As the post season gets closer and I begin to put up notes at work to try and find someone to work for me on Oct 20 (few people in Utah want to work on a Sunday and break the Sabath) I begin to prepare for what hopefully will be an exciting MLS Cup final. The only thing that bothers me, (other than I see the Patriots have a home game against Green Bay on the 13th and Lord knows the grass in New England won't grow that much in one week. I'll bet anything the pitch is going to be torn up and with some football lines still visible) is that the new MLS Cup trophy we have had for the past two years looks dumb. It is bright and silverish which is ok but the soccer ball is on top of something resembling a wave or some volcanic erruption. I like the old one better. It had been improved in 98 and 99, it was a much more brilliant color than in 96 and 97. The first two years the ball had a darker tone to it, it almost looked like one of those old basketballs you see in the old photos. You know, like in the movie Hoosiers or something like Chuck Taylor would be playing with will testing out his new canvas Converse sneakers. But in 98 and 99 it was buffed to a brillant shine and it looked golden, I really liked it. This new one I think is gastly. If the new one has to stay though, so be it, but I say bring back the old trophy and give it to the winner of the Supporters Shield which to me I think is a greater victory anyway.
I believe the Supporters Shield is an award given to the team's main Supporter Group that finished with the best regular season record. The last I heard the guy from the Fusion has refused to return the shield.
Why? There already is a Supporters Shield trophy. Actually, it's awarded to the team by the supporters club(s). I believe this has been resolved.
i'd like to believe my threats of bringing a crack team of stoners, drunks and derelicts down to florida to steal the shield back did the trick and without probing the minds of those involved, i'll never know...
i just want to see pictures.... from the old and the new trophy.... anyone can give me some links to that???... or put the images on this thread???..thanks in advance
... and the shootout, KC's original home jersey too. The clock also should be counting down like it used to.
transcript from my interview with Sam Pierron for a film I'm making; JH: What was the motive behind coming up with the Supporter’s Shield? SP: Well, as you know the Supporter’s Shield is the award given to the regular season champion, which is determined by the team who has the most points at the end of the season (i.e., winning and drawing the most games). It wasn’t my idea. It was the brainchild of a Tampa fan, who wanted to call it the Scudetto, in honor of the regular season champion of Italy. And he had a sculptor friend come up with a design. But then he needed to raise money to have it made. I was selected as the chairman of a committee to raise money and discuss various issues with the trophy. This was in early 1997, before the Supporters’ Summit was started. This was a product of communications between the supporter’s clubs. In the discussions over the name of the trophy and the format of the trophy, [the Tampa fan] got mad and because most people didn’t want to name it the same thing he did and didn’t like Scudetto. They thought that we should give it an American name for an American League. At the time MLS had the shootout and there was much debate whether we should use shootout points in the standings. There was big yelling and screaming match [the Tampa fan] quit, and the project went on the back burner. About a year later, somebody brought it up again, and I just decided, “screw committee work. I’m going to get this done; I’m going to raise the money. I’ll find someone to design it and build it, and we’re going to get this done.” So there had been some money raised by some of the clubs, and I figures out how much that was. I then sent out a notice asking for more donors. I got a pretty strong response, so I was able to have a target in mind. I was talking to Phil Shave (?) who was then the ESPN major league soccer announcer got a hold of me, and told me that he wanted to donate. At this point I probably had $600 in the account, and I didn’t know how much more I was going to get. So I visit Phil at his hotel the next time he was in KC, broadcasting a game. He writes me a check for five hundred bucks. And that single handedly changed the scope of things. When you go overnight form $600 to $1100, and you know you’re going to get more donations, this changes everything. It kicked the project into another gear. That year was the year of the first Supporter’s Summit, which as you know, is a gathering of all the Supporters Clubs to discuss issues and then have a good time. That year I brought with me a sketch that I that I had made in conjunction with a University of Kansas metal works student, for the Supporters Shield. I picked her by going to an arts festival in Olathe, just wandered around looking for sculptures that I liked. And I liked hers. And I also figured that “hey she’s in Lawrence, it’ll be easy to communicate. Two, it’ll be cheaper because she’s a student and she’ll do it for very little. And also, she was very cute. This is the way history happens I suppose. So I went to the Supporters Summit with the sketch and my plans for the way the trophy would be presented, and for the way it would be earned. I said “look, we’re going to award it based on however MLS determines the regular season champions, because that’s the way that the teams are playing by. In the meantime, we’ll try to change the rules to the way that we want them.” And that was one of the big themes of that first Supporter’s Summit. The Commissioner and Assistant Commissioner [of the MLS] came out, and we told them in one voice “Look, we don’t wan the shootout. We want the game to be played like it is in the rest of the world. With draws; we want the clock to move the right way. AND we want to present THIS trophy to the regular season champion. To give them something tangible to shoot for, so they know that those 32 season games weren’t meaningless, or a prelude to the playoffs. The presentation was, if I may say so, a rousing success. At that point the other supporter’s clubs just started handing me checks. I ended up raising about $3000, which paid for the Shield and some attendant plaques that were about $2200. This leaves us a nice little nest egg to work from, to fix problems and to make a new nameplate every year. And then maybe to build a bigger and better Supporter’s Shield in some years. At the time I made the presentation to the league, I suggested that the winner of the Supporter’s Shield get one of the continental qualification spots in the Americas and in the Caribbean tournament play.
I actually the old trophy even though it's a little small.The new trophy looks a rip off of the super bowl trophy just with a curved base and a soccer ball instead of a football.
I always thought that too. I agree that the trophy should be an actual cup. MLS should get away from the American sports trophy and stick with a traditional soccer/football cup.
A traditional soccer/football cup like, say, the World Cup Trophy? Oh wait, that's right. It's a conceptual piece that looks like it was sculpted by a ten year old. I'm not diagreeing with you. It should be a cup.
i liked a lot the new trophy.... really!!!!... well i would like a real cup... but i think that this is fine...
I assume he meant Phil Schoen. Who knew? What a guy. I hope all you Phil Schoen bashers fell a touch of angst now. Thanks Phil - quite a gesture.
What's most annoying (aside from Rothenberg naming it after himself) is that they actually call the final match "MLS Cup 200X" -- when it really isn't a cup tournament now, is it? It's a league competition. Yet the trophy for this mis-named cup, is not a cup -- it's a huge chrome plated gear-shift. Maybe they could just laminate Rothenberg himself and hand him out every year.
I like both "cups", but call me simple minded. btw, great interview with Sam. And a big thumbs up to Phil Schoen. I hope he's not regretting those $500 about now, as long as I haven't heard about him and he hasn't been with ESPN.
The new MLS Cup trophy, which they introduced in 1999, is way better than the original: And FWIW, I like the Supporters Shield. But I'm a bit biased, since I helped pay for it.