why can our team just be FC Phoenix or Phoenix FC? Why this ugly names, sahuaros or monsoon? The bird Phoenix itself has so much character, power and history. The bird Phoenix also will look so nice in a logo just like the one Phoenix MLS Rising has. Monsoon hahaha who come up with that name? some one from 1st grade? Phoenix FC!! Anything else, I will keep Galaxy as home team.
You mean "Why can't" that be the name? Because it's boring. Unimaginative. Europosing. 'Cause this is what America does. It's not always pretty, I grant you. And has been done...to death. And has been done...to death. You're precisely why we don't get anywhere as a soccer nation.
FC Phoenix is classy and traditional. Plus you don't need to worry about getting stuck with a tacky name.
Why not "Phoenix Dry Heat"? I mean, we've got the Suns, Mercury...and Cardinals...why not just say what it truly is?
Speak for yourself. It's arguably one of the things making the MLS a "B" league in the perception of the rest of the world.
Who's arguing? If it's arguable, who's arguing? Secondly, who cares what the perception of this nebulous "rest of the world" is? By "rest of the world," most people usually mean "Europe" and "Europe" is going to find some other reason to think of MLS as a "B" league even if we changed all the team names to FC and United tomorrow and installed pro/rel. So, really, I don't see what your argument is.
Okay fair point, maybe it doesn't matter. I guess it all depends on which side of the fence you sit. I think American soccer has made great strides with decent performances on the world stage. But to go that next level, I think it requires a bigger sense of assimilating to some of the other customs and mindsets of those who are clearly doing it better. If for nothing else to show a little humility to the world that (for once) we're willing to surrender our ego and adopt a standard. I mean even the fact we're the only country to call it "soccer." To me, in my opinion, the MLS is polluted with too much show and not enough go. The mascots, the cheesy names, etc. For my tastes, I just wish more of the league could follow Dallas' or Toronto's example and keep it simple. Maybe I'm just crazy, but saying i'm a Los Angeles supporter sounds a little more serious than saying i'm a Galaxian. To each their own, I suppose.
Which is not true. Australia does as well. As does Canada. Have you been around since 1996? Have you seen the change since then, over time, or are you taking the short view? So we could have 10 FC This and 10 That FC's? Yeah, that'd be great. "Little more serious?" Holy shit do we get caught up in appearances sometimes. Call yourself whatever the hell you like. Who calls themselves a Galaxian? If you want to call yourself a "Los Angeles supporter," who's stopping you? Why does the name of the team keep you from calling yourself whatever you like? At the end of the day, there's a considerable subset of people here who won't be satisfied until everything about American soccer looks exactly like the rest of the world. And by "the rest of the world," they mean "Europe," and by "Europe," they mean "England." Regardless of whether or not those conventions would work here, sell tickets here, generate revenue here or increase profitability here. They don't care. They're all about appearances. And about what random people they'll never meet who happen to live in Newcastle think about the name of the MLS team in Colorado.
Who cares what the rest of the world thinks of the league. We have a large enough country that if we embraced the sport and the league we'd be fine. Do you think Spain cares if we think their basketball league is a "B" league because one of their teams is called FC Barcelona and not the Barcelona Royals or something?
And Italy is the only one that calls the sport Calcio. What does it matter? I'm a Los Angeles Galaxy supporter. Just because some people call themselves Galaxians doesn't mean we all do.
Also, we're the only country that has another sport called football that happens to be its most popular sport.
Point taken. The trend is getting better, not worse. Fair point, I realize our sports culture is different. So chalk my post up to a complaint about garish American culture I guess. Agreed, but what would it take to make that occur? I'm not saying my idea is the way. Just posing the question. I think it's about being able to relate on some level. It's hard for me to relate to a "Fire" or "Crew" or a "Wizard" - hell, I know nothing about fighting fires or wizardry. Just sounds a little hokey like an AYSO team. But you make a good argument about dollars and cents. There's a high likelihood that without the touch of American culture, the venture would fail.
I was right there with you, although I made my peace with it long ago. I think it happened when I stumbled upon the British Basketball League, and found that their teams had names like Sheffield Sharks and London Leopards and Guildford Heat. Even though those are perfectly good names for pro basketball teams, it struck me as having some inner cacophony, and I realized that it was because they were in England. For some reason, after that, Los Angeles Galaxy and San Jose Earthquakes and New England Revolution didn't sound so bad.
Time. I mean, we all pretty much should agree that there's no silver bullet, no one thing that's going to do it. It's going to take the continuance of trends we've seen over the last 10 years, but stretched over many more years.
Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, arguably South Africa and Wales. I'm personally a fan of the nickname FC approach Seattle, Vancouver and 99% of the A-League use. It's really a best of both worlds.