The Athletic is reporting that controlling owner Gabriel Brener is investigating selling his interest in the Houston Dynamo and may rebrand the team as soon as this off-season.. https://theathletic.com/2055205/2020/09/09/ Just what we need. Another FC United Houston City. I really hope they are just looking to update the badge, rather than wholesale change that involve renaming the team and/or changing the colors.
I'm willing to bet that the brand has little to do with their dwindling attendance and relevance. They operate in the same fashion that has had so little success for Colorado, Chicago (Haupmann era), Crew (Precourt/Hunt era) and others. Improved management will go further than changing some shirts. They had a strong fan base and relevance at one point.
I love the Orange. Some of the best uni's in the league. A lot of these FOs/ownership groups default to rebranding when in reality the issues are with how the team is run/marketed.
Everyone is just following the Wizards template, when the Galaxy showed that you can have an almost total rebrand without going all the way and changing your name...
Uhhh... The “success” of the Galaxy’s rebrand wasn’t the colors change, it was putting Beckham into the new uniforms... The Crew tried the make minor changes to the brand without changing anything else and it had virtually no impact..
The Houston Dynamo sports a unique color scheme within Major League Soccer, a name that's simultaneously a nod to modern North American and traditional international naming conventions, and a crest that is - in my opinion - one of the better logos in the league. Further, its an identity that has graced a pair of MLS Cup Championship-winning sides. As such, it strikes me that a rebrand would be an asinine waste of time, effort, and money. If Dynamo management wants "to increase [the team's] prominence within Houston", they should concentrate on rebuilding the organization that made six trips to the MLS playoffs in its first seven seasons of existence, including four MLS Cup Championship appearances and the aforementioned league titles. Contrast that with just two playoff appearances in the last seven MLS seasons. Bottom line? It isn't the branding that's impacting the club's fan engagement in the market. Rather, it's current ownership's commitment to building a consistently compelling on-field product. Finally, I've grown tired of hearing so-called die-hard soccer supporters grousing about the sport's supposed lack of tradition and authenticity in the United States and Canada, then turning around and advocating for clubs that have actually managed to build championship-caliber tradition to abandon the team identities that adorned it. A club doesn't establish authentic tradition by swapping-out its identity of a decade-plus at the first sign of supporter apathy or discontent, then simply adopting Major League Soccer's latest FC, SC, City, and/or United to replace it. That's trend-chasing, not a commitment to maintaining tradition.
I agree with all of your points except the Dynamo crest. I think it's terribly clip-arty and cheezy (z used for emphasis). Other than that, though, it seems clear that it's the ownership's failures across the board (aside from building a really, really nice stadium in what seems like a very good location) that hurt the team. Where are the academy kids? They are worse than Portland and they've got a much bigger area in terms of population to choose from, not to mention the abundance of latino kids whose first breaths are filled with futbol.
the same goes for the whitecaps in vancouver- the most indifferent, 'head in the sand' group of owners (where even the majority owner wont let his face be known) - vancouver is a great soccer market and without new owners is and will sink into the dark depths of market apathy
Wonder if this is in any way connected to JJ Watt's stated interest in MLS ownership. Maybe Brener sees a potential exit there.
That’s certainly a possibility.. His wife played for the Dash until she was traded to Chicago earlier this year.
It's a possibility although Watt doesn't have enough money. He might put together a group but he would not be the lead money guy. Kealia Ohai Watt requested the trade to Chicago since she and JJ are looking to make Wisconsin/Chicago their post-sporting career base. Their main home is in the Milwaukee suburbs just north of Chicago. Again, that wouldn't keep him from being an investor in the Dynamo but it makes it less likely.
All true. But he also expressed interest in buying RSL and that’s not any closer to Milwaukee. I would also imagine their retirement plans aren’t set in stone and can change if an opportunity came up.
RSL is very close to Kealia's home town which JJ mentioned when he expressed interest in the team. Things can change but I'd be surprised if Watt's statement had anything to do with Brener's interest in selling the team. I've been wrong before.
I’m certainly not going to disagree with you. But Watt has a ton of connections in Houston from his time there. Of course, he’s still got another 5ish years left in his career, so its not like he’d have an active role in any team if he were part of the ownership group. My main point is that it is another option for him and whatever group he’s part of.