Friday, September 29, 2006
Stupid Soccer Names
Major League Soccer is a great league, but one thing bugs me: the teams names. American professional sports teams are named after the city they play in followed by a pluralized noun nickname. (examples: New York Yankees, Dallas Cowboys, Chicago Bulls, Boston Bruins) This is not so in Europe.
The problem I have is the powers-that-be in the MLS have used European team names as inspiration for team names here in the USA. DC United I assume takes its name from Manchester United, the great English team. Real Salt Lake probably takes it name from Real Madrid. The Dallas team renamed itself FC Dallas. Why not Washington Presidents or some other normal plural noun nickname for the team in the capital city?
Only three teams, New York Red Bulls, Colorado Rapids and Kansas City Wizards, have names that follow the traditional formula. The others, such as Houston Dynamo and Chicago Fire are not as stupid as Real Salt Lake, but are not nicknames that end with an "-s."
All teams other than New York, Colorado and Kansas City should change their names.
The problem I have is the powers-that-be in the MLS have used European team names as inspiration for team names here in the USA. DC United I assume takes its name from Manchester United, the great English team. Real Salt Lake probably takes it name from Real Madrid. The Dallas team renamed itself FC Dallas. Why not Washington Presidents or some other normal plural noun nickname for the team in the capital city?
Only three teams, New York Red Bulls, Colorado Rapids and Kansas City Wizards, have names that follow the traditional formula. The others, such as Houston Dynamo and Chicago Fire are not as stupid as Real Salt Lake, but are not nicknames that end with an "-s."
All teams other than New York, Colorado and Kansas City should change their names.
# posted by Kirk @ 5:57 PM 
