It is absolutely absurd to have this much chaos in our team names. It is extremely confusing to new fans to have team names in every language under the sun. I am going to echo what many others have said in this thread: I wouldn't be that upset if they use the name Toronto International. I really wish Salt Lake had used Salt Lake Royals. REal Salt Lake just doesn't make any sense to Americans. If MLS is only concerned about marketing to Eurosnobs then they are moving in the right direction, but they may loose me and other non-europsnob fans.
The U.S. is a melting pot so it only follows that the nation's soccer league would reflect that, borrowing a little from each culture to forge an American identity. Coming soon: Bayern St. Louis RC Philadelphia
Worth noting that the figure for Italians in Toronto is based on language not ethnicity:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Toronto#Ethnicity and that given the relative lack of recent immigration from Italy that isn't the best way to gauge the numbers of Italian-Canadians. I suspect that 20% would probably be closer the mark for the GTA in ethnicity terms. On another board a key MLSE employee (posting as mlsintoronto) has been dismissive of this Inter revelation and has talked recently of an upcoming name the team process so I wouldn't make any assumpions at this point. http://s15.invisionfree.com/U_Sector/index.php?showtopic=82&st=0 http://s15.invisionfree.com/U_Sector/index.php?showtopic=88
Ok, so that means since we are a melting pot we need to stop speaking English and create a new language that is a combination of every other language. Last time I checked English is the official langue of the US and our national sports leagues should mirror this.
You actually don't have an official language although there is a campaign to make the de facto situation official:- http://www.us-english.org/inc/
Check again. The U.S. has no official national language. Luckily for us, Canada makes up for it by having two.
tell that to the San Diego Padres. that said, i still lean towards agreeing with you - the Padres aren't a knockoff of a more marketable Padres franchise in another country.
It makes sense to soccer fans, who are the people that MLS should be marketing to. What makes more sense, picking a name that soccer fans like or picking a name that people who aren't soccer fans like? The era of trying to appease people who aren't fans is over. It was stupid and wrong, and that's why there is no more shootout, and that's why there will be no more Nike-style retarded nicknames. It's just like in real life: If you just be yourself, then people will respect you a hell of a lot more than if you try too hard to be cool. MLS is embracing the soccer culture, finally.
Hey, I guess you missed the memo - Your team's name isn't Houston 1836 anymore... they were trying to appease some people and changed it.
What!? NO! I really like the blue and black. I mean, I like green, but I think the Rapids should stick to what they've got.
Um... isn't English that language spoken by 'Mericans, and don't they say "soccer" as opposed to "football". So... shouldn't them 'Mericans say SC Dallas?
Aside from the fact that toronto isn't American, I agree with the posters that say that TO is very cosmopolitian. Thus the name isn't unreasonable. Lets also not forget that Canada is a lot more British than America, to the point that it is still 'ruled' by the British Monarchy. I think the name is okay.
So should we name all the teams in Esperanto then? You didn't check very hard, there is no official national language in the US.
Actually, they call it soccer in Ireland. They have their own version of football, called Gaelic Football that's kind of a mix of both rugby and soccer. As an interesting aside, the word "soccer" gets used quite often in England and Scotland but its almost always only the news media that does it. ........................................... Origin of the word soccer: From: http://www.wordorigins.org/wordors.htm Also: Why some people call it soccer and not football
the "TER-TOR" of "inTER TORonto" really does NOT roll of the tongue, where as Toronto City could not be any smoother...put that in some nice Old English text...that's classic... or MLB wordmark like "The Athletics" or "Cleveland"...classy. IMO, "Inter Toronto" or any replication of Internazionale of Milan would be the worst name in MLS. - Chivas USA is not great, BUT A) the team is meant to represent Chivas fans throughout the entire country, hence USA, not just in LA...Changing "Chivas" to "Goats" would not be the greatest move when you're trying to market to a Hispanic audience. So there's logic behind "Chivas USA." -In terms of cultural relevance, Real Salt Lake makes about as much sense as the Utah Jazz. However, it can be argued that it is a forward thinking name because in 20-30 years, prob. more than 50% of Utah's population will be Latin-American...so there's logic behind Real Salt Lake too. -FC Dallas just needs to be abbreviated to make sense. For those who say, "This is America, it should be in English", your argument holds water now, but in won't in about 25 years, especially not in Dallas, Texas. -Unless Toronto is expecting a massive immigration of working class Italians from Milan, Inter Toronto makes no f'ing sense and is as superficial as "Wiz" or "Burn". --
It's a lousy name, but not a disaster. I'm not getting too excited because I believe this is definitely not definite. I never liked the name Montreal Expos or New York Metropolitans and I don't like Toronto International(s) and Inter Toronto is even worse. Does anyone think this will appeal to Toronto's Italian population? I think it is embarassing and pandering to that demographic. I don't think a team needs a North American-style nickname, but that's preferable to stealing from an obvious source. There may be other Inters, but everyone thinks Milan first. I like Raptors better than I liked Inter Milan FC. I liked Mutiny. That's a cool name, after DC United it's the second best of the original batch. While a lot of people here seem to think it's all right, the Toronto supporters seem to universally hate it. It's somewhere between Dynamo and ReAL Salt Lake IMO and that's a pretty low standard. cheers, hobbes