate the seven stars of the Milwaukee city seal.

Wow, I never even noticed the seven stars before, and I used to work in a government building with a huge seal plastered on the wall.

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Enio125: I'm wanting to use original names. Thanks for the suggestion, though. Takes me back to the old NPSL* days when I lived in St Louis and the Ambush played.

illwauk: I think you've sold me on some variation on the Crossroads name. It really is central to the city's identity. Also, not surprising that there was some variation of a Bavarian Milwaukee team. Nothing new under the sun and all that.

*Corrected from NASL. Too many alphabets in American soccer history, I swear....

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