New York Red Bulls!

[ConnieLFC]

I assume this just happened (or have I been under a rock)? While "NY/NJ Metrostars" was cumbersome, not sure I like the team being named for a beverage. Lack of gravitas somehow (and the franchise needs all the help it can get as it is to be taken seriously...)

Anyone know more about this deal? Found this page on their website interesting - everyone seems excited though understandably nervous about the seriousness of Red Bull's (!) intent:

http://redbull.newyork.mlsnet.com/ML...=.jsp&team=rbn

[RyeRed]

Actually kind of like it - although its better in Spanish: "Los Toros Rojas" or something like that... Could catch on. And "MetroStar" sounds like an effin train for goodnessakes. Personally couldn't care less as I don't watch a minute of it - dreadful stuff.

[Ruddy]

I've also never watched a game. I have to say though that as softdrinks go, that's one of the better logos isn't it? I remember buying a t-shirt of that in Thailand ten years ago, before I knew what it was (before it was worldwide).
I hear Tab is making a comeback, maybe they could sponsor them. A big Tab logo on an all pink kit. The Meadowlands Tab, now that has the ring of a championship team.

[RyeRed]

I get it...the Meadowlands Tab...in pink - the Palermo connection (they're in the Serie A in pink and black strips, right?) They could do Sopranos promotions, that sort of thing. Might really take off.

[islandRED]

this is another example of how the folks at the MLS do not have a clue.

the names of the clubs are embarrasing gimmiks designed to occupy the mind of a 10 year old, designed to reinforce american tendencies to overt arogance. (smile) i thought FC Dallas, Real Salt Lake and CD Chivas were on the right track, and the days of the 'galaxy', 'wizard', 'metrostar' and 'revolution' were numbered. guess i was wrong.... more of the same.

plus, when will the MLS move past this brady bunchh family marketing crap. FFS let's have some atmosphere. market football to the people who have been at the core of football in the country for decades... IMMIGRANTS!

hey, if we're going to give the NY club an name let's go back to the 'Cosmos'.

bahh humbug.

[Big Dave]

This is truly awful.

I'll have a vodka with mine...

[Samarkand]

this is another example of how the folks at the MLS do not have a clue.

I think you'll find that this has littel to do with MLS and is all a Red Bull thing. They've also bought and Austrian team, renamed it Red Bull something or other AND erased the historical record (top scorer, trophies etc.) which goes back the better part of a hundred years. At least they didn't do that with the MetroStars - not that the Metros have much history to erase in any event. Erasing the Metros history and keeping the Austrian team's history would have seemed to be the better move.

I know a few Metro fans and the general consensus is that they are very pissed off with this move.

[islandRED]

I think you'll find that this has littel to do with MLS and is all a Red Bull thing. They've also bought and Austrian team, renamed it Red Bull something or other AND erased the historical record (top scorer, trophies etc.) which goes back the better part of a hundred years. At least they didn't do that with the MetroStars - not that the Metros have much history to erase in any event. Erasing the Metros history and keeping the Austrian team's history would have seemed to be the better move.

I know a few Metro fans and the general consensus is that they are very pissed off with this move.

you're right samarkand, this particular thing isnt totally their fault. ... i still maintain that almost everything else is their fault. (smile)

as for SV [pay to have your name here] Salsburg, this is a familar thing for them. maybe not a total break w/ the past... that does go a bit far.

[Albert Stubbins]

Interesting history from Jack Bell's weekly soccer column in today's NYT.



Red Bull's purchase and change of the team's nickname from the MetroStars (a club named for Metromedia) elicited jokes and even a mention on the "Weekend Update" segment of NBC's "Saturday Night Live" two weeks ago. But it is not the first time an American soccer team carried a corporate banner.

In the early history of the game in the United States, the Bethlehem Steel team, sponsored by the company from 1913 to 1930, relied on imported players and won the National Cup (now the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup) four times between 1915 and 1919 and lost in the final in 1917.

A team sponsored by Stix, Baer & Fuller, a department store in St. Louis, won the competition in 1933 and 1934, and St. Louis Central Breweries won in 1935.

Other company-sponsored teams included Detroit Holley Carburetor, Vesper Buick, Simpkins Ford, Chicago Manhattan Beer, Cleveland Bruell Insurance, Akron Goodyear and J&P Coats of Pawtucket, R.I.

[Albert Stubbins]

According to an interesting piece by Jack Bell in today's NYT, the new owners of the New York franchise are tight with the Kaiser who in turn is tight with the cat who the rights to the "Cosmos" name. There is a distinct possibility that New York's team will soon be renamed "The Red Bull Cosmos", a HUGE improvement I think on the "New York - New Jersey Metro Stars" and better than "Red Bull New York".