New York City Football Club is currently in the midst of its 8th MLS season, and if I were to reflect on these years since the club’s inaugural season in 2015, I would certainly call the club’s journey a successful one thus far. Far from perfect, yes. But, taking into consideration the status of other clubs around the league, there are very few franchises that I envy as an NYCFC fan. The fact that we’re just a few months out from our MLS Cup victory surely helps me feel all the more content.
But, there are things that I can’t help but wish were even better about the club. Some of them are small things, but others are…stadium sized things? But even beyond that most obvious shortcoming, I think NYCFC have been around for just long enough now for that “new car smell” to have officially worn off. One thing is for sure in my mind, and it’s that we certainly don’t feel like an expansion club anymore. we are officially an MLS mainstay.
Yes, an MLS cup certainly cements that claim, but aside from that, these days the club lacks the things that made it feel new and exciting when it was playing its inaugural season. And that’s certainly okay if the team’s on-field performance continues to be as impressive as it has been. But, a little part of me fears that we are one or two bad seasons away from struggling to maintain the relevance we could (or should) have as New York City’s biggest soccer club.
Elements of a Potential Re-Brand (Via VectorStock and Cláudio Cruz)
So, while I’m not calling for a “re-brand” right now, I think it is something that the club should keep in the back of its mind in the coming years. This is a trend we’ve seen recently across MLS with the likes of The Crew, The Revs, Montréal, and The Fire all taking to new crests and colors, calling new stadiums home, or just taking a different approach in general in an attempt to boost interest and relevance in the club.
So, if I were to be tasked with Re-branding NYCFC, here is what I would do:
1) A Newer, Fresher Crest
To be perfectly honest, I’ve never loved our current crest. The circle paired with the sky blue all feels a bit too friendly to me. I've heard it's supposed to based off of the old subway tokens, but to be honest I don't really see it. There’s not a lot of sharpness to it, or edge about it that really stands out. And, perhaps most importantly, I don’t feel like the crest really screams “NEW YORK” at me.
Manchester City and NYCFC's Crests Side-by-side
And, since the crest was founded before our inaugural season, and therefore before our team was really able to build any identity, it doesn’t really possess any of the things that make NYCFC our own. No aspects of our current culture are found in the current design - no pigeons, no yankee stadium banter, no chicken buckets, no night owls...nothing. When you look at crests of older clubs around the world, they often have little details that pay homage to the club’s history. Right now, our crest has none of those. It really just feels like a repackaged version of Man City’s current crest.
Two NYCFC Concept Crests and the Placeholder Crest from 2013 (Via Cláudio Cruz, NYCFC Forums, and NYCFC)
Now, I’m not a graphic designer, but these are some of my favorite concept crests I've found online, along with the placeholder crest used in 2013 before our official crest was announced. Of these three ideas, the takeaways I would make sure to include a new crest would be the iconic NYC subway font spelling out our name, to have a pigeon somewhere in the logo, and to have the yankee stadium facade feature somewhere across the top. That way, it would provide a touch of our city’s culture, a touch of our team’s culture, and a touch of our current stadium’s culture. Sounds like a win-win-win.
2) Bring Back the Star DP
Say what you will about Andrea Pirlo’s defending in an NYCFC shirt…that man, along with Villa and Lampard, put asses in seats. Pretty much every year since we sported the big three (four if you count Patrick Vieira’s presence on the sidelines), our attendance has been dropping. Yes, there are other factors to this drop like the impact of Covid-19, but its pretty clear that Yankee Stadium does not get nearly as packed as it once did, even when we were a far worse team on the field.
Frank Lampard in the "Star DP" Era (Via MLS Youtube)
But, it's clear that our model of signing young, South American talent has been very successful from a performance perspective. Hell, we just won MLS Cup. But, I think there’s a cost to having a bunch of talented players that lack status on the international stage, and I think we’re starting to pay that price in terms of our attendance and external relevance.
When a friend of mine who doesn’t watch MLS asks, “Who plays for NYCFC these days?”, I think they are expecting a name like Pirlo or Lampard, as that’s who they associate the club with from its early days. So, when I say a name like, “Santi Rodriguez”, I understand why they just kind of just change the subject. Every once in a while I’ll have a big Seri A fan remember who Maxi Moralez is from his Atalanta days…but that’s about it. From that perspective, we have very few names that would pique interest in someone who isn’t already a fan of the club, which is a major shortcoming if we are looking to keep growing our fanbase.
Our Current Core of South-American Talent (Via NYCFC)
So, I say we try to keep one big name star on the roster at all times. I certainly don’t want to go back to the days of having three 35+ year olds trotting around the pitch, but if we can take one big name star with some gas left in the tank, and surround him with the crop of youth talent that we’ve been bringing in from South America, I think we could strike a really nice balance.
So, once Maxi’s time is up here in NYC, I say we make a swoop for a name that will turn heads not just in MLS, but in world football.
3) A New Stadium
Well, this one’s obvious, but it would be vital to a re-brand. Finally moving out of our parents house would be the ultimate step towards re-positioning ourselves in MLS. It would be the cornerstone of the entire movement. I’m picturing about 20,000-25,000 sky blue seats in The Bronx right off the No. 4 train, and I’m picturing all of them being filled with fans both new and old. No more questions about our legitimacy as the vagabonds we are now, no more ugly sight-lines, no more pitchers mounds and bad sod. Just soccer in a soccer stadium - what a thought.
An unofficial rendering of what an NYCFC stadium could look like (via 3d Warehouse; U Design)
But, I think we could capitalize best on such a move if we were to accompany it with the previous two aspects of this hypothetical re-brand: a new crest and a new star DP. If we could bring all three of these to the table at once, NOW you have a serious new look in the Big Apple, and that “new car smell” is back.
These three moves, in my opinion, would take us from a club that’s probably viewed as “talented but flawed”, and turn us into a club that would likely be the envy of the rest of the league. And, most importantly, it would continue to renew interest in the team around the city, around MLS, and around the global soccer community. And, as a club that’s looking to be around for the long haul, that’s a necessary step to take at some point. The question is, when should we try to get it done?
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