How It Was Named | MLS Teams

Intro [Music] here's how every mls team got its name the mls was founded with 10 teams and all but one of the founding teams are still in the mls the team that is no longer in the mls is the tampa bay mutiny Tampa Bay Mutiny the mutiny were one of the founding mls teams with tampa bay being chosen in part because of the success of an nasl team in the 1970s and 80s called the tampa bay rowdies mutiny was chosen as the nickname presumably to be thematically consistent with the pirate theme of the tampa bay buccaneers a mutiny is a revolt of the crew on a ship overthrowing the ship's captain unfortunately for this founding mls team poor attendance and an expensive lease agreement meant that the club would eventually fold in 2001 as the mls was already facing financial struggles and decided it was best for the league to contract two teams now on to the other founding mls teams the colorado rapids were founding mls members in 1996. Colorado Rapids from the beginning the rapids were named the rapids and it was chosen as the name presumably to fit in with some of the other sports names in colorado colorado rockies the avalanche and even the nuggets all of them focus on the natural beauty and resources of colorado the many rivers throughout the state have fast rapids that make for a great place for some exhilarating white water rafting Columbus Crew now when the columbus crew joined as a founding member of the mls in 1996 they held a contest to choose a team name the winning submission was from luis orosco who picked crew to hearken to christopher columbus's journey to the americas and his whole crew that made that journey possible the team took that idea and ran with it expanding the meaning of the name to celebrate the blue-collared workers at the heart of columbus's workforce think construction crew this is why their original logo features three semi-silhouetted men in hard hats and their slogan was america's hardest working team in 2014 the team rebranded and became columbus crew sc sc is short for soccer club following similar naming conventions from football clubs all over the world the big difference from the rest of the world is soccer shortened from the original english name association football is near universally called football outside of a handful of countries notably the united states canada south africa australia and new zealand among others so around the world you typically see fc like liverpool fc or fc bayern munich fc for football club sc for soccer club in 2021 the team announced its intention to officially drop crew from the name as it revealed a new logo design and to just go by columbus sc however that plan only lasted about a week due to a very vocal and passionate outcry from the club's supporters and crew was officially placed back on the logo and returned to the club name when washington dc was awarded an mls D.C. United team for the inaugural season the team set about looking for a team name originally they sought to follow american sports naming conventions that center around a mascot but eventually they settled on dc united united is another naming convention that has its roots in english football teams like manchester united and leeds united chose united as a part of uniting a fan base around a team other teams like newcastle united chose the united moniker after a merger of two teams in a desire to represent their now one united team so following this naming convention dc chose united which fits perfectly with the team's location washington dc the capital of the united states FC Dallas founded in the inaugural season of the mls fc dallas was originally named dallas byrne byrne referred to both the oil fields of texas and the dallas heat in 2005 the club rebranded to coincide with the opening of their new soccer specific stadium fc dallas was chosen as the name this too to follow the naming conventions as we mentioned before with dallas opting for fc for football club over sc for soccer club also a founding member of the mls the la galaxy have remained LA Galaxy the galaxy since their inception in 1996. los angeles is well known for hollywood and the film industry producing countless stars of silver screen galaxy as a name pays tribute to this industry and fits well with star-studded la the new england revolution began as a founding member of New England Revolution the mls owned by the same owner as the new england patriots they chose a name that both encompassed a greater region new england and also aligned with the patriotic theme of the patriots the revolution this name pays tribute to the role that new england played in the revolutionary war paving the way for u.s independence also starting in mls's New York Redbulls first season were the new york red bulls they were originally named the empire soccer club when the mls announced that new york would be one of the original mls locations this name proved to be more of a placeholder albeit a good one for the empire state and they were officially named the new york new jersey metro stars ahead of the first season the owner of the new york new jersey metro stars had founded a company called metro media and he wanted a name for his team that matched his other business it also had the added benefit of paying a tribute to the previous nasl team based in new york the new york cosmos cosmos metro stars you get it in 2006 the team was purchased by redbull the energy drink company the new owners wanted to match their team's branding with their other teams red bull owns red bull salzburg of the austrian football league red bull leipzig of the german football league and even red bull racing the formula one team as well as many other racing soccer and hockey teams