How many of you embrace the new name?

I love it.

 

Well, there's a difference between "embracing the new name" and "trying to pretend they didn't change the name."

 

Frankly, it's time for people to either put up or shut up. If you are so hurt by the name change that you can't support the New York Red Bulls, you should go somewhere else and let the fans enjoy themselves. If you appreciate the effort that Red Bull is putting into the team and you can look past the corporate name change, then get in there and root for the "Red Bulls" -- not the "Metros", because the team is no longer named the MetroStars.

Let's go Red Bulls!

 

Word.

Repped.

 

100% needed what was the meaning of METRo stars....

Finally a good name in MLS

 

With all due respect, who the ******** is anyone to decide this?

No one around here is calling you "you Red-Bull shouting scum bastard," so where are your edicts coming from?

 

I totally hate the name..but I totally appreciate what Red Bull is trying to do...make some money off of US soccer.

 

How many Dallas fans do you see out there chanting "Come on you Burn"? How many San Jose fans last year were chanting "We love you, Clash"? They both let the old names go. RBNY has gone out of their way to show their respect for the history of our club as well as their desire to cater to the fans. It's time to let the Metro name die and if you aren't willing to do that, you should consider rooting for a different team. After all, no one is out there chanting for the Cosmos (other than wandering soccerdog, anyway.)

 

maybe there should be one.

 

Not just that it's the name of a drink - that it represents the crossing of a line that some of us don't want to see being crossed, least of all by OUR team. Of course we live in a hypercommercialized world and make compromises in it, but does that just mean you lay down for ALL of it? Me, I don't think so. So where do you put up a stand? There is a significant, significant difference between playing at Red Bull Stadium or having a Red Bull sponsor logo on your shirt, and saying "I cheer for the Red Bulls." Red Bull knows this of course, which is why they do what they do. On the other hand, I know I can't feel any passion for shouting "come on Red Bull!" It just doesn't work for me. I don't understand what's so hard to understand about that - I simply don't feel it at all, personally. You don't have to actively dislike the drink and the company's ethos (though in fact, I do) to feel this way. Yet I want to continue to shout for the team, the players, to see them succeed. So the other way is to look for a way around, in the symbolic realm. To collectively come up with and use another name....which is what a number are trying to do. But everyone's free to do what they want.

Red Bull bought the team and there's nothing we as fans can really do about that. But why, exactly, should we acquiesce to whatever they insist on - starting with calling our team by the name they give us? Because they say so, and thus someone else says so? That's not very persuasive or galvanizing to me. Some will do so without question - so be it. Some won't.

 

You're all about the spirit of togetherness, aren't you.

 

They had their names changed to a) their city name, basically; and b) a name out of their city's soccer past. We, on the other hand, had our team's name changed to that of a slickly marketed sugar drink with no area connection whatsoever. The connection, instead, is to one of the great triumphs of style over substance in the past decade or so. Maybe that means absolutely nothing to you, but it does to me.

 

I, for one, definitely prefer the name MetroStars over Red Bulls but I am willing to accept that we now have owners who are actually going to spend money in order to make this a better team. This doesn't mean that I am going to support the team in the same way I used to. I will wear my MetroStars jersey to games until I am gray and old.

By the way, whether fans in San Jose and Dallas accepted their new names is beside the point, their teams were not given corporate names.

Furthermore, I hope you aren't suggesting that MetroStars (while not a great name) was as bad as "Clash" or "Burn."

 

The name isnt bad. It will grow on people as time goes on.

 

fill me in (anyone) but was it just coincidence that the team was called MetroStars and they were owned by MetroMedia?

the second part of your comment- Michael, obviously we don't agree on this topic, and i'd like to comment on what you said. Is it soo far fetched that Redbull 'insist' that you call the team RedBulls, and not Metro/MetroStars/MetroRed? its your opinion, and you are entitled to it. i respect it that its how you feel but i can't grasp it, it just sounds soo damn silly that you/others are members of a supporters club yet refuse to call the team by its name, and instead created your own name. its like you are creating a fantasy world, or refusing to let go of the past.

 

Aren't you the same guy that posted your letter to Garber condemning the deal on here?

