Canadian Soccer Pyramid 2028

[mattwswfc]

Calgary Owls - NASL

One thing that really helped solidify the Edmonton franchise was the introduction of a natural rival in Calgary in 2020. With Ottawa being promoted to MLS, Calgary was granted an expansion franchise to replace the Fury. The team was called the Owls after the great horned owl, official bird of Alberta.

Calgary has also benefited from having Edmonton as a rival, and the soccer version of the Battle of Alberta has been raging for 8 season and counting. While Calgary has not had much success in the league, they made one memorable run in the Canadian Championship in 2023, being narrowly defeated by Vancouver in the final. Calgary always is a tough competitor for the Drillers too, always bringing their A-game to all-Alberta contests.

The crest here uses the C and colours from Calgary's city flag. Rather than a cowboy hat, the C features an owl in the middle. I wanted to steer clear of oil and gas names (because of the Drillers) and western-themed names (because they are sometimes overdone).

This is a great nickname, not being biast at all! Would be nice to see some of the SWFC Owl incorporated into this. Nice set though!

[nas1787]

Kingston FC - OL1

I'm pretty sure Kingston has folded, only lasting a couple years. But for this concept, I decided to bring them back from the dead. I tried to fix up their old logo while keeping most of the elements intact.

[nas1787]

York Region Shooters - OL1

York Region's current look is far too close to LA Galaxy, so I decided to switch it up a bit and go with the pill shape. As there isn't too much imagery to work with for a nickname like Shooters, I just used the soccer ball with a couple lines indicating motion. There are 9 white stripes representing the 9 towns and cities in the region.

[nas1787]

I like the Windsor concept, but I wonder how it would look with just the W and Star, no shield, no ball.

Interesting you say this, as I borrowed the W and star from a previous concept I did. I added the soccer ball and shield to make it explicitly soccer. See the original here.

[nas1787]

Also wanted to post a quick update of Windsor. Added a stroke all the way around to give it a bit more of a finished feel.

[nas1787]

Brantford Soccer Club - OL1

Another one dear to my heart, Brantford is my hometown. The Galaxy have officially taken this controversial CSL season off, and I'd be surprised if they ever come back. But in my reality, they do! And rebrand to get rid of a terrible name. Brantford is sometimes called the Bell City due to the fact that Alexander Graham Bell had a summer home in the city and largely invented the telephone while there. Hence the bells. I liked the red and black stripes of the Galaxy, so they stay in the new crest.

[nas1787]

Forest City United - OL1

Currently there are two London clubs, City in the CSL, and Forest City in the PDL. In 2017 the clubs merged and made the jump to OL1. The new crest incorporates each of the club's colours, and introduces some trees (essential for a team named Forest City IMO).

[1clkgtramg]

You really cleaned those up!

Kingston's was a little too busy, I like what you did with it; although maybe have a white border in between the red and blue. The colors are quite dark so they end up blending from a distance.

York's annoyed the hell out of me because of the similarity to LA although it would be nice to have 2 teams there, after all they do have diverse cultures/ethnicity and a population of 1,030,000 and counting.

Windsor looks perfect now.

Brantford looks nice and clean but I've never been a fan of the logos with script on the outside. Same with the Halifax team, I would have it in a circle, it just looks cleaner on a jersey in my opinion. And when I get to it, Bell will be the sponsor for Brantford regardless of tier level and headquarters location

Forest City looks nice too, not too many teams with that colour scheme.

[nas1787]

Brantford looks nice and clean but I've never been a fan of the logos with script on the outside. Same with the Halifax team, I would have it in a circle, it just looks cleaner on a jersey in my opinion. And when I get to it, Bell will be the sponsor for Brantford regardless of tier level and headquarters location

To tell you the truth, I would probably agree with you that I prefer to have the words on the inside of the logo. But I am attempting to mix up the styles as much as possible. I don't want an entire league to look exactly the same. It's one of the issues when one person is making this many crests, trying to keep it varied.

[1clkgtramg]

I hear you. I did find it quite hard to make a variation of shapes for my logos, and jerseys were really hard especially when there are only so many colours in this world!

[nas1787]

Only two teams left in OL1, so I thought I'd just finish it off for good.

St. Catharines Wolves - OL1

I wanted to make St. Kits something that is recognizable as being influenced by AS Roma, without being a complete ripoff. Got rid of Romulus and Remus, as they make no sense outside of Rome. Went with similar crest shape and colours.

[nas1787]

Toronto Lynx - OL1

I wanted to include the Lynx because their a club that has been around for quite awhile but have bumped around various leagues. They joined OL1 from the PDL. Pretty straightforward redesign. I didn't draw the lynx myself, rather it is cobbled together from a couple different images I found on Google.

[nas1787]

That's it for Ontario League 1. Here's a quick review of the whole league.

