The North American Soccer League Strikes Back
Colorado Caribous 1978 NASL jersey. Can't wait to see this brought back!
“Party Like It’s 1979″, says the usually stone cold sober Kenn Tomasch. “The future of American soccer appears to be the past of American soccer.”
Kenn writes this because news broke today that the breakaway second-tier league made-up of nine former USL and new clubs may use the North American Soccer League name for itself, after Miami FC put in two trademark claims.
Kenn’s response, not quite as euphoric as I painted it above, is actually a well-balanced take on the name’s real importance (not as important as a lot of other stuff) tinged with a little welcome nostalgia for those of us too young to remember the league.
Kenn points to the growing trend of American soccer teams claiming a part of their city’s past with the sport, and resurrecting NASL team names has hardly done any harm to Seattle, Portland or Vancouver, for example. Indeed, a connection to the past is something that gives a little more depth to each club’s existence, even if it’s a mythical imagined past of fathers and sons following the Sounders various incarnations since the 1970s.
I think American soccer has grown up enough not to be afraid of the NASL boogyman any longer (lessons have been learned well enough already), though there’s something fitting if it is indeed used on this risky, ambitious breakaway. What really matters is the substance of the league’s business plan and the performance of each club’s front office, not the name.
Though some have immediately rubbished the name’s return in any case, a poll on Inside Minnesota Soccer (the best site for news on the breakaway league, incidentally) suggests reaction is mixed and broadly positive, with more in favour of the NASL name returning than against it.
Oh…and how about them Cosmos, then?
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Thanks, Tom.
Always stone cold sober, yeah.
I just think on the list of Things That Might Be Wrong With This New League, the name is way down the list.
Clearly their play is for a merger. They can’t crack the ownership, so they’re going to get their guys “inside” (read: montreal) and then push to get most teams into MLS.
It’s something that was contrary to USL’s interests, and now, they’re taking a huge gamble. They will not last long, but to be assimilated…
I wonder if we’ll see the Silverbacks change to the Chiefs, or even the Apollos with this news? I think it’s cool that they’re called the Silverbacks as a tribute to Willie B, but it’s also very “minor league”.
Good points Tom–we’ve come to think of the NASL as just silliness, but it did have some things to offer. In fact, as someone born in Seattle in 1972 who went to lots of Sounders games with my Dad, I’m a bit confused about the reference to a “mythical imagined past of fathers and sons following the Sounders various incarnations since the 1970s.” What was “imagined” about that? (the Sounders averaged over 20,000 per game for a good few years in the late 70’s) Is that just cynicism about contemporary Sounders fans? Because for better or worse something close a majority of my conversations with my Dad involve the Sounders. Maybe sad, but definitely true and decidedly not mythic.
Fair enough Andrew, but unlike say, Everton, I’d bet it’s 100-1 in terms of how many present fans went to an Everton game with their fathers in the 1970s than Seattle fans who did so. The soccer community in America from the NASL to three decades later is very unlikely to include many of the same people following the same teams given migration patterns and the changing culture of soccer support.
Plus, all of the old names resurrected (like the Sounders) did not exist for sometime and (like the Sounders) most have had low attendance in USL. I’m saying some appreciation of the past is still a good thing anyway, but I think you’re probably a real outlier (and I didn’t even know you were a present-day Sounders fan!). I think any connection to the NASL is still largely based on imagination than a real passed down tradition of community.
My dirty secret is that I live in Portland and consider myself a Timbers fan (though not a member of the Timbers Army–I appreciate from afar), but I don’t hate the Sounders and I still enjoy talking with my dad (in Seattle) about their various incarnations. But I feel compelled to clarify that I’m not exactly a Sounders fan either–it’s just that I grew up on NASL Sounders games and those experiences meant a lot to me. So I guess you’re right, migration patterns and all that matter. In fact, my five year interlude in Chicago riding my bike to Fire games at Soldier Field makes my confusion about allegiances all the greater. Ah, tribalism.
