You'll have to pay for the Unicef on the shirts. It costs FCB some 2-3 million euros per year (number varies as it's a procentage of annual profit), which makes FCB the only club in the world which pays for the commercial on the shirt and not the all way around. The money doesn't go to Unicef in general but to defined project (orphan children in Africa with aids (infected by birth)). Btw, this Unicef commercial rise a lot of unease among barcelonistas. FCB was the only big European club without a commercial inscription on the shirt and the only club in Spain (Athletic Bilbao allowed shirt commercials only recently though), and this made barcelonistas very proud that we keep our shirt clean and not polluted with commercials, shirt and its colours being the biggest symbol of club identity. Even though all is for a good cause, many would prefer a clean shirt, like it was for decades.
Speaking personally, I as a barcelonista would be disappointed if FC Miami wouldn't use the blaugrana colours. I don't care about the name, nickname, badge or anything, but the colours are a true symbol of identity, and if we co-own another club the colours should be ours. Naturally not exact replica of our shirt, but some other combination of our shades of blue and red. Anyone shouldn't mind the potential criticism that colours or other symbols are "transplanted". It's pretty normal situation for clubs with long history in Europe, many clubs have their name or colours transplanted from some other club. Atletico Madrid for example was founded by students from Bilbao residing in Madrid, who felt homesick, and founded the club naming him after Athletic Bilbao (it later changed the name from Athletic Madrid to Atletico Madrid), using the same colours (red and white stripes). Nobody in sane mind sees this as a problem now. FC Barcelona has an English name (FC instead of CD or CF), because it was founded by foreigners living in Barcelona (British, German, Swiss), and at the beginning was percieved as a foreigners' club. The blaugrana colours are taken from FC Basel, which was the home club of the founder Gamper. One wonders if the naming which makes the same acronym (FC Basel, FC Barcelona -- FCB) is a coincidence. Still, noone with sane mind argues now that Barcelona doesn't have its own identity being a FC Basel transplant.
I agree, I think using the FCB colors, or a variation of them, would be the absolute best way to include Barça's identity in the Miami team, without the silly "Barcelona Miami" name variations everyone is afraid of. I'm sure even most hardcore Barça fans will agree that sounds ridiculous. There is the whole Nike v. adidas dispute that would keep the Miami team from wearing FCB's colors or kits, but there's no doubt they can get around it. Barça red/blue is actually one of my favorite combos for the new team. It ties in the with Panthers colors, so it's also locally relevant, and it flat out looks good. My favorite is still Fusion yellow/blue though.
Barcelona Miami in whatever combination does sound stupid (city+city), even though there's an exactly such club in Ecuador, and quite an important one: Barcelona Guayaquil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barcelona_Sporting_Club). I don't believe there would be a problem using blaugrana colours, Nike can't have copyright on colours, but they can't use the replica of current shirt, so whatever different combination of two colours would/should be OK. I think they don't know yet what to do exactly in this regard, they should research the local market before coming out with a final decision. On one hand strong symbolic connection with Barcelona would be regarded as positive, but on the other hand it would be negative, besides other issues at least it could deter soccer fans from Florida which are supporting other non-US clubs (while it would make Barcelona supporters in Florida exstatic). I believe both sides (Claure and FCB) are pragmatic, and as such IMO they'll go for a solution, which they'll believe will give the best result.
Those are really good points... I think we are putting to much emphasis in the idea that colors and names are going to give us an identity, advantage or disadvantage. I think we the fans can take care of that by supporting the team no matter what colors or name they use. I am super excited that we are going to have a team in Miami, and that (in my opinion) we will have the best and the most knowledgeable soccer ownership in MLS. Barcelona/Claure have a true understanding of what the game means, the tradition, how to go about doing business in the world of soccer. They would have to adjust to MLS, but in pure soccer terms we will have the best ownership. Whether the team is named F.C. Tropical Storm, or Ms. Barcelona USA This is going to be a class organization b/c our owners are class and the only thing we have to do is support them.
Boca Juniors has had (and may continue to have in the next semester) Unicef on their sleeves -- I am not sure what the payment structure is between Boca and Unicef...
I don't think a Miami team would have Unicef on the shirts like Barça does, simply because I would think FCB/Claure would want to squeeze every bit of revenue out of the team as possible early on. Even if they didn't have to pay anything more than they already do to have Unicef on the FCB shirts, it would make much better business sense to sell the space to a sponsor. Going with Unicef would be a noble move, and provide a tie-in to the "Barça brand", but I'm pretty sure they'll go with a corporate sponsorship.
Yes, they put it on sleeves but kept the main (breast) area on shirt for the sponsor. There are/were some other clubs with humanitarian commercial (one in Italy, but I don't remember the details), but as far as I know noone paid for it. As far as I know as I said. I don't want to sound like I naively think we are some kind of angels, so I'll write the criticism of the deal too: 1) /a conspiracy theory from barcelonistas:/ It's a wicked plan from Laporta. He put up the Unicef logo on our clean shirt, as noone can object to such a humanitarian act. But when this deal ends, he can put some sponsor for money with little objection, as the people will get used that a shirt is not clean anymore and that there are commercials on it. 2) /a jealous theory from madridistas/: So what. They are not doing for good reasons, they are doing to promote their brand. They got exposure by this action, everyone wrote about it, they're building up the positive image by this, which at the end will cost them less then if they would've paid for it to some marketing agency. In fact, they robbed poor Unicef looking good while doing it. (If it's so easy, why noone else does it?)
*puke* Sorry, I don't like too much derivation in color on the Publix logo. Only the top right looks any good. The others clash too badly.
Actually, if Ronaldinho somehow were to wind up wearing the Miami/MLS shirt, I wouldn't care if the whole kit was the color of fresh babycrap---there would be Samba in the streets of Miami as the club won cup after cup after cup. Or not, but still.
the one in the mddle to the left with out the Publix signs looks good, reminds me of river plate and then alternate can be black with white stripe...
thats what im talkin about, but we have to stick to one color no? i mean one set of colors... i like the river plate look
I would like to chime in on Barcelona's colors/crest/name in the MLS team: My opinion is to not use Barcelona anywhere just because it's stupid. Give the team a unique logo, crest, and colors. However, maybe make the away kit or a third kit in Barcelona blaugrana.
Here's a new set. I can't think of any team, in any league, that uses a rectangular crest, so I tried my hand at it. Team name this time is Club Deportivo Miami, and the crest is very art deco inspired. The home and away kits are inspired by the Fusion and Mutiny, respectively. Also included are various versions of the crest in some of the more popular color combos. As you can see, I still prefer Fusion yellow/blue over any other possibilty.
I hope the team doesn't end up with orange and green. I'd rather the team not look like univ of miami (or barca or the fusion either for that matter). Someting completely new for a new team.
How about yellow and black stripes? I think they look real good. And dont say Colombus has the same colors, because at some point, two teams are going to have the same color as MLS expands. There's not an infinite amount of colors. Plus, Colombus' jersey is straight yellow, and another shade of yellow Something like this: