I'm getting more and more comfortable with using the Union name personally. Chicago Union certainly flows of the tongue better than Municipal, which is a bit of a mouthful. But I still agree, Sting as first choice and Union with flag colors as second.
Oh, BTW: On my way to site check for next @ChicagoNASL event. #BuildChicagoNASL #SoccerForOurCity— peter wilt (@PeterWilt1) March 14, 2016 I presume this is for the launching of the supporters' ownership, which Peter has said will happen in April.
Yeah, I was thinking that there could be some good tie-ins to the old Union Stockyards as well. How about Haymarket United?
How about Chicago Polis SC, gives you the generic City name while making it different, and not so....bureaucratic. To be frank, Chicago Municipal is a shitty name. It also carries a little bit of tradition in the US as there are a decent number of cities that end in -polis most notably Minneapolis, Indianapolis, and Annapolis. So one could make the claim it is Americanized.
Chicago Municipal sounds like you're talking about an airport or hospital, though shortened to Chicago Muni it's kinda cool.
http://www.chicagonasl.com/buildchicagonasl-behind-the-scenes/ Among many other things, Peter says they expect to begin play in Spring 2017, with club branding and official NASL acceptance coming in June. The supporters trust is expected 3-4 weeks from now.
This is as upfront as you can get without an official announcement... Using the launches of the Chicago Fire and Indy Eleven as guidelines, Chicago NASL’s timeline is in between the two. I began working as the first employee of the Chicago MLS team nine months prior to its first game and the team was named three months later. In Indianapolis, I began working on the launch phase 18 months in advance and the team was branded publicly 11 months prior to its first game. Chicago NASL’s website launch began the club’s promotional efforts almost 14 months prior to the expected April, 2017 launch. We are aiming for official acceptance into NASL and club branding this June, which would be almost 10 months prior to Chicago NASL kickoff.
Peter Wilt on NASL Chicago TICC recently spoke with Peter Wilt on the Indy Eleven and their upcoming match with the Cosmos. Another topic to come up was the NASL side coming together in Chicago. Peter offered us some unique insight on NASL Chicago, goals, their view on the Chicago Fire, and a look at what happened with the Chicago Sting Supporters Trust. “2017 is our goal. We want to be playing soccer in the NASL by 2017,” Wilt told TICC when asked about the timeline. “For that to happen, we need to have our application accepted by the league by June. The league owners will be meeting in June and we hope they’ll be considering our application at that point. If it’s accepted, I think we’re good to go for April 2017 kickoff. If we don’t, then we either need to wait for 2018 or, frankly, give it up. The challenge right now is we’re in discussion with a couple of venues. If we can get that sorted out before June, I think there’s a very good chance that we’ll be playing next year in the North American Soccer League.” https://soundcloud.com/ticc_pod http://www.thisiscosmoscountry.com/interview/peter-wilt-on-nasl-chicago/
Not hard to translate this. Rent demands are beyond what ownership is willing to stomach, Wilt is scrambling for leverage. If the whole thing seemed a little too good to be true, that's probably because it is (was?).
I do not think you are wrong with your assessment about the rent being more expensive than the ownership is willing to pay based on what they are looking at, but I do not think this is an indication they are scrambling for leverage. It was a single sentence comment, that seems to have been stated in a more matter of fact kind of way than a political posturing way. In a big city the most difficult part is always finding a good stadium location for the right price. They will find someplace, it just might not be at one of the MLB or NFL stadiums (I never thought it was realistic anyways).
seems strange to me that Wilt says, "Early on, the voting has about 40% of the entries suggesting Chicago Sting. It’s a good number. It’s far and away above the second place number" but then he says "they found out that it wasn’t likely going to be named Chicago Sting, or at least it wasn’t definitely going to be Chicago Sting." sounds like it's not gonna be Sting. but it seems to me their best bet for publicity in Chicago is to play up the Chicago Sting vs. New York Cosmos rivalry as much as they can. would help both sides. the Sting were the only ones to ever beat the Cosmos in the Soccer Bowl...
Wilt was pretty explicit that this wasn't worth doing if it wasn't in a major venue that connoted legitimacy, and I think he was dead right about that. A mid-tier outdoor facility doesn't exist in Chicago.
I get the nostalgia aspect of this. That said, the large majority of their target audience/fanbase wasn't even alive during that time period.
I suspect that Peter would have a little more urgency in his message if the situation is was as dire as you speculate. The discussions of rent have presumably been ongoing for months. By this point, both sides would have a pretty clear idea on what the other is looking for. You're not going to get one of the three major stadiums to substantially drop the price by threatening to forgo a minor league soccer team that won't fill a third of the venue. I'd guess that the ownership has already decided that they'll bite the bullet, but just want squeeze a little bit more in the margins if they can.
Sounds pretty urgent to me, I dunno. Look at the history of proposed minor league sports franchises. I have no thorough data on this, but I would guess the percentage of those efforts where the leadership ever said publicly "or, frankly, give it up" that ended up actually playing a single game would be quite small.
Let's consider the timetable if the team is unable to start by 2018. In order for them to start in 2019 they would be looking at two full years of failed negotiations. By that point you know what all of your options are, and you have not been able to find an acceptable one. If anything the cost of renting the stadiums will have increased. At that point the only options are to accept a deal you view as unacceptable or give up.
I would do 2018...why rush this? Spend an extra season building up season ticket holders, sponsors, excitement news feeds, etc. The Chicago Fire clearly are not going to build their brand back up, in fact it's still tainting as we currently speak. Get a better structured plan, announce this baby in later 2016, throw out some promotions and major marketing efforts in 2017 and begin play in 2018.
Fall 2017 would work as well. It all depends on when they're ready, but if you wait too long it could lose momentum/traction. I think SF and Chicago are cornerstones of the continued growth and success of the league as a whole. Obviously the health of the league and every franchise member is important as well, but I think their is an importance to these two expansions, as well as the current Miami one and NYC. These cities are what will keep TV deals, sponsorships and recognition coming to the league.
I think NASL's (or another professional league that would hypothetically start up) best play would be to target every inner city they can that doesn't have a team. The biggest professional soccer consuming populations in this country (18-34, mostly white hipster/yuppies/professionals/whatever) are concentrated increasingly in inner cities. I'm dreaming of an NASL team in Philadelphia as well. There is such a huge market of potential soccer support in this city that the Union can't or won't tap into. Philly, Chicago, Boston, Baltimore, San Francisco/Oakland, the list is just about endless. Market it the right way, you're easily going to draw 5-10K for a lower division team. If there was a magical group of potential owners with an unimaginable amount of money, I bet MLS could be challenged with a strategy like that. As much as we talk about the sport growing in this country, some of the biggest markets are sitting there essentially untouched.