Awesome. I think a cool thing to do would be to print out fliers with just the name of our website and that's it and then hand them out.
I hope they change the name. Its not endearing. It sounds like the team was created in the 90s on a whim, o wait it was. I know I know it was named for an animal that was in the Atlanta Zoo, but come on really? It just doesn't sound like a name that has true staying power or that is very marketable. It really comes down to the fact that I don't think people take a team seriously when the owner is like "hey yall have a gorilla now? Sweet I'm going to name my soccer franchise after it because those two things go together perfectly". Maybe its just me but I don't get it. I think all of my points can be backed up by the fact of where the club is now, nowhere.
By the way, I live in Montgomery, AL. We have a baseball team called the Montgomery Biscuits, I kid you not. I've heard people tell the story that the owners had a town hall meeting and some drunk guy stumbled in and suggested the name, and the owners thought that it sounded like a quirky, fun and endearing name. The fact is, that it is a MINOR LEAGUE TEAM. People expect minor leagues to be quirky, fun and endearing. One reason they expect this is because the Minor leagues aren't trying to compete with the major leagues. MLS on the other hand wants to be taken seriously. MLS is trying to compete with other sports. MLS doesn't need quirky and endearing, MLS needs to be treated like a big boy.
Plus, I think the Silverbacks brand has been somewhat sullied by some of the moves made by ownership in the past (and pulling out of the USL, only to not enter the NASL yet (if ever)). On the positive side, however, it is miles better than Ruckus! If/when MLS does come to ATL, there needs to be total disconnect from the 'Backs, but it should not be some crazy nickname that once again has us shaking our heads, similar to when they came out with the Ruckus and Beat. Neither should it be a Euroclone.
I'm just gonna put this out there. I don't effing care what our hypothetical team name would be. Also, you've got Earthquakes, Wizards, and Galaxy. Those are pretty silly.
Agree with you on Galaxy; Earthquakes and Wizards, not so much (but if it were still Wiz, we'd totally be on the same page ). I care, because it is a reflection, or rather, representation of who we are, and should have a connection with the city (hence, Sounders, Whitecaps, Earthquakes, Minutemen, etc), or at least not suck (unlike Jaws (should have been Sharks), or Caribous ). A Euroclone name does not speak to me, as a native Metro Atlantan. It's not my team; it's somebody else's team over in England somewhere. Neither does some MLS-trendy/grunger name like Clash, Burn, etc. Ruckus and Beat are bad enough (some of us may still remember that we almost had an indoor team called the Wallbangers, and we did have an indoor team called the Attack ). Even Magic, or Lasers (both USISL) is better than that crap. Sure, we probably couldn't use Chiefs again , thanks to our PC climate (and the Apollos (essentially a warmed-over, rebranded Chiefs team), though somewhat cool sounding, sucked the one year they played), but something like Firebirds works because it keeps with the bird theme of most of our teams, and is also a play on the Phoenix, the city's symbol. It would be a point of pride, not just to hardcore soccer fans, but also to those who might take a look at the game, who might not if the "foreign" stereotype were propagated by a foreign-sounding name (i.e., Euro/Latin-clone). Plus, just about every other youth league around here has FC, United, or some other Euroclone name for their travel teams, and so of a lot of amateur/ethnic league teams. Silverbacks was good for its time, but a move to MLS would necessitate a clean beak and a fresh start.
Just want to let everyone know. Nice little read from the owners of USL. They mention that Atlanta deserves an MLS (or MSL, as they put it in the article) and not a second division team. They say that MLS should and will be there. http://www.ajc.com/sports/metro-housing-development-firm-505560.html?cxtype=rss_news_128746
Next time a Euro v American name fight breaks out, here's some ammo for you: http://www.baseballgermany.com/ Beware the Dohren Wild Farmers.
Wow that website got a huge upgrade from the last time I looked at it... Anyway, I don't even know which side gets the benefit of that ammo...
Good lord, what's going on with the editorial standards at the AJC? The average post on BigSoccer has fewer typos and better organization than this piece. Anyway, I guess this article partly answers the "who" question that was raised by Garber's recent comments about discussions regarding an Atlanta franchise. I wonder if there is any chance that NuRock and Blank might join in purchasing a franchise. For Blank the advantages would be that he alone would not shoulder all the risk, and he could continue to focus on the Falcons while these guys with a passion for soccer run the MLS team.
I wouldn't mind that one bit. The next round of expansion for MLS should get very interesting now that Montreal is out of the way. It seems like everyone else in this country doesn't think that Atlanta is a viable option. It's very frustrating for me. Sometimes people's comments boarder on prejudice against the South, which I think could be an underlying issue. Like I've said before, if Atlanta gets a team, I will do everying I can to be at as many games as possible.
Well this may or may not have relevance to a MLS team in Atlanta, but the Beat drew 7.5K on Sunday for a WPS game in a stadium 30 minutes outside the city. If WPS can do that why couldn't a MLS team relatively close to the metro area do decently well in terms of support? Soccer is such a niche sport that i really think the whole "Atlanta is not a good sports town" argument doesn't hold much water because soccer fans are hungry for a product to support around here.