Do MLS Uniforms Need A Change?

What a great idea. I always wanted to spend $70 so I could have a giant "Yahoo!" in yellow and purple across my chest.

 

And if the rest of the world jumped off a bridge...

Hopefully, I'm the first of many respondants that think having a big-ass sponsor's logo on the front of your team's jersey is lame.

 

You want a sponsor's badge all over your chest, fine ... but please eat a mad-cow burger too so that you can have a completely european experience.

 

you know, you can send in for t-shirts like that for around 10-15 bucks a pop, hell some of those places will send those to you for the cost of shipping

 

oh yeah


do you know how many times chicks ask me if carlsburg is my favorite soccer team??? (and no, i don't even like liverpool, although carlsburg is some good brew)

sometimes i explain, othertimes i just say yes and do you want a beer??

 

In the MLS Fans forum there are two similar threads, one discussing the bad uniforms and one discussing the bad logos. Basically it was decided that almost all the logos suck and almost all the uniforms suck.

 

...and Bingo was his name-o

 

(singing) Show 'em you're a tiger
Show 'em what you can do
The red and black o' the Dallas Burn
Brings out the tiger in you

 

Should MLS players change uniforms? Yes. I full support taking a shower and changing clothes after every game. I'm surprised MLS doesn't require this already.

 

Some teams logos and jerseys could use a re-design but I don't the idea of a huge sponser logo on the chest. It's probably the only thing in the MLS that I prefer over the foreign leagues.

 

When the current team sponsor contracts are up, if the sponsors are willing to drop a $mil extra or so to get their names printed across the uniform, more power to them, I say.

I'm not a Eurosnob at all, but I think sponsor logos on the uniforms are cool, even Pizza Hut on Fulham. Maybe we'll attract some NASCAR viewers to MLS broadcasts? Several of the current team logos are so lame, the sponsor logo couldn't be any worse looking.

 

I would prefer no sponsor across the chest.

But I also think that some teams are extremely distasteful in the way they display their team name across the chest. In fact, only the Fire are tasteful. The rest of the teams, especially the Metrostars, would look better with just the colors on the chest, and no logo or team name.

- Paul

 

Let me guess...your answer depends on how hot they are...

 

you really really are complaining for EVERYTHING....

we got used to logos since we born... the real thing is... you aren'r used to wear sponsors.. good for you.. but if someone pays me 1 million for putting his name on the jersey i say.. please sign in the dotted line.....

personally, i don't care about this:


and this:



because when the people i really care see those.. they say ohh bayer munchen ... and oohhh Celtic... they don't see OPEL or NTL

i do really care if my team is doing well and if i can take actions in that... a lot of people complain, but only the really braves ones do something about...

 

My question to those who say they prefer ads on the front of soccer shirts is, Is it the commercial message? Or the graphical style of the design?

If the sponsor logos were done in the hideous style of the MetroStars graphics, would that still be prefered over the MetroStars logo?

If the MetroStars redesigned their graphic to more closely mimic Euro-style sponsors, would that then be accepted?

I mean, would you guys be happy if the front of the Metro shirts looked something like that?Or does it have to say Opel?

 

I find myself wavering back in forth on this. I like the idea of sponsors on the front if it helps the economic situation, and it is kind of something soccer (and Nascar, I guess) specific.

That said, my problem is with the current sponsors. Like other posters, I agree that I'm not sure I'd want to buy a jersey with "Yahoo!" or "Frosted Flakes" on the front. It's a good thing I don't cheer for San Jose or Dallas, I guess. It's also a good thing Bandai isn't a sponsor any more. The Fire would look OK with Honda. The Revolution would look like one of the Mexican teams (Cruz Azul?). LA's could be really sweet with Bud.

Don't get me wrong...I'm happy that these companies are sponsors...I'm just having difficulty making the mental leap.

 

I don't "prefer" logos (not ads) on the jerseys, I prefer sponsors paying the league lots of money in return for their logos on the jersey. And some of the team logos (Metrostars, Galaxy) are so hideous I'd be happy just to get rid of them. Considering that large corporations pay consultants more money to design their logos than the PR budget of all MLS, and I'd hope they'd look better.

Once the teams get their jersey colors and designs embedded in peoples' minds they don't need the logo to identify themselves. This is why you don't want to be constantly messing with the jerseys, like San Jose which has had four(?) different home jerseys in its history (number five coming next season).

I admit to certain degree I feel like sponsor logos make it a "real" professional team jersey. Back to the race car analogy, you'd laugh at a car without sponsor logos and assume they must suck really bad to not be able to attract a sponsor. You could even say it makes the jersey a bit mysterious to the uninitiated, but when I was just starting to follow the professional game overseas, figuring out the jerseys was an interesting puzzle. Kind of like I was part of the "in" crowd when I knew that the VW logo was Wolfsburg and Opel was Bayern Munich.

 

Dallas Burn: Los Tigres Desayuno.

(ayudame mi espnanol, por favor!)

The breakfast tigers
They're Great!

 

> Kind of like I was part of the "in" crowd when I
> knew that the VW logo was Wolfsburg and Opel
> was Bayern Munich.

This is the completly wrong attitude to have. We don't need to hide the team, we need to proclaim it! What's the use of a superiority feeling if the people we are trying to convert to soccer only see a guy in a Yahoo! shirt made out of some wierd fabric.

> Opel was Bayern Munich.

But they arn't just Bayern. They are also AC Milan. I wear the 3rd AC Milan jersey once in a while, and even people who are experts in eurpoean soccer have to look really close at the badge to tell whose team I am supporting. And it gets worse when ads are switched between teams. How can you wear a Honda jersey from San Jose 1998 when the current Honda team is from Chicago?

 

And if sponsors aren't paying a lot of money? What if they are willing to pay only a piddling sum? Would you still prefer ads (I mean, let's call a spade a spade) rather than the team's logotype?

I think most people on these boards would agree that the MLS jersey designs are far from embedded in general public's mind. Would you still prefer ads on the front of the jersey while the teams are still in the brand-building phase?

As an alternative analogy, every Little League baseball team has a sponsor's ad on their jersey--Dairy Queen, say, or Pedro's Bail Bonds--but professional baseball teams do not. A minor league team would be laughed off the field if they displayed "Honest Dwayne's Auto Parts" across their chests.

Anyone else? Is it just idea that someone is paying for the ad that makes people prefer Euro-style sponsored jerseys? Or are there aesthetic considerations?

 

Chicho's Bail Bonds, my man.