I know they're going to do it anyway, but can we make it part of the expansion agreement that you must choose an actual nickname from now on? FC is taken as both a prefix and a suffix. United is overused by 3 teams City is overused by 2 teams. The Stars would throw back to the NASL. The Steamers would throw back to successful MISL team. Pick an actual name. Please.
Inter Miami is the only one of the last 9 approved team names to not be City, United or FC/SC. I think the evidence is pretty overwhelming this is where the league is comfortable. Orlando City SC New York City FC Minnesota United Atlanta United Los Angeles FC FC Cincinnati Inter Miami/Club Internacional de Fútbol Miami Nashville SC Austin FC St. Louis ?
Meh, nicknames are mostly too corny, cheesy, or other foodstuffy for my tastes. Let the nicknames come organically, or don't. We have the Lions for Orlando, The Feds for FCC, the Loons for Minny, and at least had Hoops for FCD for a little while - and teams like RSL that still don't have anything and that's fine (well, 'Real' aside it's fine). I say down with nicknames- if anything, I'm fine having a few team without the FC/City/United/whatever entirely. "St. Louis" would be just aces with me...
St. Louis Aces? I kind of like it. Aces has a pilot meaning...could be a tip of the hat to Spirit of St. Louis. I know Aces is more of military meaning. Although, Lindbergh did participate in war flying missions even though he was a civilian.
I would hardly take 2 or 3 teams out of the current 24 (or future 28) to be "overused". And FC/SC is just a fact - they're all football/soccer clubs. Same with any other league. Not that I don't want a more unique name - I proposed Confluence earlier and wouldn't be opposed to Stars either. But I question your frame of reference.
The Aces were STL's pro tennis club. Played for 18 seasons. I don't think the new soccer team would take that name.
Not having defined nicknames also got us things like 5 stripes (even though in year 3 their jerseys no longer have 5 stripes) and Austin FC Broccoli
Just curious, will they revive the Stars name , colors and logo with a new 2022 twist to it? Whether they were associated with the indoor team or not, how about the Steamers? They are most certainly identified with some Over 40 St. Louis soccer fans. Cool logo too!
Clearly I am, or maybe there’s a joke flying somewhere over my head? Did they actually have a failed pro sports team with no nickname in St. Lou at one point? I know the ABA team had the ‘nickname’ before the city name but I can’t think of anything else akin to going sans nickname. Speaking of nicknames- since the city has a history of shared nicknames across sports (with both the baseball and football teams having the nickname ‘Cardinals’ for a couple of decades), I would be okay seeing that revived and having the soccer club and the new XFL team share a nickname. Quite frankly, the more teams we have named ‘BattleHawks’ in all sports, the better.
With copyright laws being what they are now, I can't see any teams sharing names unless they have the same ownership and even then it would be doubtful in today's world.
My frame of reference is that I am an American sports fan, specifically one coming from the Indoor pro game. FC Dallas was fine. Bland, but fine. Toronto FC was ok because the FC was at the end, and thus was not a duplicate. D.C. United stood out as classy among the horrible 1996 names. Atlanta United shouldn't have happened because there was already a D.C. Minnesota United absolutely shouldn't have been allowed because there was already a DC and an Atlanta. New York City was clever considering both the pun value and who they are co-owned by. Orlando City shouldn't have been allowed because there was already a New York. Cincinnati FC: see Toronto. Utica City FC absolutely shouldn't have happened in the Major Arena Soccer League because they are an indoor soccer team (I'm still trying to convince them to change the name to ASC at the very least).
St. Louis Showboats. Loved the name when Memphis used it in the USFL and this may be the best opportunity to bring it back.
I believe @CMeszt was referring to the Saint Louis Athletica. When they were originally announced as joining WPS, they weren't called "the St. Louis WPS team" as a placeholder - they were literally called simply "St. Louis" with the original announcements making it sound like Cooper's group wanted to just stick with that. You can say they weren't successful since A) they added the "Athletica" before the first season started, and B) Cooper's phantom British associates vacated and let the team collapse midseason year two. I'm still more than a bit bitter about that collapse. =EDIT= Looks like we were typing the answer out at the same time. X-D
The women's pro team that later became Saint Louis Athletica originally launched by calling the team just "St. Louis", as in that was the name of the team...just "St. Louis". Needless to say they only lasted a couple months of doing that before giving in, because marketing and explaining it to people who aren't soccer message board galaxy brains went about as well as you'd expect.
1. The football team was originally the Chicago Cardinals. 2. I’ve always been fascinated by Detroit having the Tigers, then the Lions, and Chicago having the Cubs, then the Bears. And the Mets, Jets, and Nets all being 2nd New York teams.
And, there are no original NFL teams in their original cities with their original names... (the Bears are the other one, and they were the Decatur Staleys originally). The NBA is almost as bad.