Will new MLS teams recycle old names?
SOCCER DAILY
Expansion teams in Seattle and Philadelphia, and an anticipated club in St. Louis, have yet to settle on names, and the most popular choices are already at a premium.
Major League Soccer's board of governors is meeting Wednesday in New York and one topic not high on the agenda but quite likely to be broached, even informally, is the matter of names for the new expansion teams.
Seattle begins play in 2009. Philadelphia will follow in 2010. St. Louis is an odds-on favorite for 2011, and Montreal, Atlanta, Vancouver, Miami, Portland and New York all are jostling for position behind them.
Names, however, are at a premium. Once the Dallas Burn became FC Dallas and Toronto opted to be known as Toronto FC, the FC (or football club) moniker was sort of used up, or at least a bit passe.
No MLS club has yet used a couple of other favorites: AC (for athletic club) or City or Inter, and they all have something going for them.
And what about United? In England, Manchester United happily exists side by side with Newcastle United and West Ham United in the Premier League, and there are any number of other Uniteds scattered around the country.
So what if Seattle, Philadelphia or St. Louis chooses to be called United? It might already have happened, in fact. The investment and development group trying to land a team in St. Louis is called St. Louis Soccer United and it already has a website (stloiussoccerunited.com) and a rather swank logo.
Would D.C. United object to there being another United or two in the league? Would MLS object?
Commissioner Don Garber was in Los Angeles recently and fielded the question.
"My personal view is that a team deserves to have its own identity," he said. "I don't believe that D.C. owns the name United; it's sort of ubiquitous in soccer throughout the world. [But] it's hard to imagine that they can't find a name that would be more distinctive for them and their community.
"We're still developing our league and our team identities. I do believe our brands need to be about the sport going forward. We should celebrate the past, and honor and respect the past . . . but our brands should be about where we are tomorrow, not about where we were yesterday.
"I'm hopeful that they can find a name that is more future-thinking."
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