From Grant Wahl interview of Don Garber Howard Handler, who has a great vision we'll be launching soon on our rebranding of the league and tapping into the real supporters culture that exists. Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/grant_wahl/11/29/don-garber/index.html#ixzz2DdsVAN4k
Not gonna happen, but if MLS is going to rebrand soon then I hope they buy the NASL name and finally excise those ghosts from the 80s. Would help knock a leg out of ye old American Soccer Inferiority Complex(tm). Plus people not-familiar with the league can say "The NASL" a be a lot less wrong.
Third page, in the paragraph where he talks about breaking Gazidis' position in two. I had to search for the phrase "rebrand" to find it myself -- it's not exactly the point of the interview. I was more interested in the strategic plan than the offhand rebranding remark, which really sounded more like a marketing campaign than anything else.
thanks. i eventually found it by looking for the guys name. but yeah, it seemed way way off-hand to be a "total rebrand of MLS to XYZ" ... maybe the are just talking about marketing and such. but a total rebrand from MLS would be pretty major ... worth more than a throw away line in a long interview. wonder why Grant didn't follow up on that?
MLS aren't changing their name, they didn't just spend the last decade and a half and all that cash getting the name 'MLS' at least partly understood in major cities in North America to throw all that away. Really it doesn't take much business sense to understand this. The 'rebranding' mentioned in that interview probably just means a new image for the league, a new theme in the marketing and a new focus on where they try to drive interest. Just like the early years were 'World Cup aftermath and soccer moms' and MLS 2.0 was 'Beckham and fan culture'.
Rebranding does not equal renaming. ... edit ... The stuff about "rebranding" to market the supporters culture reminded me of an old thread, which I've now tracked down: https://www.bigsoccer.com/community/threads/marketing-mls-to-adults.1208140/
Yeah, it seems as though the better word would be "remarket" or "approach our marketing from a different, fresher angle" or something to that affect. Maybe a new logo or something, but I doubt there will be a new name.
In my opinion, the most major part of the "rebranding" would be a change to the logo, and I don't even find that to be all that likely. And it definitely wasn't anywhere near a focus of the interview. I read the whole thing, saw this thread, went back, and had to search for it to confirm that it was in fact in there. I had missed it entirely in the wall of text.
That whole interview is a nice read. I love reading Garber say that it is nice to have medium to long term plans instead of just putting out short term fires all the time. I'm sort of shocked it's only garnered 8 comments in 3 hours. Is it just me or does Bigsoccer seem sort of dead these days?
And wait until we are in full off-season!!... all the crazy creatures start to appear once the regulars are absent.
If the "rebranding" is the take-away from that interview, and for this thread, I suggest the league get a corporate sponsor and just be known as Red Bull League Soccer.
Yeah, I think the headline here is that 'Project 2022' (we might as well call it that) is a real thing, that has metrics to determine success, and most importantly has dedicated funding marked for it. Just in time for Arsene Wenger to change the Premier League schedule to precisely the one we used to use. . . because summer soccer is inherently superior. I was gonna say, "we're just gonna give up on grammar and call it what every newbie reporter has for the last 17 years."
Garber has absolutely no clue about supporters culture and never will. He is a corporate hat and prawn sandwich eater that was born in a suit. He has fantastic organizational skills and has been great for the league but he has never come across as a fan of the sport or understanding the fan base - that may set him and MLS on a collision course with SG's eventually.
While I hate the YSA chant more than most, I was greatly taken a back by this statement from Garber "We've got to try to find a way to correct that. It wouldn't be tolerated in any other stadium in any other sport -- and frankly not tolerated in most European countries, either." He has to know how wrong this is especially with his ties to the NFL. As a previous season ticket holder for many years at NFL games, the language is significantly more harsh in the NFL stands than anything heard at an MLS game. And he is crazy to bring up Europe. While the YSA chant is embarrassing because of its utter banality(one of many reasons), it is infinitely better than hearing monkey noises in the stands.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/grant_wahl/11/29/don-garber/index.html#ixzz2Df9fqF6z Short excerpt from the 3 pages article MLS salary cap (assuming 10% rise each year for the new deal starting in 2015) 2012: $2,810,000 2013: $2,950,500 2014: $3,098,000 (from now forward, it will be 10% increase) 2015: $3,407,000 2016: $3,749,000 2017: $4,123,000 2018: $4,536,000 2019: $4,989,000 2020: $5,488,000 2021: $6,037,000 2022: $6,641,000 Before MLS can be one of the top leagues in the world, it has to surpass the Championship first. The wages bill for a mid-table Championship club is around 16.6 mil pounds or $26.6 mil USD. How competitive is a mid-table club like Bolton? currently in 17 out of 24 in the Championship with 25 points out of 19 games? Their roster: 1GKÁdám Bogdán 2DFTyrone Mears 3DFMarcos Alonso 4DFMatt Mills 5DFTim Ream 7MFChris Eagles 8MFKeith Andrews 9FWDavid N'Gog 10MFMartin Petrov 12DFZat Knight 14FWKevin Davies (captain) 15DFStephen Warnock (on loan from Aston Villa) 16MFMark Davies 17FWBenik Afobe (on loan from Arsenal) 18DFSam Ricketts 19FWMarvin Sordell No.PositionPlayer 20MFJay Spearing (on loan from Liverpool) 21MFDarren Pratley 22MFStuart Holden 23DFJoe Riley 24GKAndy Lonergan 25MFJosh Vela 26GKRobert Lainton 27MFChung-Yong Lee (South Korean international) 28DFAndy Kellett 29MFJacob Butterfield (on loan from Norwich City) 31DFDavid Wheater 33DFAdam Blakeman 34GKJay Lynch 35MFJoe McKee 38FWSanmi Odelusi 39DFAlex McQuade 10 of the 32 players above are not English.
I think the difference is that the profanity in the NFL is not organized and synchronized. 300 people chanting YSA in unison is a lot more noticeable than 3000 people yelling random profanity (which is what you see in the NFL). Probably the closest thing in other American sports is the "Bull-shit" chants directed at referees.