all over the world so naturally the team name was changed to the new york red bulls San Jose Earthquakes when the league was founded in 1996 the san jose earthquakes were originally named the san jose clash now the roots of this team date back to the nasl when san jose was awarded with a team in 1974 also called the earthquakes this name originally came from a newspaper contest and is a reference to the san andreas fault where two tectonic plates the pacific plate and the north american plate are slowly colliding as they slip past one another these collisions cause earthquakes and considering the fault line is around 750 miles across much of california it is no wonder why there are so many earthquakes in california there's just a lot of geological activity despite this previous nasl franchise the owner originally chose the name clash apparently at the behest of nike a major club sponsor the team would go on to play four seasons as the clash in 2000 however after four seasons of limited success the owner took the opportunity to rebrand the team naming them san jose earthquakes this of course hearkening back to that original nasl team at the end of the 2005 season it was announced that the owner was going to move the team to houston because of the deep soccer routes in san jose in the support of its fans the commissioners stepped in and announced that while the team was moving the history the records the name the colors the branding would all remain in san jose and the team would be on an indefinite hiatus so when the team moved to houston they were essentially treated as an expansion team and the team in san jose just remained in limbo this is very very similar to the situation of the cleveland browns leaving cleveland in the nfl the browns moved to baltimore and became the ravens but the team was put on official hiatus and returned as a team four years later retaining all of their stats branding and history in 2007 it was announced that a team would return to san jose for the start of the 2008 season they returned as a continuation of the same franchise and retained the name san jose earthquakes Sporting Kansas City sporting kansas city is the last of our 10 founding mls teams originally they were called kansas city or kc whiz this changed after only one year to the kansas city wizards though they were often still called the wiz for short wizards was chosen as a name in part because of the movie the wizard of oz even though kansas city is technically two cities straddling the missouri kansas border both named kansas city the wizard of oz remains an important and memorable american movie and features the character of dorothy leaving kansas in a tornado to find the great and powerful wizard of oz in 2011 the team rebranded and became sporting kansas city sporting was chosen in reference to european naming conventions although less common than fc a handful of teams around the world used sporting as their moniker most prominently sporting club of portugal or sporting cp Chicago Fire FC in 1997 the chicago fire were founded and they were set to join the league for the 1998 season their full name was chicago fire soccer club though they were almost referred to simply as the chicago fire fire was chosen as the team name and commemoration of the great chicago fire that took place 126 years to the day before the founding of chicago fire soccer club the great chicago fire is an important event in chicago history and it is further commemorated on the chicago city flag this flag has four stars the first of these stars is the chicago fire the other three are to commemorate the world colombian exhibition which is the world's fair of 1893 the century of progress exhibition which is the world's fair from 1933 and fort dearborn a former u.s army base that was based in chicago prior to the start of the 2020 season the club rebranded and underwent a slight name change they became chicago fire fc for football club following the trend of shifting logos and names of mls teams to look and feel more like traditional european soccer teams another club worth mentioning that started the same year as the chicago Miami Fusion fire is the miami fusion the few gym were named because it is both explosive and powerful and symbolizes the unification of miami's multinational population unfortunately for mls teams in florida success has been a bit difficult along with the tampa bay mutiny the fusion became the second team in 2001 to be dissolved as the mls continued to hash through early financial struggles Chivas USA by 2005 the mls was looking to add two more teams into the mix one of those teams was chiva's usa playing in the los angeles suburb of carson and sharing a facility with the la galaxy chivas usa was owned by the same owner of the liga mx team guadalajara also called the chivas chivas means goats and is the nickname of the guadalajaran team in 2014 however the mls purchased the team back and sought to find an investor group that could dedicate the resources necessary to keep the team in los angeles this team was then folded and an ownership group was found and four years later a new franchise would take its place however this new team would not be a continuation of chivas and chivas would cease to continue past 2014. the other team founded ahead of the 2005 Real Salt Lake mls season was real salt lake in salt lake city utah okay technically in sandy utah but in the metro slc area from the beginning real salt lake sought to have a name that hearkened to the giants of european football real is usually used as a part of a team name when the team has some official affiliation with the crown like literally real is spanish for royal and teams like most famously real madrid often