Well, with Toronto being Canada's first team it seems as though they have attempted to identify themselves as Canada's team. Stadium's red, uniforms red. Canada's flag is red.
Acutally, it's red and white. I also find it astonishing that a Whitecaps supporter would refer to TFC as Canada's first team.
No I don't consider it one of the nicknames ... they're not wearing coats ... same reason they should not be called red ammunition vests, or the red leisure suits ....
I don't know what kind of bogus poll was run at RPB before but there is one on-going now which will forever determine the fate of "Redcoats". It will be considered final. http://s3.excoboard.com/exco/thread.php?forumid=2561&threadid=357722
So what percentage do you need for something to be considered a bonofied unofficial nickname? I say if we get a couple 100 behind it, it flys.
I don't consider it a nickname. (I know you said you didn't want our opinion of it, but heck, these forums are for expressing opinions...) And I don't want to be a nickname for us. I also am not a big fan of calling TFC "The Reds" but that's obviously our recognized nickname. Yeah, I'm not thrilled about it, but no big deal really. I don't see the Redcoats catching on, but if it did I'm sure I could get over it. Also, do you really think there's many people (even one?) who are "afraid" to say they like the nickname, but are worried they'll be made fun of here?
Red Menace>Redcoats>Reds>"FC" "FC" - This name is awful and it seems to be catching on amongst non-footie crowd - I blame Jerry Dobson and Mike Toth for this. Reds - Waaaaaaay to generic, reminds me of Cincinatti and Liverpool, ugh, zero out of ten on the creativity index. Redcoats - Historical, local, and irrelevant to too many of the fans to catch on. Red Menace - suggested by FutebolDeResultado a while back - nice unique name that could catch on... I likey.
I don't think the Redcoats problem is that it's too irrelevant to too many fans. I mean, I haven't met too many Canadians who didn't know what a Redcoat was (most of my American friends know what a Redcoat is as well).
I was thinking more that it was irrelevant because most people didn't identify with the British military connotations.
Here's a suggestion for the WIKIPEDIA ENTRY... in RED. Everyone is happy now. "This has slowly happened over the course of the club's first season, with Toronto FC widely referred to simply by the initials "TFC," or the "Reds" (their home kit colour) including on the MLS website. A secondary nickname "Redcoats" has attained minority usage in the second year. The team colours are red, white and grey."
Glad to see someone remembers my half joking suggestion from months ago! You did see my suggestion right? RIGHT? (Don't worry, I'm just joking around, but I do call "dibs" on being the first to suggest that name if it ever catches on!) And for all the people who feel that "Reds" is stealing or "too confusing" you do realized that in the EPL both Chelsea and Birmingham are known as "The Blues" right? How could anything so complicated work? Simple, if you're reading a London paper then "Blues" refers to Chelsea while if you're reading a Brummie paper it refers to City ( <-another common nickname that works perfectly fine situationally; because I was talking about Birmingham earlier you can infer that by City I mean them and not Man City, or Leicester, or Norwich, or Cardiff, and so on and so on and so on...). Likewise, if I were to say "Boy the Reds suck" (that felt natural) to a fellow TFC supporter I'd have no doubt they'd know who I was refering to. That's the point of a nickname: it's a NICKNAME(!) shared by fans of the team. A colloquialism that THEY USE! Of course you woudn't call TFC "The Reds" if you weren't speaking to other TFC fans or hadn't already made reference to the team's proper name! THAT'S THE POINT! So, in summary: C'mon Yorkies!! What? You thought we were only allowed one nickname? Don't even get me started on that one! Mike. p.s. Blizzard is right: "Redcoats" doesn't roll off the tongue easy enough to make a good nickname. The only people who use it have consciously chosen it as a nickname and that's never good. Let the matter drop and stop forcing the issue.
It's just as Canadian as it is British. Just so happens that the line between the two was much more blurry back then. I don't get why some people think that because Canada is a multicultural nation that we're supposed to forget everything that happened in this country before 1970.
Of course - but the point I was making is that there are a lot of TFC fans that don't identify with that part of Canadian history - and that makes the name Redcoats irrelevant to them.
This is an accurate statement. The poll does not lie. We're only reporting the truth. We should not bend it to conform to our wants.
I've got an idea... let's recycle the same question, every few weeks, ad nauseum. Next: when are we going to get grass? (And a roof!) The name has minority appeal at best. It doesn't get any more popular by bringing it up over and over and over. Get over it.
Ok Redcoats is up on Wikipedia now... I agree with this version. Thanks for the compromise.. How very Canadian! A minority of fans have adopted the name Redcoats in the second season.
Ah hem. Where was the compromise? 80 percent say it's not a nickname. I don't see a compromise ... I see one message agreeing with you to put it up. I demand an inquiry! Now that's Canadian! Maybe I missed something. My nickname for them is 'the Squirrels' ... and we should have a coat of arms with a squirrel on it (with it's nuts--ha) just like those English teams. perhaps *only* 80 percent would say it's not. Would that then be a compromise ... the Squirrels it is ...
Here, I threw this together hastily in an insomniac stupor. Unfortunately the leaf behind the squirrel looks like poop, and I'm too lazy to fix it. I shoulda left the tree branch in. Underneath doesn't fit right. But you get the idea... Suddenly the team nickname starts to look like something some of us can relate to, namely, the humble squirrel. .
Yeah, I'm fine with squirrels or menace, as long as its not "TFC", I think some idiots just started thinking it was a nickname when we just type it as short form on th net. BBC (the odd time they do) refer to us simply as Toronto. were not FC, its not our name!
Ok...I don't wan't to go anal on this any more that I already have, but someone just added this to Wikipedia "Meanwhile the name 'the Squirrels' or 'the Red Squirrels' is quickly gaining a following." Are there any closet Red Squirrels here? I demand a new POLL...Vita do you want to do one?
Sorry, I don't remember seeing your suggestion. But then I don't remember everything I read. And if there's a prize for being first to think of "The Hogs" you can have it. Right. You can't brute-force a nickname like the industrious little hamster who started this thread is attempting to do. "Redcoats" sounds researched, something a committee of librarians or York Historical Board-types would produce. It won't do. And since we're on the subject maybe the Maple Leafs should get with the program and change their name to Her Majesty's Royal Fusiliers, Dragoons & Foot Powder or some such. (We mustn't be historically incorrect in our sporting activities, heavens no!) I believe I'll close this post before I offend anybody else.
If we are thinking of historical nicknames, why not one which refers to the First Nations who lived along the shores of the Great Lakes for, well, quite some time - and who, alongside the likes of Joseph Brant/Thayendenaga and Tecumseh, fought alongside the British and French in Canada in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 (and alongside either British or French forces in the Seven Years' War and at other times during the time when New France was still around)? I would mention that even as far as Europeans in Canada go, there happens to be one rather prominent non-British-or-Irish historical community present - but that kind of habitant has been honoured in another sport, anyway. Plus, it's not a bad thing to acknowledge the new Canadians who helped turn Toronto from a moderately-sized city, occasionally hung up on bitterness between Protestant British and Catholic Irish inhabitants (even down to having Orange marches on the 12th - quite the welcoming for Catholic Irish Torontonians, wouldn't you say?) into Canada's largest metropolis, and a diverse, multicultural city which, thankfully, shows little of the kind of sectarianism which it had to deal with a few generations ago. Or, perhaps, maybe just leave Toronto FC as it is name-wise, and let the fans use whatever nickname they see fit.