Yeah, it was awesome! Great crowd, a handful of former Strikers were on hand, Tim Robbie, the mayors or Ft. Lauderdale and Sunrise, kids playing soccer on the beach, little mini NASL balls, cool stuff all around. Plus I heard there will be some great marketing via the Sun Sentinel paper/website and also SFL(channel 11) coming soon. I've seen the official color sheet, it's being called a charcoal gray. When printed it doesn't come out as blue. The story is Traffic has a thing about black being bad luck or something, so they went with a charcoal gray so it's not really black but it looks just as good as the old Strikers colors.
They have a video up on the Sun Sentinel sports page. Good overview of the event. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/videobe...i-FC-changes-name-to-Fort-Lauderdale-Strikers At the end you catch some of us supporters doing "The red and gold go marching in".
Damn, I wanted to be there so bad! The plan was to slip out early once my work was caught up. I had one figurative foot out the door when the boss called an office meeting, which lasted until 5:30. argghhh! I nearly fell over when I saw this this stuff on Sun-Sentinels main sports page!!!
It was a great time! Check out more news, pictures and video, plus multiple links about the Fort Lauderdale Strikers here: http://bit.ly/hfW6E6
Finally! It looks like Traffic & Aaron Davidson are doing things right this time. Good for them! Sorry I couldn't make it. Like Newt I was almost out the door @ 4PM when my son dropped by & left myself & the wife 2 more grandchildren to watch. It looks like I missed a great party... GO STRIKERS!!! I love it... PS: I really liked the "561", "954" & "305" flags, guidons, or what-ever-you-call-them that I saw in the slideshow. Put the numbers in the charcoal grey on the red & gold stripes and they'd be perfect...
And got some space in the Palm Beach Post sports page this morning. Just wire service report, but a decent-sized article that was split between coverage of the Strikers announcement and the Freedom of WPS relocating to Boca, so nice to see at least some minimal coverage. And while I'm here... anyone from north of Jupiter (I'm in the Stuart area) interested in trying to catch a game or two this season? 90 minutes in one direction is a bit of a haul, but curious whether there are folks up this way who might be up for a match or two. PM me.
Manoa, I am in the area also! South Florida "Football Fanaticos" (SF3s) http://sf3s.blogspot.com/?zx=f889ce754ca1db07
The Miami Herald's Michelle Kaufman's online blog had a mention of the event in an article about WPS coming to Boca. I also believe she'll give it more than just a mention her Sunday column this coming week end. I hope she does. We'll see...
From the article in the Sun-Sentinel: "This is the third incarnation of the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, the second coming from 1988-94 in the second-tier American Professional Soccer League." Technically it's the fourth. After the Fort Lauderdale Kicks finished the 1994 season in what is now the PDL, they changed their name to the Fort Lauderdale Strikers and played what would now be the USL Pro League in 1995. They changed again to Florida Strikers in 1996 when they dropped back down to PDL and back up again to USL Pro in 1997.
looks like they finally got something done! Congrats from West Palm. Lockhart in April is a date. Looking forward to seeing some gear, charcoal is close enough for govt. work-glad to see the colors of my youth are basically remaining. Serious question though: What do you make of the assertion that sanctioning of the NASL is merely a ploy to give Montreal a place to play for a year? Hate to see my return to Commercial Blvd. amount to a reminiced, farewell tour............
Great another STRIKERS fan from West Palm Beach area! We always need more supporters up in this area. Take a look at the SF3s - South Florida Football Fanaticos - http://sf3s.blogspot.com/?zx=f889ce754ca1db07 it would be unfortunate if that "ploy" you talk about is true and just not a nasty rumour. Do you have a legitimate source?
I really like the rebrand and hope it helps drive attendance up. I also hope the marketing efforts pick up too. Anyone know who is in charge of their website content? I keep trying to read articles on their site about the rebrand but there's no content! I'd also suggest that they remove all of the Miami FC references from the website - including email addresses just to keep the new branding consistent.
Great column in Sunday's Miami Herald by Michelle Kaufman. It's all about the Strikers / Miami FC and pro soccer in general, warts and all. Rather upbeat overall, but honest about our attitudes toward the pro game here. After a review of soccer history & a rundown of what we do and don't do here in support of the game the last paragraph: "It is time soccer fans here stop whining about not having an MLS team and start supporting the game" is dead on. It's what Garber told us and what the Ultras, among others, have been telling everyone. The teams she points out for us to support? The Strikers and the Boca based - FAU Stadium - transplanted Washington Freedom. That's all we've got. If we want more, show our support for them before we get more.
Right on. I want to see the kind of atmosphere Portland, Vancouver and Montréal had in D2 for the Strikers, basically forcing MLS and investors to take them to the next level. And I'm more than willing to head up to Boca a few times a year to see the WPS team, but two things need to happen: They need to NOT be the Washington Freedom if they're playing most of their game here, that makes no sense. And once they change their name, I think they should be called Magic City FC, not the MagicJack SC or whatever the owner wants to call them. Yeah they don't play in Magic City, but it's relevant to the region, promotes the guy's brand and most importantly doesn't sound like a joke. We need to get a petition going. Also it would help if they adopted the Strikers colors, so all our supporters gear(flags etc.) will work at those games too.
Good for Traffic sports. I know they are being maligned at the moment, but, who cares. Keep resurrecting the NASL teams , don't stop until they are all back!
Couldn't have said it better myself. Not every market is going to have MLS. Support what you have and maybe someday MLS comes back. Don't support it and kiss any chance you have goodbye.
You may not like all of it, but here's Michelle's column: www.miamiherald.com/2011/02/19/2075888/strikers-hoping-nostalgia-sells.html
Regarding the relocatin of the Women's pro team, from the same article: "The team likely will be renamed Magic Jack SC or Magic Talk SC." Please tell me this is a joke? Or a mistake of some kind?
How is this any different from the New York Redbulls or the team Red Bull Sczadsfasgasgasghashasfasgfasgasgsdgs in Austria? It is a joke though
No it's for real. We're trying to lobby for them to be called "Magic City SC", after the nickname of Miami, at least I am anyway. I sent an email to the owner today.
I'm telling you, I really hope that this incarnation of the Strikers really seals it terms of bringing professional soccer back into the consciousness of SFL residents. After so many names and gimmicks, I think it's well time people settle on a name and just go with it. Putting "Ft. Lauderdale" in the name only makes so much sense. At the very least, it gives some balance into the locations of the other pro teams in the area. Miami can keep the basketball and baseball. Broward can have the hockey and soccer. Both can sorta "share" the football teams between them. I think that's fair. Anyway, I thought I would use this thread to post a blast from the past with this video: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R5LFmGI7ew"]YouTube - NASL: Tampa Bay Rowdies at Ft. Lauderdale Strikers 8/20/1978[/ame]