Seattle's NWSL team name, colors and logo became official today. Here's a new thread for the newly named team. http://goalwa.wordpress.com/2012/12/19/official-seattles-new-team-is-reign-fc/
Meanwhile across town, Hope Solo makes a public appearance in a Sounders jersey. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.461083660622926.114771.159923537405608&type=1
Maybe change the title of the previous one to include the team name, then delete this one, mods? Or take up with this one and let the other fade?
Too many blue teams in this league. They made a mistake by not going with any green. I do like the logo a bit, but I wish they made the face (face-card) look more feminine like a "Queen" instead of a "Jack" or "King" as it looks now.
On 2nd thought, I guess their intent was to make it look more like a Queen than a King or Jack, but the Queen of Diamonds looks more like a lady than the Reign logo. The new logo looks barely more feminine than the McRib sandwich to me. "Hope Solo loves her McRib"
Players who tweeted about Seattle team name announcement: Kate Deines, Veronica Perez (retweets) Players who didn't: Hope Solo, Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, Sydney Leroux
Social Media after one day: Seattle Reign Facebook: 1,056 likes Seattle Reign Twitter: 1,155 followers
Not many players have been retweeting any of the NWSL-related announcements. That said, I bet Perez is a lock as one of Mexico's NTers for the Reign. Deines as a free agent may be a bit more of a question depending on the free agent pool and how badly the Sounders want to keep her.
You've heard of the phrase "House of Pain", as a reference in sports to a stadium that is tough on road teams to come in and get a win. Well, Seattle should nickname their stadium as the "House of Reign". And to create a mystique of loud noise, crazy fans, and whatever they gotta do to make it intimating to road teams to come in and get a win. This type of mystique would boost attendance. Seattle has passionate fans. They can get this to happen. You just need the right scoreboard announcer that is loud and crazy, great speaker system, loud music, crazy fan chants, and beer. And ticket sales (to fill the place up). That's all they need. And then it'll be the "House of Reign".
http://goalwa.wordpress.com/2012/12/21/reign-pick-brit-laura-harvey-as-first-head-coach/ Yep, it's Harvey.
Interesting. I haven't dug very deep into Harvey's history/time at Arsenal. But in general, I wonder how she compares to another ex-Arsenal Ladies coach that came stateside.
Laura Harvey Coaching Resume: Birmingham City First Team Coach – 2002 – 2006 Birmingham City First Team Head Coach – 2006 – 2008 Arsenal Ladies First team Coach – 2008 – 2009 Arsenal Ladies Head Coach/ Manager – 2009 – 2012 England U17′s/ U19′s assistant Coach – 2005 – 2011 Under Laura’s leadership the Arsenal Ladies captured the following trophies since 2010: FA Premier League Title – 2010 FA WSL Title – 2011, 2012 FA Cup – 2011 FA Continental Cup – 2011, 2012
Harvey interview: http://www.prostamerika.com/2012/12/21/75937/75937 They contacted me this week and it’s just been a bit of a whirlwind since then really. Once I had the first initial contact, I was interested in what was happening obviously with the new league. Over this side of the pond, it’s been something everyone’s been intrigued about. I wanted to learn a little bit more about it, and after conversations with the owner and the General Manager, it was clear that it looks like an exciting opportunity and obviously one I wanted to get involved with.
Audio Interview with Harvey: http://jackseattle.cbslocal.com/2012/12/21/new-soccer-team-seattle-reign-fc-coach-talks-to-callahan/
The hiring of Harvey is only great news for the league. I wonder if this will have any "pull" to get any English or European internationals over to this league.
I was already an Alex Morgan fan. Do we know for sure Alex Morgan is going to Seattle and won't be returning to her WNY haunting grounds? Theres so many players who probably want in to Seattle, the only thing she might have going for her is the fact she is the undisputed face & power house of the US Womens National Team and gets first dibs no matter what.
Very unlikely European Players have any movement towrads NWSL. English players might move as free agents, but I just can't see their federations sponsering players until this new league proves its staying power.