Wish I could rep this more than once. The Revolution name is fine, imo. It's the ownership and losing team that needs to change. The only part I wouldn't mind seeing changed is if it was Boston Revolution, or the Boston Revs. Changing to a euro name would just be borderline ridiculous. We already have Real, Sporting, Chivas, FC this and that, United, etc. Keep some of the MLS originals, please.
Collectively, that makes my eyes bleed. And yet, the sentimentalist in me looks back on all that with fondness.
I always liked the Boston Breakers name and I like Beacons but really no reason to not be Boston Revolution. As to the hand wringing over Euro names lets be honest, most conventional names the last 30 or 40 years across pro US sports have been terrible. The target audience watches one or more Euro leagues and claims a favorite team or teams there. They are comfortable with that naming convention and arguably EXPECTS it.
Um, what? You couldn't be more wrong. Hell, I'll just start with Baltimore Ravens being a really good name and go from there. The target audience is Europeans? Funny, I thought they are North Americans, and specifically New Englanders, who are quite comfortable with North American naming conventions and expect them from North American teams.
Charlotte Bobcats Minnesota Wild Toronto Raptors Carolina Hurricane Anaheim Ducks Tampa Bay Rays Washington Wizards Take your pick of dreadful XFL, Arena Football and minor league sports names. More misses than hits. Add the the colleges taking new names Miami (OH) Red Hawks, SE Missouri Redhawks ULM War Hawks. 15 to 30 year old males who tell pollsters the NFL is their favorite sport followed by soccer at #2 and lean more heavily EPL in their soccer interest. Rare is the college kid I deal with who doesn't have a favorite EPL team.
These are your opinions. I would wager that you are alone or in the minority on many of them. I'm willing to grant you Wild and Wizards, but Rays would be passible had they stuck with their original iconography (Devil/stingrays). It's Hurricanes, plural. Ducks is a great, underused name (logo sucks though). Raptors and Bobcats too. Minor leagues and start ups always have bizarre names. It's part of marketing and creating a unique identity. Mudhens is great. Lugnuts is amazing. Barnstormers is endearing (if hokey). A lot of that comes from the PC movement. Quick changes and all of that. But I dispute your opinion representing any sort of consensus. From what I can tell, most Miami fans are fine with Redhawks - especially when the hockey team does well. I don't know enough about the others to care. I will agree that the 90s trend (that still continues) of not ending team names with an S mostly sucked. Burn, Storm, Fusion, Attack, Crush, Smash, Wave, etc. Obviously some are better than others like Stealth, Fire, and Revolution.
Jut because they have a favorite EPL team doesn't mean they're expecting their local MLS team to copycat European team naming conventions. Especially in a city like Boston, which has its own proud sports history and traditions. Why would Bostonians want to copy the limeys, anyway? Bostonians kicked the lobsterbellies out at gunpoint a couple of centuries back because they were sick of their crap. Boston is the quintessential American town. The name of its soccer team should reflect that, rather than pandering to a bunch of glorychasing Euro-posers.
The Mutiny one was the real eyesore...at least they could have added a golden afro on the outside to honor their association with Valderrama. also..Potowmack, perfectly stated.
Funny thing though, they were the "lobsterbellies". The clues in the place-name. I could also add that the war of independence was actually the first civil war with a significant percentage of Americans fighting for the British (Loyalists) and the "rebels", who lost nearly all the major battles were supported by the French. The rebellion would of been crushed but for the fact that the British Empire was massively overstretched at that stage and fighting on several fronts around the World. Personally I would fought on the side of the rebellion and I'm glad that North America gained independence since ultimately the constitution and bill of rights were born from it, something US citizens are rightly proud of but do not do enough to ensure their politicians and government agencies live up to it. Yes the UK is just as bad. Better to have a North American sounding names for soccer teams than European but some of them are toe curling bad. Better to go for SC than most of them.
MLS is a child of the nineties. Which means its got stuck with some unfortunate names. Things like "Wiz" and "Burn." Many of them didn't age well, clearly. If MLS had gone with more traditional North American names (say, Kansas City Wolves, or whatever), the names wouldn't have gotten so lame so quickly and you wouldn't have needed the re-brandings.
I agree. I think Revolution still works though. Fire and Galaxy still work. Crew isn't too terrible. I think Rapids is the only "normal" name; Metrostars was far too clunky. Wizards was definitely an improvement over Wiz. Dallas went from a really shitty name to a shitty name with fewer corn nuggets. Fusion was god awful. Mutiny wasn't too bad, as a name. Their shirts were the best in the league (other than the horrific team name that plagued all MLS teams until fairly recently).
Im getting sick of all the rebranding. Some of the most famous american sports franchises have some of the dumbest names and/or dosent make any sense .
Some of the most famous American sports franchises have also rebranded at some point...whether it be logo, uniform, team colors, or name.
I was hoping Montreal would be that team. They rocked these kits a few years ago and they looked superb. How great would a blue, pink, and black team look?!
I think it might be more correct to state teams with blue in their color scheme. Chicago, Chivas, Sporting KC, LA Galaxy, Dallas, New England, Red Bulls, Union, Montreal, Earthquake, and Vancouver all have blue jerseys. That is 11 out of 19. Which does seem like a lot of blue. A kelly green would be much needed maybe as an away. Keeping a red striped sunderland type jersey for the home? I am in favour of something semi-british or European. Boston Rovers, or Wanderers would be awesome. Has anyone seen that guy's sick rebranding for the Revs? Boston & New England FC? Anyone have that link? Or know what I am talking about.
No to rebranding the Revolution. They have a great name that has lasted throughout MLS, is regionally significant/meaningful, and works on several levels. It's a great name -what they need is great ownership. Changing from New England to Boston would be a dumb idea as well, having your brand associated with a major city rather than the region, just a dumb idea. Keep them how they are. The fact that they haven't rebranded speaks to its timelessness and strength as a brand, not the opposite.
Going to quote myself. Here is the link to the guy's rebranding. He has some great ideas! http://mwillis.com/post/4366705328/why-i-should-get-to-reboot-the-new-england-revlolution