The rumors have been going around about he Rapids changing their name recently. Now the Colorado Rapids are going to announce an official partnership with Arsenal, the London based EPL team, one of the biggest in England.
Along with this change brings a new Jersey, which will be maroon and light blue. They do want to change their official name to Arsenal Colorado, but the league requires 18 months notice before a team can change its name, so it is likely that the team will still be called the Colorado Rapids, for now at least.
Thats great that MLS teams could make partnerships with big European teams, but do we really need to give our MLS teams the same name as the team they are partnering with? Come on Colorado, what the hell? Sure the Rapids isn’t the greatest name in the history of anything, but they have been the Rapids for over 10 years now. I’m not sure if this move is designed to build local interest in the team, or to make people lost interest. If soccer is ever going to gain the respect of the typical American sports fan, we can’t go and name all our teams after the European team they are partnered with. It gives those teams a little bit of a sense of a minor league farm team for the big European clubs, which will never, never be a good thing. The MLS should, and in my opinion can, have a goal of legitemately competing with the worlds top teams in coming years, not being their “minor league” team that they can send their old otherwise-would-be-retired superstars.
One more thing: maroon and light blue, who the hell picked those colors? If they want to be partnered with the London Arsenal, they want to be like the London Arsenal, why the hell are they picking up Aston Villa colors? The Rapids aren’t my favorite team, but I always thought they had the best jerseys, and have been very close to buying myself one on several occasions. Maybe I’ll buy one of the old ones if they do change the colors.
This has gone too far. What do you think?
Related posts:
2 Comments
In my opinion they have screwed it all up; I feel betrayed. This whole thing is pathetic and depressing. The irony is that while the Rapids website & slogan keeps urging us to “support our Rapids” this change, along with the new stadium just west of Kansas, drives home that it is Kroenke’s team (business) and our only role is to be faux rabid euro-style fans who will spend anything for a season ticket. The Arsenal connection might be OK, but having the entire Rapids identity gutted in an obvious boardroom decision is a powerful message to whatever fan base the Rapids have: who cares what you think?. The message is clear: this is the corporation’s team, not ours. This move is for them, their egos, and their corporate portfolio.
The idea of re-naming the team is an insult. It strips the team of any local, regional, and even national identity; it severs any ties to Colorado at all. Apparently all we American soccer fans want or need is to be step-children of the European system.
The new colors are weak, and in fact represent an “old” (i.e. 5-10 years) color trend that will soon look dated. Haven’t you all noticed the brown and baby blue theme that’s been going around the last few years in WOMEN’S CLOTHING? This was a color trend created by an organization called The Color Authority in (where else?)New York. It’s like The Devil Wears Prada just discovered the MLS. The Rapids logo and jerseys were one of the stronger team identities in the league; you could wear them and not look like a fool. The new ones are clown suits. Would any semi-serious NFL team bring in some designer twit (I say this as a designer myself) to re-do colors and logos? They’d be laughed out of the stadium! This thing reeks of purely business motivations. It doesn’t take much imagination to see the business meeting and the groups involved. They’ve treated our team like it was another flavor of Doritos to roll out. I don’t want to wish ill of our team, but I do hope the Kroekne bastards lose their shirts on this insult.
What a perfect way to alienate your customer base. Cannon got out just in time!
The first time I read about the color change I seriously thought it was a joke. Unfortunately it was not.