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There's a difference between "paying homage" and pandering.
If Eurosnobs don't respect or take the MLS seriously because some of our teams choose the North American City/Nickname format, then to hell with them.
The name in and of itself is not the reason we are not taken seriously. Obviously it’s skill level - and the fact we rank other sports so far above it (why pursue soccer when the difference in pay and notoriety is so dramatic).
That said, how is applying hokey names not pandering as well? It’s just pandering to a different crowd - in a league that played its first season in 1996 with teams that come and go - and come back again with different names. A little stability would be great, no matter the name.
That said, how is applying hokey names not pandering as well? It’s just pandering to a different crowd - in a league that played its first season in 1996 with teams that come and go - and come back again with different names. A little stability would be great, no matter the name.
Define "hokey"... and HOW?
Earthquakes + a city in Northern California that experiences earthquakes...
Fire = a very important historical event in the city of Chicago...
"Dynamo" in Houston, a city known for space exploration and energy...
Philadelphia Union... no explanation needed.
Seattle Sounders, Vancouver Whitecaps, Portland Timbers, Columbus Crew, Montreal Impact; all those names not only have history, but mean something. Even Kansas City's old name was referencing something to Kansas, even if it did sound dumb.
I respect those more than the forced, wannabe Premiere League names that came about in the last decade.
I respect those more than the forced, wannabe Premiere League names that came about in the last decade.
I don’t necessarily disagree with you - I just don’t agree the traditional names are ‘lame’, either. I actually don’t care about team names as much as I would like to see the skill level improve here (and see some stability in the direction of the league) given its ‘history’.
The only name that really sticks out for me is Real Salt Lake, which is an obvious take on Real Madrid. But Salt Lake has a 20% hispanic population, so maybe it made sense business-wise?
Earthquakes + a city in Northern California that experiences earthquakes...
Fire = a very important historical event in the city of Chicago...
"Dynamo" in Houston, a city known for space exploration and energy...
Philadelphia Union... no explanation needed.
Seattle Sounders, Vancouver Whitecaps, Portland Timbers, Columbus Crew, Montreal Impact; all those names not only have history, but mean something. Even Kansas City's old name was referencing something to Kansas, even if it did sound dumb.
I respect those more than the forced, wannabe Premiere League names that came about in the last decade.
I see names like New Orleans Riverboat Gamblers, Syracuse Salty Dogs hard to take seriously. Yeah I know theyre old and defunct clubs but the modern names are no better. A majority of MLS/USL team names sound like a five year old child thought it would be great to name the team that.
As a football fan I prefer names to be where we are from/formed. Simple FC, United etc is fine. The Euro snob that people like to throw around is laughable. MLS has poor quality football and very childish sounding names so it would be hard to pick up new foreign fans.
The only name that really sticks out for me is Real Salt Lake, which is an obvious take on Real Madrid. But Salt Lake has a 20% hispanic population, so maybe it made sense business-wise?
This is a huge team I cant take seriously at all, on a bid to sound more European they pick Real and even teams from Spain dont pick the Real, its given to them. I mean it is Salt Lake though, everything is awful there.
As a football fan I prefer names to be where we are from/formed. Simple FC, United etc is fine. The Euro snob that people like to throw around is laughable. MLS has poor quality football and very childish sounding names so it would be hard to pick up new foreign fans.
As a football fan I prefer names to be where we are from/formed. Simple FC, United etc is fine. The Euro snob that people like to throw around is laughable. MLS has poor quality football and very childish sounding names so it would be hard to pick up new foreign fans.
I don't throw around "Eurosnob", I mean that whenever I say it because those kinds of people exist.
I wasn't talking about the quality of play because MLS is (at best) #4 in this country and maybe #3 in Canada, so not as many people around here care about that as they would in Europe or Africa or South America. I'm talking about the naming of these teams and yeah, I'll call anyone a snob if they look down on a league just because they find the names to be "childish", which in itself is an opinion that comes off as uppity.
I don't throw around "Eurosnob", I mean that whenever I say it because those kinds of people exist.
I wasn't talking about the quality of play because MLS is (at best) #4 in this country and maybe #3 in Canada, so not as many people around here care about that as they would in Europe or Africa or South America. I'm talking about the naming of these teams and yeah, I'll call anyone a snob if they look down on a league just because they find the names to be "childish", which in itself is an opinion that comes off as uppity.
And focusing on team names (rather than our level of play) gives people a good reason to ‘look down’ on the league.
And focusing on team names (rather than our level of play) gives people a good reason to ‘look down’ on the league.
Except, NO ONE who is a fan of this league is focusing on the team names over the level of play.
This line of convo came from someone bringing it up...
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