The Value of North America’s Old Soccer Brands

Interesting little article. His "value" is just based on his own opinion, he admits, but its cool to look at. As a native Okie, I would LOVE to see a Tulsa Roughnecks brand brought back. It will NEVER HAPPEN, but I can dream. Any other cool old logos/names you'd like to see pull a Lazarus?

I notice the article makes no mention of this logo/name...

Yeah, noticed that too. unfortunately... the value of tassels has been going down since the early 80s :-(

San Diego Sockers

And his table of 25 looks pretty dumb without the Sockers on there, at least somewhere, especially since the Wichita Wings made it to 25

NY Cosmos
Chicago Sting
Tulsa Roughnecks
Minnesota Kicks
San Diego Sockers

How about names you want to stake in the heart so that they NEVER re-animate?
Washington Dips
Washington Whips
New England Teamen
Colorado Caribou
Miami Fusion
Tampa Bay Mutiny
California Surf
Cleveland Stokers
Oakland Stompers
San Diego Jaws

Was a silly name when the team played in Massachusetts but when they were relocated to Jacksonville and kept the Tea Men moniker it became one of the stupidest names in sports history.

Did they dress as Indians?

Don't see what's so stupid. When they moved, they didn't change owners. They were still owned by Lipton.

They moved from Boston to Jacksonville. Tea Men in Boston, ok silly but at least there is some sort of link to the Boston Tea Party. Tea Men in Jacksonville, just stupid.

Maybe so, but at least they were still owned by a company that made tea, which is why they were named Tea Men in the first place. Just like the reason why the Portland team was named the Timbers.

I guess. The LA Lakers doesn't make sense either, but it's still a pretty good brand.

People in Jacksonville drink a lot of tea, which is a stretch, but it still makes it more fitting than a lot of names out there right now. Utah Jazz, New Orleans Hornets (New Orleans' basketball team is actually named after the city of Charlotte, not the bug, look it up), Sacramento Kings. Heck, the NBA is crawling with names worse than the Jacksonville Tea Men.

That's just because the win. Almost nobody, even from Minnesota, knows they were once the Minneapolis Lakers anymore. It's just a name for them.

And for the record, I like the name and the jersey of the Boston Tea Men. It's significant on a number of levels, including one that hasn't been mentioned here--Boston's public transportation system is called the T. The city has a love-hate relationship with it, but it's the preferred mode of transport for a ton of working class Bostonians.

Maybe it's just because I'm not originally from SD, but I don't like the name "Sockers." My roommate and I were talking about what a good SD name would be and he mentioned the "Sockers," and my first response was, "seriously?" If that's what SD soccer fans want, then power to them, but as someone lacking the nostalgia for it, offering only an outsider opinion, I'm not a fan. I do like this one though: http://www.bigsoccer.com/community/threads/potential-names.1675622/page-8#post-25728073

By the way, it's still a great article and worth the read.

What about the idea of some of the even older brands? Like Bethlehem Steel or Fall River Marksmen... I know I'm not being creative here, and I'm sure there's an older thread somewhere, but I was just thinking that, as long as the Cosmos are being accepted as "Team 20," what about some of those even older teams being "recreated"?

Kansas City Wiz

Read this article a while back and as a native St Louisan I would hate to see the Steamers reborn as an MLS side. As an MISL side sure, but St Louis has so much soccer history beyond the Steamers that naming a new team that would be somewhat limiting. Beside I think most younger fans (<35) don't feel the same connection to the Steamers brand.

Not a huge fan of San Diego Armada, although I think the Navy reference is one to be explored. It's miles better than 'Sockers', though. I don't even know what "socker" is. Someone who hits other people? Someone who wears socks? Someone who doesn't know how to spell 'soccer'?

The only thing good is the alliteration, but I think the letter 's' will have no trouble providing other options. No offense to the folks who like it, but nostalgia only gets you so far.

I think it is an outgrowth of the era when soccer was try to sell itself to Americans as being tough and hard-nosed. Hence names like the San Diego Sockers and the Oakland Stompers.

They should sell the name to a concern in Cleveland.

Hence the other issue with the name Steamers

The Sacramento Kings were the Rochester Royals, which still doesn't make any sense.

I remember a TV commentator calling a match between the KC Wiz and the Dallas Burn "the Peptobismol Bowl"

What he wanted to say was, "Urinary Tract Infection Bowl".