Saint Louis Shamrocks

[santeroatomico]

I was reading the history of soccer in St. Louis while wearing my Celtic FC Jersey. when it hit me.

That St. Louis Shamrocks should be the name of St. Louis in the MLS

The logo can be a shamrock like Celtic FC with a letter in each leaf (SLS)

What do you guys think?

[CanadianRef]

what about rangers fans?

[golazo68]

I like it. The affiliation with Celtic would be great too...

[BringBackTheBlizzard]

what about rangers fans?

Probably otherwise occupied today so won't notice. :) Would have thought that Boston would be the more natural location for a team called the Shamrocks.

[ironhead]

Well, this isn't my first choice, but St. Louis Shamrocks wouldn't be bad at all - I could handle it.

For those who care to know, St. Louis has a strong tradition of an Irish-American community in the city. The Kerry Patch was the main cultural center for the Irish in St. Louis at one one time, named after County Kerry in Ireland. So, the name 'Shamrocks' would have some precedent and connection.

here's a link:

http://home.earthlink.net/~lilirish/KerryPatch.htm

[Nerazzuri]

St Louis is a city of French origin. (King Louis, the Fleur de Lis on our city flag, etc)

The largest wave of imigrants into the city was German.

The next largest wave, and the group that is probably still most visible in the city, is Italian.

The Irish heritage, while it is here, is not as strong as the French, German or Italian. Shamrocks would be more appropriate for a team from, say, South Boston.

But, with Houston's "1836" debacle, we've already seen what happens if a team does something that (unintentionally) neglects/insults one of its communities. I think the city can come up with a team name that reflects the city's history, but does not necessarily favor any ethnic group.

[McGinty]

Let's not forget about the sizeable Bosnian community that would surely be a target audience.

To be fair, relatively speaking, the Irish were always treated well in St. Louis, and their numbers were significant in the mid to late 1800s. Gotta love Dogtown!

[kcscsupporter]

i think i'll puke if st. louis comes up with an irish-themed name. how about the st. louis pansies? it's gotta be french, so it's perfect.

[timpcrk]

Yeah, I always think Irish when I think of St. Louis. lol
Seriously, this is a guy whose mind is clogged with Celtic.

My first choice is still the St. Louis Browns. But honestly, I would prefer if the owners simply named the team St. Louis SC so the fans could give it the nickname.

[Stars&Bars]

Yeah, I always think Irish when I think of St. Louis. lol
Seriously, this is a guy whose mind is clogged with Celtic.

My first choice is still the St. Louis Browns. But honestly, I would prefer if the owners simply named the team St. Louis SC so the fans could give it the nickname.

There's already a St. Louis SC (formerly Busch SC), but they are an adidas affiliated club too, so maybe they could start some development partnership or something.

[EastSider]

There have been quite a few names tossed around here, but of course first and foremost we need a team. Just to add my 2-cents worth, the one name I've seen suggested that I like is St. Louis Olympique (or some variation).

The olympics were here in 1904. The rings are colored blue, red, green, black, and yellow. All the colors in the St. Louis flag are represented in the olympic rings. There have been a number of names suggested to reflect the heritage of St. Louis in some way. But St. Louis and it's surrounding region has influences from a number of nations, and it continues even today. Again, the name Olympique and the potential colors (of the "rings"), pays homage to everyone.

[ironhead]

I still think the best name for St. Louis would be St. Louis Wanderers.

The Louis and Clark connection to the city is an obvious link to the name, as well as St. Louis being the gateway to the West during its formative years with many people using the city as a launching post for those who 'wandered' west from the east. Obviously, Wanderers is also a traditional footballing name, with Bolton, Wolverhampton, Wycombe, etc.

Lately, I've been thinking that if the club wants a more American-style name, I think St. Louis Blackbirds would be great. There's no real connection to the city obviously, except perhaps to be a reference to the Cardinals, with soccer being a sort of 'outcast but proud' sport.

St. Louis Browns would definitely be acceptable, but should we take the name directly from baseball?

[Nerazzuri]

St. Louis Browns would definitely be acceptable, but should we take the name directly from baseball?

In my opinion, if we get an expansion team at the expense of Cleveland, then St Louis Browns becomes an excellent choice...not only referencing our own sporting history, but also a bit of a shot at the Cleveland bid.

The problem with the name though, is that the uniforms would likely be hideous.

I do like Wanderers, though. I had suggested it in other forums.

I was talking (and drinking) with a friend who grew up in Edwardsville last night, and he had said that while he would be thrilled with MLS coming to the area, he thinks that if the team plays on the east side, they should use the term "Gateway," rather than "St Louis," as in "Gateway Wanderers/Rivermen/etc." Anyone have any opinion one way or the other on that?

[ironhead]

I definitely don't like "Gateway_________". Rivermen is the team name for UMSL, btw.

But the team name should definitely be St. Louis______. If you ask anyone who lives in this area, whether they live in the city, stl county, st. chuck, metro-east, whatever....they will tell someone (from outside STL) that they're "from St. Louis". Moreover, the metro-east is part of the St. Louis metropolitan area for demographers and statisticians, if more justification is needed.

That said, I still hope our stadium (if we get a club) will be in the city or stl county.

[ironhead]

As for the uniforms...'Browns' might be difficult to have respectable uniforms, to say the least. I also don't like the idea of Chicago and KC fans coming to our games and calling us "Shit Browns" etc.

'Wanderers' would basically leave the color scheme wide open.

'Blackbirds' would be great for black uniforms with white collars and sleeves, ala Arsenal, except black replacing the red.

[nthemsum]

Its interesting to note that white is a hardly used dominating color in the mls.with the exception of away kits. I liked colorados unis friday when they played redbull, they were simple and with the color shemes the mls teams seem to be putting together these days I think a solid white with a minor color for name and the lovely adidas stripes would do the trick.

[Nerazzuri]

Rivermen is the team name for UMSL, btw.

And that makes it off limits?

[ironhead]

And that makes it off limits?

Well, not exactly. However, I think that 'Rivermen' is a completely lame moniker for St. Louis FC or UMSL (my alma mater, btw), but I figured that since UMSL already have it, we could come up with a different one for the mls side.

[Seph]

At least nobody is siding with the original poster who wanted to tie us to Celtic. There's no side on earth that I would less like to tie us to than Celtic.

That said, if there is any French tie-in (which would be fine) like Olympique or whatever, the crest needs to be a fleur-de-lis. (No shamrocks, some of us have the good sense to be Rangers fans.)

If we're trying to sound all Euro, I could actually live with Olympique. St. Louis was the first U.S. city to host the games.

[giorgiochinaglia]

I'm stuck with the idea that new teams should use or historical names (i.e. St. Louis Stars) or "regular" ones (i.e. St. Louis S.C.).