And in NY/NJ were stuck with MetroStars (the worst name in MLS now... by far) which was named after Metromedia Corp, the original investors.
Ugh!
Roberto.
In a message dated 8/12/04 12:58:00 PM, jim@ajax-usa.com writes:
To Richie's point, younger fans of European teams are probably unimpressed
to learn that their club won the "Fairs Cup" 30 years ago -- until they
realize it's the former name of the UEFA Cup Winners Cup.
So what are the best/worst team names in MLS?
I remember ten years ago when the newly formed league was wrestling with
team names, logos, colors, mascots etc. I *hated* all the "verb" names:
Clash, Burn, Wiz, Force, Crush, Stomp, Spew, Belch. How do you put that on
a flag? How can you embrace something so abstract? And of course it led to
some truly bizarre "mascot dilemmas". Remember the Clash's lobster?
By contrast, some names had physical or historical relevance. Revolution,
Fire, Rapids. You could see a connection between your club and the name,
so it gave you something to latch on to. Granted, the connection is
sometimes horrific disaster (e.g. Earthquakes), but it was OUR disaster,
damn it!
Not sure about the relevance factor for The Crew. (Is Columbus an
*unusually* hard-working blue-collar town? I have no clue.) But it's a
good name. DC United? I suppose the Capital unites the country. Anyway,
another good name. LA Galaxy? Of course, all those stars! (Ech, another
reason to hate'em.)
So here we are 10 years later, and the league is finally jettisoning those
abstract force verb names: The Burn joins the Clash in the dustbin of bad
branding decisions, along with those horrific inaugural season uniforms
from Nike. And of course the Wiz are (sadly, for the rest of us) the
Wizards.
- jim
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