get that name directly from royalty real madrid was given the name real and the use of the crown on their logo from king alfonso the 13th in 1920. real salt lake was early on the trend of branding your mls teams in a way that affiliates you with world football super powers and they have been real salt lake ever since 2005. ahead of the 2006 mls season the san Houston Dynamo jose earthquakes moved to houston since they weren't retaining any of the history or names associated with the earthquakes they began searching for a new name the originally chosen name was houston 1836 which is the year of the city of houston's founding the use of a date in european soccer especially in german soccer as a part of the name is not very uncommon typically such as with tsg 1899 hoffenheim it is the date of the founding of the club but houston 1836 plays a bit with the form tying the club to the city's history however shortly after the announcement there was a backlash because of the date's association with the texas revolution the breaking away of texas from mexico and the eventual annexing of texas by the united states again it's complicated but not wanting their new name to be at the center of controversy before the season started the club retracted the initial name and instead went with the houston dynamo dynamo is meant to pay tribute to the energy industry in houston the use of dynamo in team names also has a bit of a history with european teams as well under the eastern bloc many eastern european teams were named after industries important to the area this is at least in part the reason there are so many dynamo clubs and it would appear that these teams were named after the soviet police force almost certainly an unintended connection for the houston dynamo but both in connecting with the industry in building a successful team all in all houston's move to houston in 2006 was a success Toronto FC in 2005 toronto was awarded an mls team that would begin playing at the start of the 2007 season looking for input on a team name an online vote was held to share fans opinions on different names for the club some of the options included toronto northmen inter toronto fc toronto reds and toronto fc the ownership selected toronto fc noting that it garnered 40 of the votes in the poll this would allow the team to have that classic football team name while allowing the club to organically pick up nicknames from the fans Seattle Sounders FC in 1967 the nasl short for the north american soccer league was created it was the top tier of the soccer pyramid in the u.s unfortunately the league folded in 1985. in 1990 a new league called the american professional soccer league apsl for short was formed after emerging of two smaller leagues by 1994 the mls was hard at work selecting cities for the inaugural mls season in 1996. seattle which had a newly founded team in the apsl was also being considered by the mls ultimately the presence of an apsl team was part of the reason seattle wasn't chosen as one of the initial cities of the mls now this apsl team was called the seattle sounders and they were named after the original seattle sounders that played for 10 years in the nasl before dissolving in 1983. sounders was chosen for this nasl team by fan vote from a list that also included the cascades the evergreens mariners shooners sockeyes but sounders was chosen as it harkens to the puget sound a massive inlet of the pacific ocean cities such as seattle tacoma olympia and everett sit right on the sound now the apsl sounders continued to play in the apsl until it was absorbed into the usl the united soccer league the team then played in the usl up until it was announced that seattle was awarded an mls franchise the franchise would be owned by the same owner plus a few others as the usl sounders the usl team would play one final season in 2008 then the new franchise would join the mls in 2009 this new mls franchise technically and legally was starting from scratch as a new entity but in spirit it is the continuation of everything sounders it retains several players from the usl roster as well as retaining the name seattle sounders with a slight change of adding that ever so important fc giving us seattle sounders fc in 2009 since at least as early as 2001 there Philadelphia Union had been attempts to bring an mls team to the delaware valley which is the greater philadelphia area in 2008 those efforts came to fruition as the mls awarded philadelphia with an mls team that would begin playing in the 2010 season fans were pulled on their favorite name the three losing options were ac philadelphia philadelphia sc and philadelphia city the winning option philadelphia union alludes to the union of the original 13 colonies of the united states and philadelphia's role as its original capital Portland Timbers in 2009 the mls announced that they would be adding two teams that would join the mls for the start of the 2011 season the first of these teams is the portland timbers this team much like the seattle sounders is named for the original portland-based nasl team also called the portland timbers timbers was chosen for that name because of oregon's logging industry after the original franchise and the nasl as a whole folded in 2001 a new portland timbers franchise joined the usl their success in portland was a big part of the mls awarding portland with a franchise in 2011. and like the sounders before the ownership group included the usl ownership and the usl team dissolved in 2010 and a new legal entity of the mls portland timbers took its place retained its name and kicked off in time for the 2011 season the other team announced in 2009 for the 2011 season Vancouver Whitecaps FC was the vancouver