But I also think many newer fans in other MLS outposts write off the tradition of the Sounders because the more recent USL version didn’t draw well. I’m not sure why that happened–I was mostly gone by then (though I did still catch a game or two when visiting my Dad–as odd as it is to see Qwest field full to the rafters for soccer, it was even more odd to see it trying to make an occassion of 1500 or so hardy souls). But I do know that for a kid growing up in Seattle in the 70’s and 80’s the Sounders really mattered. Maybe fodder for a post of my own!
That’s a hell of a combination, Andrew….Definitely a post waiting to happen!
I think it’s probably true the Sounders past does get written off a little because of the USL variation. I also think many of us too young (or foreign!) to remember the NASL tend to focus too much on the Cosmos, and there isn’t enough out there about the histories of other clubs. I would love to learn more myself (I feel a series coming on…).
Columbus Caribous. New name. New kit. Sell out crowds.
When we were awaiting the awarding of a franchise in Chicago, I seriously hoped that it would be named The Sting, our town’s former NASL franchise.
You immediately had a brand with a history (including two NASL championships), logo, and fond memories by some of the expected fan base of the new MLS team.
Now, Peter Wilt and Co. did a helluva job in creating a new brand and identity for the Fire. His instructions to the team’s logo designer was that it be as iconic as one of the six original NHL teams. IMHO he was successful there, and with the Fire name and brand and organization.
Not all old NASL team names were winners. I think Philly made the right decision to try something new. That being said, other NASL teams had great names and colors that should not be forgotten if franchises are being considered for cities where NASL teams played.
The Tulsa Roughnecks and Tampa Bay Rowdies come to mind. I would suggest that if the Mutiny had tried to revive the Rowdies instead of inventing their pirate-based brand, they might still be playing. And Miami’s decision to go with Fusion (?!) while playing in Fort Lauderdale, instead of reviving the Strikers, was also questionable.
Look at the MetroStars/Red Bulls fiasco. Wouldn’t Cosmos been a better way to go (if the name had been affordable)?
The decision by some in MLS to completely forget about those years was a mistake in my opinion. People did have fun back then with those teams. For many, it was their initiation into this sport. The Fire have held two Sting reunion nights, honoring both championship teams. They were well attended by both Sting alumni and fans.
So the league had a different offside line and experimented with a better way to settle ties. Perhaps MLS was worried about being tainted by the financial failure of its predecessor but that’s no reason to make believe it didn’t exist and to shun names and colors that people remembered and supported.
I think it will be a good combination of past and present.
The rebirth of the Sounders, Timbers, Whitecaps, Earthquakes and Rowdies are much to build on – however, the “new empire” of DC United, Chicago Fire and Los Angeles Galaxy et al is a nice contrast.
The marketing genius of using past club names – whether mythical or imagined can work to their advantage. american soccer has a long history – it is high time we tapped into it.
There are key elements that were not present before MLS -
* Soccer Specific Stadiums – no more borrowing / sharing of stadiums (hear that New England ?)
* International players who CURRENTLY appear (and are released) for their respective nations.
* Marketing on a grander scale with soccer being imbedded in the American Pysche – from MTV to The Price is Right – owners like Drew Carey and Oscar De LaHoya.
slow and steady and balance betwen the pst and the present will bode well for soccer in America.
“I would suggest that if the Mutiny had tried to revive the Rowdies instead of inventing their pirate-based brand, they might still be playing.”
There are those who say that.
As someone who grew up in Tampa, practically lived at Tampa Stadium in the NASL days, and knows what actually has an impact on such things, I can say I do not agree that Tampa’s MLS team would still be playing if it had been named the Rowdies. We’ll never know, of course, but people throw that out there without a shred of evidence to back it up.
It would still have been a team with no real investor and a crap lease as a secondary tenant in an NFL stadium. The name and the green and gold hoop socks wasn’t going to make fans or an owner just spring out of the woodwork.
Built the (Queens) Stadium Paul Kemsley and the Cosmos fans will come! Make the dream come alive. We are ready to buy season tickets at this moment!