Has a team ever changed their name really quickly because of community response, as has happened here with Houston 1836 changing a month later to Houston Dynamo? I am not talking about renaming a team when it moves, or changing a name away from an indian name. I was trying to think of when this happened previously, but couldn't come up with anything.
i was about to say... if its happened before, i bet it involved the mismanagement that is major league soccer...
Rhythm - that true? Yeah, that had to go. There are some crazy sports names out there - look at minor league baseball - "Lake Monsters", "Bisquits", "Isotopes" - but can't think of one that was yanked like this.
True. Nike wanted Rhythm and Peter Wilt (our legendary GM at the time) and the hardcore soccer fans wanted "Fire". Chicago won. Wilt was a man who stood up for his principles, and hence, was eventually not wanted by AEG. Now he is kicking a$$ as the Milwaukee expansion group's CEO.
See that's the 1836!!! People that "stand up for principles" not those that cower and say let's be inclusive and now we've got Sylvia in our camp... What a bunch of BS!! VIVA 1836!!!
I do not understand the history of AEG. AEG owns the Fire, correct? They own Houston, and a couple other teams, right? Do they sell these teams - are they in the market to "flip" teams? What is their corporate philosophy? Basic question - which MLS teams make money? And what is the difference in investment between AEG's teams and Lamar Hunts teams? It seems they own all the teams in MLS.
The National Football League's Oakland Raiders were originally named the Oakland Senors, the latter identity having been the top entry in a "Name the Team" contest. After several weeks of less-than-complimentary comments in both media reports and throughout the community, the team's owners announced that the team would henceforth be known as the Oakland Raiders. Incidentally, Raiders had finished third in the original contest.
I don't think that's totally true; Nike wanted Rhythm and was basically forcing it on us with some god-awful colors (I seem to remember saffron, cyan, and green being involved); but it was never formally announced so there was never a chance for fans to get behind it or against it - it was all behind-the-scenes stuff. In fact, based on what I remember people were talking about back then I don't think "Fire" would have been real popular among the hardcores. Most of the talk was about 'AC Chicago' (for All-City) and maroon/lt blue as colors... or resurrecting the Sting name; but of course with time fans embraced and appreciated the many links with the city's history. PW pushed for Fire, Nike refused to make merchandise for the chosen identity, there is even a story (apocryphal, but is somewhat true) that tells of Bob Bradley making a trip to a local soccer store every week to buy training gear for the team out of his own check because Nike refused to provide anything. We won the league title, and Nike didn't have anything to sell to capitalise on it. In fact, it's quite possible we wouldn't have the distinctive jersey we do today (all-red with white chest stripe) had the rift not occured. It was an off-the-rack design chosen when Nike refused to make custom shirts; otherwise we'd likely have ended up with the "Generikit" designs that Dallas/San Jose/Los Angeles were all wearing that season. The more I write about this the more I think it should probably go in a Fire forum...
Correct me if I'm mistaken, but I seem to recall the name "Chicago Wind" being tossed around in the same conversations with Rhythm. Nike did make one t-shirt that first year, and that was the MLS Champion t-shirt(alas, it was at the end of the season though)
A short MLS history lesson Reading about this inspired me to write a blog post chronicling Nike's horrible ideas in MLS. Check it out: Climbing the Ladder
http://www.sportslogos.net/league.php?l=9 This is a nice site for those interested in current and past/inactive MLS logos.
i swear some of the people in powerful places in MLS are not in tune with the footballing public of america.