Strikers Rebrand: Name Poll

Antique! Come on, give us the scoop!!!!

 

u guys its obvious they wennt with ft. lauderdale strikers.

 

They only said the name will be revealed soon. That's all I can tell you. There are more things they'll be doing before the season starts, too. I like the sound of what Traffic is up to this year. They may actually do something right. Or, at least, close to it.

 

is there a Kit unvieling? on an actual party night? maybe you can catch a lot of fans there, doing it during the weekday, you are not going to get any new fans. It has to be like at Ameica's Backyard and on a friday/or saturday night. Pass some flyers in the beginning of the night as they enter, and maybe a free ticket to a game or something to get people put there, as much as I dont like the strikers I do want a successful second division ft. lauderdale team... Doo it right atleast.. good luck... :'( R.i.P Miami FC

 

Maybe sometime in March? Possibly? Perhaps? Something like that? Or not. Who knows?

Do you really think that Traffic would do something as bold as this? I don't know. Stay tuned & we'll see.

Not liking the Strikers is insane, IMO, but to each his own (yes, both of our biases are showing.....).

BTW, if you'd have driven north on I-95 Saturday you'd know the answers to all of your questions. And, you'd have taken a big step in helping our local team's success in D2, too. However, since did not do that, please be advised that some of what you asked in your post may actually occur, Lucho, but which ones and when?...... Stay tuned to our fans sites for more info. Then maybe you'll see if they are doing things right, or not....

 

All Ft.Lauderdale Striker fans will be very pleased with some soon to come announcements. nudge nudge wink wink.

 

Antique, thanks for the tidbits of info. I was always certain that Ft. Lauderdale Strikers was the logical choice, and I most definitely hoped for it, much to Lucho's chagrin. LOL But I'm also not one to count on anything until it actually happens. I'm feeling like I'll probably be very pleased with the upcoming announcements.

As for the kit unveiling, I was told back when I got my season seats that there would be some sort of kit unveiling "party" season ticket holders would be invited to, and that was where we would be able to get our season tickets in hand. No details or anything, but I assume that's what your subtly referring to in your posts as well.

Curious about the meeting you were talking about. Was it the supporters group meeting with the club? You mentioned being happy about the things we should be seeing from the club. Does that include any details about their marketing/advertising strategy for the time remaining leading up to kick off?

 

It was a supporters group meeting. You, and everyone else here, were invited on this site & the Ultra site & chichi's site. Reps from the Strikers were there. All info is from them. Check the MiamiFC site's calendar for Feb & March for much more official info. The main supporters news was/is the formation of South Florida United as an umbrella group to assist any and all other supporters groups in the tri-county. Contact Pieter about it. The Strikers did not start SFU, but they like the idea and they do support it.

 

can somebody explain to me why Miami Strikers isn't the preferred choice?

A. the team was already called Miami FC so keeping the Miami helps with continuity.

B. Miami is an internationally known city. Nobody knows or cares about Ft Lauderdale outside of South FL the distinction is essentially moot. even here in N FL everything south of a certain point is just considered "Miami". from a global branding and prestige point Miami holds far more cachet then Ft Lauderdale

C. if MLS is the eventual goal and the the hope is to get the D2 side as popular and successful as teams like the Timbers, Whitecaps and Impact were so that the team attracts large investors and then "gets" promoted i can almost guarantee that there will NEVER be a team in MLS named "Ft Lauderdale". MLS, for whatever masochistic reason, wants the glamour of Miami not the snore inducing anonimity of Ft Lauderdale

D. it is a perfect blending of history and the new chapter. Strikers and the Striker colours is the iconic part of the NASL history but by adding that to Miami instead of simply completely copying the historic name verbatim allows for the old to be made new again so you can avoid the trap of being nothing more than trite nostalgia like the NY Cosmos/Fantasy FC.

anyway, either way i hope that more investment and marketing is done by Traffic so that Miami Ft Lauderdale Strikers Blues FC can be successful this year but i for one at least think that being called Miami Strikers FC would be far more appealing and marketing friendly in the bigger picture.

 

Part of the reason is to break away from the Miami FC label. It hasn't worked in either Miami or Ft Lauderdale. Plus no team from MIAMI has ever done well at the gate. Ever.

Both the original team that played at Lockart Stadium, and the teams 1st resurrection in the late 1980s - the 1989 Championship team - were the Ft Lauderdale Strikers. This team will be at the same stadium, in Ft Lauderdale, using the same colors and hoping to catch some of the magic and cache of the prior 2 incarnations. Plus, since the Striker name is very much wedded to Ft Lauderdale because of the nearly 35 year history of the team associate with the city, to name them anything else right now would be absurd.

Plus, all those other places you named, including the Cosmos, were original NASL franchises. They seem to work OK. Possibly the same with Ft Lauderdale?

As for the future, who knows? The segue to Miami might work, but, like it or not, Ft Lauderdale & Strikers are very much a part of US soccer. To me it would be like changing the name of the Green Bay Packers to Wisconsin Packers or Milwaukee Packers. Size is trumped by tradition. Bigger city or region, but not the name that is associated with the team.

Still, if ever we do get an MLS franchise, and, BTW, that might not be Traffic that is the franchisee, the people that own it might change the name to Miami & move it there. Who knows? I think that that would be a mistake to lose the history and association of the original name. We'll see what happens if/when it happens. Either way I'll support them as best I can....