Next up will be the PLSQ. It's a league that I know very little about, so don't get mad if I make some changes that are completely outrageous. Big thing is that it is expanding outside of Quebec into the Maritimes, much like the QMJHL. Should be able to get the first clubs up tomorrow.

[Jer15]

Well, when you put all the OL1 logos together like that, it's a league with a lot of unique identities.

I really like what you did with OL1, I think my favorite is St. Catherine's. Going from being a complete Roma rip-off to a great unique look.

[MarkEightThree]

Overall I like the OL1 designs, except for three. Windsor and Sauga look a little too simplified for me. Mississauga has a lot of imagery to draw from, which I think the Steelheads have already done a decent job with, using the steelhead trout of the Credit River and the lighthouse from the city's Port Credit area: http://www.sportslogos.net/logos/list_by_team/3910/Mississauga_Steelheads/

Not a fan of Brampton's crest at all and that was the one I was looking forward to the most. Brampton already has a pretty decent flower roundel to represent it's nickname as Flower City, so I wouldn't mind seeing a team use it in a similar manner to Portland Timber's Rose City crest. I did a design last year that didn't stray too far from their faux Man United crest, but I agree a whole new identity is needed: http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4qyrhorDc1qe7z0uo1_r2_1280.jpg

Have to mention that Ottawa, London, Niagara and Brantford are awesome. I wish the clubs would adopt them tomorrow. Kingston is also great but the city name going across the front looks a little too boxing/MMA-like for me. Trilliums in place of the outside bells on Brantford might look good too.

Sorry for the long read! I've been following this thread closely and just realized I haven't given any input and praise, which I think is well deserved. I've been really enjoying the lower division stuff.

[Jer15]

Not a fan of Brampton's crest at all and that was the one I was looking forward to the most. Brampton already has a pretty decent flower roundel to represent it's nickname as Flower City, so I wouldn't mind seeing a team use it in a similar manner to Portland Timber's Rose City crest. I did a design last year that didn't stray too far from their faux Man United crest, but I agree a whole new identity is needed: http://25.media.tumb...uo1_r2_1280.jpg

I think it's a hugely missed opportunity for this club to call themselves simply "Flower City" I think it would be a someone unique name while trying to stay in the "European" naming scheme.

Not that I'm overly worried about it IRL though. The CSL has become a joke with all the match fixing. But that's another story for another thread.

[GotPixels]

Only two teams left in OL1, so I thought I'd just finish it off for good.

St. Catharines Wolves - OL1

I wanted to make St. Kits something that is recognizable as being influenced by AS Roma, without being a complete ripoff. Got rid of Romulus and Remus, as they make no sense outside of Rome. Went with similar crest shape and colours.

The nipple-less version version is money.

[nas1787]

Thanks for the input guys, I appreciate it. In reply to a couple of Mark's comments:

For Missisauga I was trying to update what they currently have to make it a bit more professional looking. That's why the overall shape, colours, imagery and name stayed the same. If I were completely rebranding the club, drawing locally like the Steelheads would be a great idea.

It's much the same for Brampton. Not knowing much about the city myself, I just worked with the colours and name that I had. I think Flower City would be a great name, I had no idea that was a nickname for Brampton. I like what you came up with, though I still think the Man U shape needs to go. Is the flower you use in your design the roundel you are talking about? If you have a link with a better look at it, I'll take a stab at blowing up Brampton entirely.

As for Windsor, the point was to be really simplistic, I think it's a good look.

[ExpandTheA-League]

Who ever did some of these honestly I love these designs they look great I just wish I could do them!

[Jer15]

Thanks for the input guys, I appreciate it. In reply to a couple of Mark's comments:

For Missisauga I was trying to update what they currently have to make it a bit more professional looking. That's why the overall shape, colours, imagery and name stayed the same. If I were completely rebranding the club, drawing locally like the Steelheads would be a great idea.

It's much the same for Brampton. Not knowing much about the city myself, I just worked with the colours and name that I had. I think Flower City would be a great name, I had no idea that was a nickname for Brampton. I like what you came up with, though I still think the Man U shape needs to go. Is the flower you use in your design the roundel you are talking about? If you have a link with a better look at it, I'll take a stab at blowing up Brampton entirely.

As for Windsor, the point was to be really simplistic, I think it's a good look.

Oh yeah man, back in the 1860s , not too long after Brampton was founded, the primary industry was greenhouses. There was one big company called Dale's Greenhouse which had something insane like 150 greenhouses in North America. Of course the city (i guess town at the time) started doing the a festival called "The Flower Festival of Brampton"...which was a complete rip off of Portland's Rose Festival, lol.

Anyhow that's how that nickname came to be.

The flowers that Mark used in his logo are the flowers featured in the logo for the city... which of course is always sucks when I see that logo on some mail in my mail box....means it's time to pay more taxes, lol.