Hey guys... thought you might appreciate the thoughts of an opposing club's supporter. I just wanted to let you know that the Houston 1836 identity package has really grown on me over the past couple of days. Though I'm chagrined as a New England Revolution fan to have to admit this, I'm really of the opinion that your club posseses the best overall identity package in Major League Soccer. I honestly believe that Houston 1836 has the best logo/badge of any team in the league, as well as no worse than the third-best team name. I'd rank both categories as follows: TEAM LOGO/BADGE 1) Houston 1836 2) Real Salt Lake 3) FC Dallas 4) Chicago Fire 5) New England Revolution 6) Club Deportivo Chivas USA 7) DC United 8) MetroStars 9) Colorado Rapids 10) Columbus Crew 11) Kansas City Wizards 12) Los Angeles Galaxy TEAM NAME 1) Chicago Fire 2) New England Revolution 3) Houston 1836 4) FC Dallas 5) DC United 6) Colorado Rapids 7) MetroStars 8) Club Deportivo Chivas USA 9) Kansas City Wizards 10) Los Angeles Galaxy 11) Columbus Crew 12) Real Salt Lake Again, just one fan's personal opinion. Here's hoping that your kits live up to the name and logo/badge. Congrats on the kick-ass identity... and welcome to MLS! P.S. All pleasantries aside, I still bleed Revolution Red, White and Blue... and I'll still be rooting for New England to best Houston each and every time we take to the pitch. After all, when it came to declaring independence and fighting for freedom we New Englanders were "kickin' ass and takin' names" a good 60 years before anybody from the Bayou City decided to tell old Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna to get bent! Speaking of our regions' shared revolutionary backgrounds, perhaps a conference-spanning competition is in order. Might I suggest the Rebellion Cup?
Great name. It would have to be the Rebellion (sweet sounding) or Defiance Cup. Would be great to get a derby going with the revolution.
I've raised the very subject with my fellow supporters on the Revolution boards. Let us see what transpires, ladies and gentleman of Texas.
You Northern boys do understand what it means to us U.S. supporters down here in Texas when the U.S. plays el Tri??? I don't think you can appreciate the depth of that rivalry down here. It is nothing new like many parts of the nation. We grow up with them. We grow up on the same teams all of our lives. Beating Mexico means so much to me and my buddies. Santa Anna hung a flag outside the Alamo that read "Death to the Traitors". We could make a flag of that for our Rebel Cup or our favorite down South is the "Come and Take it Flag" Either would be a cool swap in any points race as we will play twice from here on out. Sounds great to me. I will take it to my people. With the Old Celtics and Rockets doing battle when I was a kid it is easy to loathe a Boston team yet at the same time respect them for how they play and how their people follow their colors.
If a man had a club like Forrest Oaks Frogs to be proud of I would put my money on a plane ticket to a new city.
Interesting piece by John Lopez of the Houston Chronicle. Listen to his opinion on Real Audio. At the end of the piece, Lopez mentions that Oliver Luck mentioned that the club would come up with a "nickname" for the club. Not to necessarily assume Houston 1836 would use "sixers" or "36ers", but that there may be another nickname for the club, something like "Apollos, Patriots or something". Listen to John Lopez here . . http://www.chron.com/content/news/mm/06/01/25/lopez.ram
Right, I agree. Per the reporter, it would be something like "Houston 1836" but they call themsleves the Apollos or Patriots or something like that" so as to have a name fans and reporters could headline with. I wouldn't be surprised though to see the city embrace 36ers right off.
But has it grown on the Hispanic Media. Just finished watching Contacto Deportivo its a real popular Half our Sports show on Telefutura(Sister station of Univsion dont know if its available in houston) The last Segment of the show talked about the name and the meaning how its the year the city was founded. But they also noted that its the year That the Whole Mexico/Texas Problems started, they took the opinion of Mexicans, the one MLS is so deperalty trying to pander too. and they felt it divided the City and that Mexicans Wont SUpport the team because of the old wonds. Anywho the Hispanic Media Had a Biased that the team should change the name because Mexicans in particular wont support the team. at the end of the Segment one of the anchor men said in his honest opinionthe name should be changed because it will divide the mexican community who will feel like they arent welcome. and the end of the week they are going to have a consensus and see what the public ie Mexicans think. I have a feeling that this is going to get ugly. Good Luck Guys. But hey Publicity is publicity at least the team name has gotten press coverage longer than thirty seconds. They got a whole Segment.
Oh geez......From now on...I'm going to just say ....Santa Anna lost, took 18 seconds to defeat him in his last battle. Get over it. FYI When Santa Anna lost, he signed the dotted line allowing Texan's independence in exchanged for his life. What a "heroic" leader. LOL, I've read texts stating in one that Sam Houston and Santa Anna were either "high" on opium or just drunk. LOL
18 seconds 18 minutes who cares, Spanish media tends to blow things out of proportion sometimes. Like i Said it got a whole segment on the Show so its better than nothing hopefully it will blow over because some of the people they interviewed were hispanic sport journalists in the area and they seemed to make a big deal about it. I like what the Council member told the spanish media in spanish. He stated," we can make this about the team or you can make it political issue your call."
Brian, good stuff. I believe there will be a lot of non-soccer fans in Houston wearing the team stuff just because of the logo and colors. You are going to see a lot of inner city kids in Houston wearing these jerseys that aren't even soccer fans.
I'm tellin ya...Don't go down the road of the 1836 or the 36'ers....make sure that the abbrev. name is Houston 36 Trust me
These are two great points that we need to keep in mind. First, the Spanish media often like to emphasize polemica - they look for ways to spin something into a controversy because, well, you know, that's just more interesting. See the Rumbo article that I posted in this forum for an example. I also recall that when Club America was considering investing in Houston, Rumbo ran a series of articles all trying to make a big deal out of the fact that Javier Perez Teuffer wasn't officially an employee of America or Televisa. Nevermind that he was their legally empowered agent and everyone in the city with whom he was negotiating was aware that he was authorized by America and Televisa. Rumbo just wanted to spin the story to sound like he was trying to pull a fast one. It was silly. But it made for good reading. Second, at this point, all publicity is good publicity. There are more people in Houston right now - even people who aren't soccer or sports fans - who now know that there's an MLS team in Houston. The more they talk about it, the better. Anyone who cares will learn about what 1836 means. There's no way that the name announcement would've have gotten this much free air time if they had called themselves the Houston [plural mascots].
[Garber]After much study of the Houston fan base, studying the diversity of this community...and...reviewing the need to attract that hardcore base of futbol fans...I present to you: The Houston Vatos Locos! Chuco....your mascot will present the new colors...Go Chuco! Go Loco! Go Ganzztah! [/Garber]
And let's not forget that Mexicans are not the only hispanic culture in Houston. I imagine that their rivals like El Salvador will get a kick out of their unhappiness and support the team all the more.
This is so true. Your right on the money! Or should I say, the marketing department should *hint*hint* that to upper management about puting HOUSTON across the chest of the jersey. Why? Look at all the Houston rappers coming up wearing Houston sports gear. They wear it because of their pride in the city which they live in. If they wear it, like you said, the music/Houston fans will wear it as well. = more exposure= more $$$$$ Putting HOUSTON on the chest would be a great idea.
Do you suppose Brits don't like the New England Revolution because their name references the American Revolution where we gained our independence from England? Or do you suppose they've gotten over that by now? If Mexican-Americans were going to be offended by Texas' independence...then why would they live in Texas to begin with? I think it's gonna be alright. And yes...there's no such thing as bad press. I'm thrilled by the level of exposure this is getting. Love it or hate it...people know about it and are talking about it.
you wonder if there would have been less uproar if we had gone along with the Redskins like the NFL team. That name is a bad slang term against native Americans, but it is still used. Our name doesn't even mention the actual events of the year... craziness indeed. bford
Heheh. I fully subscribe to this theory. I'll keep posting about Texas history and arguing about how great a name is as long as people and the media want to keep talking about it - because it just means we sold another dozen season tickets!
I really like the name. Unfortunately, many houston bloggers have been ripping the name on the 'net: http://www.houstonist.com/ closed minded non-soccer fans...