 

Don't forget the San Jose Earthquakes and the folks trying to revive the New York Cosmos in New York.

The only successful clubs in South Florida soccer history have played in Fort Lauderdale. Miami had an NASL club that became the Fort Lauderdale Strikers and was then more successful. The ASL/APSL had clubs in Miami and Fort Lauderdale and the Fort Lauderdale Strikers was better on the pitch and in attendance. Hell, the MLS club called Miami Fusion played in Fort Lauderdale.

Miami has proven time and time again that it is not a city for professional club soccer. People need to stop with this belief that the name Miami carries some sort of cache.

 

oh i agree. south florida/miami is a terrible place for pro sports and soccer in particular. i hope they never get an MLS team personally. but to think that globally and nationally that the city of Miami isn't well known and respected as a cosmopolitan and international city far moreso than Ft Lauderdale which most people outside of South Florida wouldn't know if they were standing under a "Welcome to Ft Lauderdale" sign is just a ridiculous statement. Miami is the sexy place they put in films and tv shows and that rappers sing about. nobody gives a toss about Ft Lauderdale and nobody outside of S FL even bothers to distinguish Ft Lauderdale from Miami.

now i do understand that since the D2 team is very much a local endeavour that perhaps Ft Lauderdale Strikers makes more sense on a local level. but i can almost guarantee that MLS isn't interested in capturing the "Ft Lauderdale" market anytime in the future nor are they interested in having the name "Ft Lauderdale" grace a team in their league. for some reason beyond me they are obsessed with "Miami" and all that name supposedly means. frankly i don't see it but there you go. if the Strikers D2 is trying to be a modest success on a local level then the Ft Lauderdale thing makes sense but i thought the aspiration was to turn the D2 team into the MLS team eventually.

and my reference to "trite" nostalgia was not to say that paying some homage to the successful NASL past wasn't a good move but rather being slavishly devoted to the past and only the past (like the Cosmos) is a recipe for failure. sure, use the past and the history to colour and infuse the new teams with a bit of pixie dust (like the Caps or Timbers) have done but do not simply try to recreate or live in the past like the Cosmos are doing.

 

If memory serves, Garber kept referring to the South Florida market. Not Miami. In fact, at one point he empathized that Miami to MLS meant Palm Beach, Ft Lauderdale & Miami. That's the tri-county area that extends from Miami-Dade County's Florida City to Palm Beach County's Jupiter. Ft Lauderdale, in Broward County, sits in the geographical center of The South Florida Metro area, the most populous metro area in Florida, the most populous metro are in the southeastern US and the 7th most populous metro area in the US. That central location makes Ft Lauderdale an excellent place for the team to call home. Everyone, all 5.5+ million of us, in the metro area can get there with relative ease.

In general, I disagree with almost everything you've said in this post. I'll just leave it at that...

Out of curiosity, where do you live? Do you reside in South Florida? Or where?

 

I'm kind of with you on the Cosmos. At least the Sounders, Timbers and Whitecaps existed as D2 clubs before "promotion" to MLS and had a more natural feel. And Earthquakes just replaced a ridiculously bad original name choice in San Jose. But the Cosmos thing does kind of seem contrived.

But when you talk of nationally and particularly globally, who thinks sexy thoughts about Columbus, Salt Lake City or San Jose either?

As a matter of fact, I would associate San Jose most with the Fort Lauderdale situation. Both are cities that lie in the shadows of larger more well-known cities. Both have a more established soccer tradition than the big brother cities. But they were not established as the San Francisco Clash nor did they opt for Golden Bay Earthquakes (as the NASL club changed to for their last couple of seasons) when they were renamed. I doubt most people around the world know where the heck San Jose, California is. They probably know San Francisco though.

Just because there wasn't a television show called The Streets of San Jose or a song called "I Left My Heart in San Jose" doesn't mean calling that club the San Jose Clash/Earthquakes was a mistake. It is the same with the Fort Lauderdale Strikers.

 

FYI:

I just got an email informing me that the Strikers will announce their new name at 5PM (1700) on Thursday, February 17th, 2011 on the corner of Las Olas Blvd & A1A on Ft Lauderdale Beach. With this we'll all know officially what the "rebrand" is. No more rumors.

Come one, come all!

I probably won't make it. I'm still baby sitting my youngest grandson (he'll be 12 weeks old then) from 0700 to whenever weekdays and have no way to transport him. The rest of you are not allowed to use that as your excuse...!

Have fun...

 

With luck the Herald will have a line or 2 about in on their Sunday soccer page.

Maybe...

 

Hey guys, I got my e-mail invite too. Unfortunately a weeknight is not ideal for me either. If it were at 6:30 or 7 it might be doable, but 5:00 is just too early. I think at this point, we all know what the name is going to be. What I am interested to see is what Traffic does in the way of inviting local media to cover the release, and also how much interest there is on the media side to actually come and cover it. I would LOVE to turn on the 6:00 news and during the sports report see a report and some video on it!!! Come on Traffic, get this together, show us you are indeed going all out to market the team the right way this year! I think it will pay off if they do!

 

Everyone that plays for WestonFC got an invite as well.

 

No mention that I could find in the herald...

 

Anyone else notice that Jeff Rusnak's column no longer appears in the Sunday Sun-Sentinel or on their website? I just hope Traffic has local media coming down to the beach on Thursday.

 

It's news on Eurosport:

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/14022011/2/fort-lauderdale-strikers-return-action.html