Funny, I was talking to a friend a couple weeks ago about the Elk Grove group, and he seemed to think it was going nowhere. Don't know why, probably just baseless speculation. But that would be great to get an MLS team here ( and I agree that would kill off a USL team in 3.2 seconds.) Hell, I'd even cheer for the goats!
An MLS team in Elk Grove would be a horrible mistake, and ironically kill itself off with Sacramento's USL team.
Well where can we have a legit stadium? If one can be built in Elk Grove for the Goats, then I would be all for it. It could work in part of the Large Latino communities in the Central Valley. Also we would have an instance rivalry w/ the 'quakes. It would be all good.
If you would like Bigsoccer to add a Sacrmento -specific forum that you will post to, please post a yes vote here: https://www.bigsoccer.com/community/threads/please-add-sacramento-to-usl-pro-forum.1979182/
So what imagery do you like for a team? Crossed pickaxes? Acorns or something else representing oak trees? Rivers? Government?
Looks like the Kings are definitely moving out. I don't know what that means for soccer in Sacramento.. but it might mean something. Or nothing. I know it means the Sounders will have real competition now in the spring and fall. They should move to Sacramento.
What about the "Hawks", as in a red-tailed hawk. They are native to the area, present a good image, and is easy to say. ... and those tomatoes, they were likely found in on one of the roads in a town near Sacramento, not in Sacramento.
Anything along the lines of City of Trees, gold, rivers.. Hawks? Meh.. There are a plethora of hawks throughout any and every sport. I'd like something a little more unique to represent our city/area. If the NBA leaves will it help of hurt the soccer club? Theoretically, yes, because there will be a ton of people here craving sports and that much more disposable income lying around, more room in the local media for coverage. But we also need to account for the negative impacts of the Kings leaving - hundreds/thousands of jobs gone, the ripple effect, loss of revenue into the city coffers. May not be a good thing in the mid to long term, but for the short term, probably helps.
And there you have it. Team colors: Tomato red and asphalt gray. I want to know how a D.C. United fan knows about this distinctly central valley phenomenon.
Agree on all counts. As far as fan support, there is not a lot of overlap between the Kings season and the USL season, which seems to run parallel to MLS and baseball. Last season, USL finished by early September. The River Cats, being more affordable and therefore a family friendly environment, still offers sports-entertainment competition.
I'm a North Bay native, and I've lived all around California -- the Bay Area, LA, the Sierras. I actually have family in Davis and know the town very well. I'm down in Sacramento all the time. (Which is also why I might end up at some of this team's games.) As for United, well I didn't spend my entire life in California. For some years, right when MLS began, United really was my local team. I explained my continuing support here.
I was in suburban Maryland in the mid-to-late 90's, before I was much of a soccer fan, and D.C. United seemed to be the MLS standard-bearer in those years. At least that's how it seemed to me at the time. After the 'quakes, I have a soft spot for D.C. Hope they get their own stadium soon.
hopefully the team will have a strong marketing program, that is the only way to draw fans to watch it.
I am hoping to see some action by the team. In the next month, just to keep their product fresh people's minds.
I haven't heard anything. Nothing new on their page, nothing via their email newsletter, nothing in the media, nothing on Facebook/twitter(though they post random soccer stuff every now and then). I'm really worried they will not solicit input from the public in the early stages, and rather suddenly come out in a couple of months saying "hi everyone, here are our colors, team name, players, coach, and the extent of our plans/marketing. Enjoy!" Without doing focus groups or getting input from fans. The impression that I get is the PR firm they've hired are either not putting enough time and effort into the campaign, or are ameteur. The ownership group are baseball people, and I don't even know if these are things these guys are thinking about. I just want to hear something, anything...
They've at least posted a link to this thread on their Facebook page. The link they posted is not active but if you copy and paste it into the browser it works. I reposted the full link as a comment on their Facebook page. Hopefully, that will help the conversation and keep people interested. But, face it, any news surrounding the Kings move to Seattle or building a new arena at Downtown Plaza will drown out any soccer news in the local media, so perhaps we should just be patient. Although I agree with everything you're saying.
I like the crossed pick axes idea. It encourages imagery of determination and hard work. I'm drawing a blank on how to pull in the river theme, other than using an "S" in the form of a meandering river. The capital dome could be used. Perhaps the shape of the team's crest could be that of the capital dome. It would distinguish our crest from Sacramento Gold FC, which already uses the dome at the top of their crest:
#SacProSoccer tweeted a link to this thread. Looks like we are starting to get some traction for this team. I know it's a year or more before we see our team on the pitch but I would love to see soccer being played by some of the USL pro teams. Maybe we could see PDL Sacramento Gold FC vs a USL Pro team in a friendly.
Here's a out of left field idea for this group? The partner with Eric Wynalda and his Cal FC. He becomes their technical director and head coach and puts together the team. My money is that he could put a winning team on the field and with using mostly if not all Cal players. These are mostly baseball guys that own the team. They can concentrate on the off the field stuff and they get a completed on field organization with great credentials. It's a great idea, so of course will never happen. LOL