Name Philadelphia's MLS team
Philly.com is home to the official contest.
Name Philadelphia's MLS team
Jonathan Tannenwald, Philly.com
Filed Under: Soccer
Taking a diversion to soccer for a moment...I've been asked many times what I think the name of Philadelphia's forthcoming Major League Soccer team should be.
Honestly, what has mattered to me the most over time is that the city has a team, not that it has any particular name.
But now, you all have the chance to take matters into your own hands.
Philly.com is hosting the official name-the-team contest. The choices are SC (short for Soccer Club), AC (Athletic Club), City, Union or a fill-in-the-blank. I don't have any objection to any of them, but at the moment, I don't want to endorse a particular name either.
Having said that, I encourage you all to cast ballots, and to let me know in the comments here who you voted for and why.
Comments (7)
I voted Union. I think it ties into the city's importance in history in the creation of the Federal Union, our place in the Civil War's Union, and can also be seen as an allusion to the city's hard working citizenry. It also is the only one that really sounds like it's a nickname.— bryan76- I'm not really thrilled with the list of choices for Philadelphia's MLS team. To quote South Park, "I thought this was America." It seems to me (and check me on all this) that in the beginning of this league, you had DC United, named in a European style and a bunch of teams named in the American style of City, Nickname. The fact that you had a bunch of teams like the Burn, the Fire, the Galaxy and the Mutiny with collective nouns rather than plural nouns is something I'm against, but at least they were in the American style. Now the recent teams (with the exception of the Sounders) have been called Dynamo (a shoutout to the USSR, I believe), FC (x2) and Real (a tribute to Spain). Do you think this is admitting defeat, that we can never make soccer work as an American sport in the mold of the other major American sports? I know they take American style names for Japanese baseball and German basketball because they're American sports, so maybe it's been proven to work. But when your sport is trying to gain ink in the newspapers and time on the television shows, is making all these names sound foreign a good idea? I may be totally off the mark, and I know you know a lot more about this than I do, so steer me back on course.— CallMeJack
- CallMeJack, good points which is part of the reason why I like Union. I think it is a good blend of foreign and local tradition and is clearly a nickname in the American style, not a club name like England, Germany, Spain, et al. I'm glad the league is taking itself more seriously and coming up with names that matter to the community. Dynamo was not a tribute to Soviet Russia but instead "refers to Houston's energy-based industrial economy, as well as two previous Houston soccer teams, the Houston Dynamos who played in the Lone Star Soccer Alliance from 1987 to 1991, and the Houston Dynamos who played in the United Soccer League (USL) in 1984." The Sounders is a more European name than it looks from the surface, as is our beloved Phillies, if you want to go that far. Sounders were originally named that because they came from Puget Sound. The Phillies, certainly don't draw inspiration from a female horse, but instead is a derivative of the city name, something that has stayed popular in England, but not so here. In fact, the Phillies also owned a soccer team named the Phillies that played in the off-season. The concept of mutually named clubs is very Euro (LOL). Vote Union and you get the best of Euro and South American sporting tradition combined with the American tradition of having a strong nickname and accompanying mascot.— bryan76
- OK, I'm down. As long as the mascot can be a caricaturized head of Johnny Doc.— CallMeJack
- I like Philadelphia Union. I like the rest of the names as well though. Remember AC Philadelphia is basically the Philadelphia Athletics.— ktdb05
- I don't like any of the names up for vote. How about PHILADELPHIA INDEPENDENTS?— auntiem
- Independents is not bad. I wrote in Philadelphia United. It would represent the different boroughs in a way. You know, North, South, West and Manayunk.— Linus VP
Popular Posts
About this blog
Soft Pretzel Logic is Philly.com's college sports blog, with a primary focus on the University of Pennsylvania. You'll also see coverage of the Big 5, other major college sports events in the region, and the annual Penn Relays track and field meet.
Reach Jonathan at jtannenwald@phillynews.com or 215-854-2330.
Jonathan Tannenwald
Philly.com
Reach Jonathan at jtannenwald@phillynews.com or 215-854-2330.
Search this blog:
Topics:
Classifieds:
Site Services:
Partners:
Powered By:
