With all the expansion teams entering MLS recently, there’s a whole lot of new names, faces and colors flying around American soccer these days. And, thankfully, these new clubs all seem to have something that’s exciting about them right out of the gates.
Charlotte FC broke the MLS attendance record in their very first home match, Austin FC find themselves atop the Western Conference, Nashville SC built (and often sell out) the largest soccer specific stadium in MLS, and despite disappointing performance on the field, Inter Miami have a stadium on the way and are still owned by David freakin’ Beckham.
Charlotte FC Break the MLS Attendance Record in their Inaugural Home Match (Via Stadium Digest)
So while I think all this exciting expansion is great for the league, what about the original teams? Entering the league back in the 90’s, many of the league’s most historic franchises can feel a bit…stale at times.
Because of this, we’ve seen a handful of clubs try to “re-brand” in the last few years with new crests, altered colored schemes, and sometimes even new stadiums. Since 2021 alone, Columbus Crew built a new stadium and designed themselves a new crest, Montréal Impact became “Club de Foot Montréal” and swapped in a new logo to go along with it, and Chicago Fire moved from their old stadium in Bridgeview back to Soldier Field in downtown Chicago, and also re-designed their crest with a new color scheme.
Montréal's Re-brand from the 'Impact' to "Club de Foot Montréal' (Via Sportslogos.net)
But, which other teams could benefit from a re-brand? I’ve compiled three franchises that I think are no longer reaching their full potential in terms of attendance, relevance, or just “Wow” factor, and provided a potential re-brand solution for all three. Let me know what you think in the comments, and tell me which team you would rebrand if you could!
1) New England Revolution —> Boston Revolution
The Revs have been way too good of a team recently for their optics to be as bad as they are. Despite being an original MLS team founded in 1996, they are still without a soccer-specific stadium to call home. That marks over 25 years of playing in the home of their NFL siblings, The New England Patriots, and the optics of playing these games in an 65,000 seat stadium like Gillette just do NOT look good when you’re averaging less than 20,000 people per game.
A Sparsely Attended Revs Match (Via MLS Attendance)
One of the biggest reasons I hear for why the attendance has been so low is because of the distance Gillette Stadium is from the city of Boston. Foxborough is over an hour’s drive away from the city, which probably turns away a TON of fans who’d probably otherwise attend the match in person.
So in a perfect world, I’d build something in downtown Boston, and re-brand the club around this great city, rather than trying to represent an entire region of the country like New England.
Yes, I understand that building a stadium in the middle of Boston is pretty much impossible to do, but these are re-brands that I wish could happen, not that I think will happen. So just dream with me here…
2019 Renderings of a Possible NE Revolution Stadium (Via Soccer Stadium Digest)
Boston is such a great sports town in every other sport, and being the young city that it is, I think they’d take well to a fresher-faced version of the franchise if it was in their own backyard. It would see their attendance figures shoot up, the optics of their home games improve dramatically (which is huge for those of us watching on TV), and there would be a newfound excitement surrounding the franchise.
But there’s a lot of things about the revs that I would love to see stick around - the first of which being their name. The “Revolution” is such a unique name, and I love that it isn’t another “FC” or “United” cookie cutter formula that pretty much every expansion team has resorted to in recent years.
The Revolution's New Crest as of 2021 (Via Footy Headlines)
Another thing I’d keep is their new crest, which debuted just last year and is a real stunner. The logo just screams “Boston” to me, and for that reason I think it would work perfectly for this hypothetical re-brand. Just swap out “New England” at the top for “Boston”, and I think we’re good to go.
New York Red Bulls —> NJ MetroStars
This one isn’t so much of a re-brand as it is an “un-brand”, as I am proposing that the club should ditch its corporate takeover from the Red Bull brand and return to its roots of the ‘MetroStars”. Now again, I’m pretty sure they’d never actually do this given how valuable and successful the Red Bull family of clubs have become worldwide, but I think from just a raw, “MLS Fan” perspective, this is what I’d love to see them do.