 

Not coincidence, but I think you've been around this team long enough to acknowledge that the Metrostars were NEVER used deliberately to put Metromedia's name out there, to sell broadband networks or whatever Metromedia did. There was never any meaningful branding effort going on, never any Metromedia corporate logos slapped all over the uniform and the website and so on. I don't think you could find 10 Metro fans capable of even describing what the Metromedia logo looks like (I certainly couldn't.) In fact, as I posted on a link earlier this week, it appears that by 1996 Metromedia was hardly even a viable, independent company

As for the second part - I think "fantasy world" is one awfully derogatory way of putting it, but I'd prefer something like "symbolic recourse." They took our team name away and slapped another on there without any input from us, any consent from us, against our wishes. The agreement they signed to buy the team didn't include any clause about buying the way I and others support the team (and they couldn't - it's not for sale). If some of us fans want to stay involved with a team that we've enjoyed for 10 years, but cannot get it up for "Red Bull" (for a variety of reasons) what recourse have we got, other than symbolic ones like "Reds"?

 

mike, we both have our views, which are quite different so i guess we can both agree to disagree. we can agree on that...... right?

we can both support the local MLS team the way we each see fit.

 

People come before names.

If the name Red Bull represents the productive work ethic of many people; I honor those people by recognizing the name. This does not disclude fans.

 

For years, this team has traded away, sold or cut fan favorites. Gio was traded. Petke was traded. Gaven, Woly and Jolley were traded. Mathis left. Timmy Howard was sold. Every time that happened, some fans would flip out and say they weren't going to support the team anymore. In response, sane fans would remind those flipping out that they support the team first and the players second. "Support the colors," they said. "Support the shirt," they said.

Enter Red Bull. Now, all of the players were the same (sort of), but it was the name, colors and jersey being shipped out. Those same, calm posters came out and said, "Support the team. It's the same team. Support the local team." Even the FO came out and said that if you couldn't support the new team, then you should go in front of the players and say why. They were all saying "support the players, not a name." "Support the local team, not a jersey."

Some of those passionate fans, those who survived the past ten years by loving the shirt, loving the name, loving the colors EVERY DAMN TIME their favorite players were cast away, watched Red Bull come in and cast the shirt, name and colors away. Most of them, rather than bailing on the team, came up with a compromise. They decided that they could only follow the team if they remained true to what had come before. They could only support the team by merging what was and what is. They could only support the team as the "Metro Reds."

Now, two games and a few Red Bull freebies later, some of you RBNY fans (many of which likely don't have a ********ing clue about MLS from the early years) are telling us that we aren't allowed to call the team the Metro Reds. We are apparently living in "a fantasy world." We need a "new board" to sit around and remember the past. We need to look at how other teams handled their name changes. Since when do fans of this team (whatever you call it) give a damn about what other fans do?

This franchise, time and again, dumped our favorite players, so we clung to the name, colors and shirt.
This franchise's new owner, looking to sell a product, dumped our name, colors and shirt.
Now, you clueless ********s want to tell us that we aren't allowed to call the team a name that was created to give us a small link to the team we've cared about from the start?

******** that.

 

Michael K., you're a mod on the Red Bulls forum, yet you refuse to support the Red Bulls, and instead promote the "Metro Reds Initiative." How is that not a conflict? Please note: I'm not asking you to go away, but I'm asking you to see things from the other perspective. You've no problem disrespecting those you disagree with, but you should try to understand why others don't respect your opinion on this.

Here's a key quote from the link in your sig:
"And face it, it's much saner to scream "Let's go Metro", "Let's go Reds", or "Let's go Metro Reds" that it is "Let's go Red Bull"." [sic]

I fail to see how it is more sane ("much saner"?) to cheer a name that you've just invented and has no basis in reality than it is to cheer the proper name of the team. There never has been and never will be a "Metro Reds," so why are you encouraging others to embrace that name rather than the Red Bulls?

Its this attitude of superiority among the Metro Reds crowd that I find difficult to tolerate. So okay, Michael K. you didn't take advantage of the bus trip to DC. Fair enough. You say you wouldn't "out of principle," but are you really arguing that those who did so aren't being hypocritical? Plenty of supporters are following your lead. You're championing the notion that others should refuse to cheer the Red Bulls, and claiming rational and ethical grounds for your stance. I understand your emotions (though I'm confident your emotional investment in this team isn't any stronger than mine), but your appeals to reason and ethics on this subject won't stand.

If you refuse to say the team's proper name, and instead you cheer for a "compromised" name, then your support for the team is compromised.

As Brownswan said, this argument is over the question of character, and since the Metro Reds crowd think they have the moral/rational/emotional high ground, we in the Red Bulls crowd have every right to answer back and call things as we see them. We're not being hypocrites and we're not delusional about this team's identity.

When making love, it is poor form to call out another's name.

 

Oh, we're clueless? You're the ones cheering a name that has no basis in reality.

We need RB much more than RB need us to sell the product.