First of all, the old MetroStar vibe was pretty sweet. The kits were awesome, they had a bunch of exciting players in that era, and the name was just so wonderfully unusual. I don’t even really know what they meant by “MetroStars”, but I like that its weird, and it was certainly something that they made their own.
A collection of Metrostars Kits and Players (Via NSS Sports)
Then there’s the New Jersey vs New York aspect of this, which is a whole can of worms if you know anything about the Hudson River Derby and their rivalry with NYCFC, But hear me out.
Back before the Red Bull takeover, their title was the “New York/New Jersey MetroStars”, meaning that they actually tried to represent both states. After the re-brand, they dropped NJ from their name in favor of just ‘New York’, and moved out of their longtime home of Giants Stadium in New Jersey, and moved into a gorgeous, brand new soccer-specific stadium in Red Bull Arena…also in New Jersey.
Red Bull Arena with New York City in the Background (Via NJ.com)
And don’t get me wrong, there’s NOTHING wrong with being a New Jersey franchise. The New Jersey Devils represent the garden state, and the Nets repped NJ for years. It’s the most densely populated state in the whole country, and has more than enough sports fans (and soccer fans in particular) to support a franchise. Its a great exporter of talent for the USMNT and USWNT, with players like Tim Howard, Jozy Altidore, Michael Bradley, Claudio Reyna, Carli LLoyd and Tobin Heath all calling Jersey home.
So, I say stop trying to force a round peg in a square hole. New Jersey genuinely has a great soccer culture, and given its been the home of the club for the entirety of its existence, I think they’d be better off owning the garden state rather than trying to claim all of New York City, which has just felt like a reach for years now.
FC Dallas —> Dallas Herd
FC Dallas have cemented themselves as one of the most important franchises in Major League Soccer, but you’d never know it by watching one of their games. For years now, the club have been fielding talented, young teams in front of half-empty stadiums in Frisco Texas, well outside the city limits of Dallas.
Many Empty Seats at an FC Dallas Match (Via The Score)
The value of this club isn’t in superstars, but in future stars. They have set the standard for the academy system in America, and their production of young talent into MLS and beyond is pretty much unrivaled league-wide.
But just because the team is largely youth talent without many household names, does not mean their attendance and optics should be as bad as they are. In fact, it should be the contrary, with tons of fans showing up week in and week out in the hopes of witnessing greatness from America’s next top prospect, and watching an always well-coached side over-perform their yearly expectations.
FC Dallas' Academy Celebrating a Youth Championship (Via MLS)
So, why doesn’t that happen? It seems to be the usual suspects, a stadium that’s far away from the city they represent, and an overall lack of freshness and “wow factor” from a club that’s remained largely unchanged for its 26 year existence since the birth of the league.
So, I say its time for a new name, a new crest, and most importantly, a new stadium. Drawing from a mix of Texas lore and the longhorn on their current crest, I think the “Herd” would be a cool name for the club, and would fit the ‘family’ style identity they’ve built through their years of successful academy integration into the first team. Whether you're a U-10 academy player, or a first team starter, you’d be part of “the herd”.
FC Dallas' Current Crest (Via Logos-world.net)
For a new crest to go along with this name change, I would love it if they incorporated the current longhorn as the main feature, but also try to involve the ’96’ that’s stamped on their current logo as a nod to the club’s history as a founding franchise.
Then, I would try to move the club closer to downtown Dallas and into a smaller soccer specific stadium than their current home, Toyota Stadium. I think their current capacity of about 20,000 could be knocked down to something closer to 18,000 to make the stadium look a bit fuller if under-attended, but moving the stadium closer to Dallas would surely bump their current average attendance figures up from the 16,320 they’re averaging in 2022.
And please, PUT A ROOF ON THE DAMN THING. Believe it or not, Dallas can get pretty hot in June, July, and August during the thick of the MLS season. The least you could do it give the fans some shade from the brutal Texas heat, all while keeping the sounds in and creating a better atmosphere for everyone involved.
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