whitecaps one interesting thing about vancouver portland and seattle is how similar their stories are and how it has led to one of the best rivalries in the mls like the previous two teams vancouver had teams in the nasl and the uso these three teams close proximity in the cascadia region of the northern us and west coast of canada led these teams to also compete in a regional in-season competition called the cascadia cup which is awarded to the team that bests the other two in the regular season this was made official in the usl and once vancouver and portland joined the mls in 2011 it has continued on as a great regional sports rivalry now the name white caps comes from the nasl team and that name was chosen because of the snow white capped mountains around vancouver and the white crest of waves from the ocean crashing to shore when the original nasl league folded the original whitecaps team was forced to fold as well however only two years later a new team emerged originally wanting to continue with the vancouver y cap's name the team was unable to purchase the naming rights so in 1986 the vancouver 86ers were born the 86ers were named after an amazing convergence of the importance of the number 86 vancouver as a city was incorporated in 1886 the club was founded 100 years later in 1986 the club outlined 86 guiding principles for the club and 1986 was the year vancouver hosted expo 86 the 1986 world's fair this 86ers team first played in the csl the canadian soccer league which folded in 1992 the next season the team joined the apsl reuniting in the same league with the seattle sounders and they too continued to play in the usl after the apsl was absorbed in 1997. before the start of the 2001 season the 86ers were able to purchase the naming rights for whitecaps and officially changed their name back to the vancouver whitecaps in 2003 the name was changed again to add fc to the end giving us vancouver whitecaps fc with fc of course being short for football club finally in the same method as seattle and portland vancouver was announced as an mls team and they too joined as an expansion franchise in 2011. CF Montréal as we talk about how each team came into existence i find it fascinating that so many cities have fought so hard over the years to build a soccer fan base and retain a soccer team through leagues continually folding as the infrastructure and interest for soccer in north america grew to the point that we now have sustainable sports leagues minus mexico of course because they definitely got there well before the rest of north america the story is no different with cf montreal in 2010 it was announced that montreal would be joining the mls as canada's third mls franchise starting play in 2012. the team that would be joining was called the montreal impact like other teams on this list it has its roots firmly in a team moving up from lower division leagues originally founded in 1992 the montreal impact began playing in the apsl they too transitioned to the usl when the apsl was absorbed in 1997. they continued to play in the usl until the mls announced the new franchise for montreal at that point they played one final season switching leagues to the brand new nasl league which was named after the old original nasl league from the 70s and after that final season the team closed in preparation of beginning an mls expansion team in 2012 according to an interview on tsn with the original general manager pino asaro impact was chosen as the name because of the desire of the owners the ceputo family to leave a legacy and make an impact in the community the montreal impact retained that name as they joined the mls in 2012. in 2021 the team was then rebranded to cf montreal cf stands for club de fut and like fc it is in addition to the name meaning football club but in french this is because french is one of canada's official languages in the most commonly spoken first language in quebec the province in which montreal resides when asked about the name change former manager and footballing legend thierry henry said that the use of club defut fits naturally with how french speakers refer to the sport and as someone who doesn't speak french i will take his word for it New York City FC now since 2006 that mls had interest in placing a second team in new york city and in 2010 it was announced that the mls intended to officially add that second team sometime in the near future around the same time mls commissioner don garber had been working with barcelona fc from the spanish la liga on a potential bid for a miami-based mls team while that bid ultimately fell through the vice president of barcelona at the time was hired to be the ceo of manchester city fc of the english premier league this ultimately led to manchester city successfully bidding in partnership with the new york yankees and being awarded the ownership of the second new york mls franchise the name that was chosen was new york city fc keeping the name aligned with ownership's flagship team manchester city fc and new york city fc would begin playing in 2015. orlando city sc began as the austin aztecs u-23 in 2008 Orlando City SC beginning play in the usl player development league a second division of the usl u23 is a designation given to youth teams where players are mandated to be under a certain age in this case 23. they then played as the austin aztecs dropping the u-23 in a temporary one-season only league called the united states soccer federation division ii professional league or ussf d2 pro for short this league was created by the u.s soccer federation to mediate a dispute between the usl and the newly formed nasl about the second level of the us soccer pyramid needless to say again it was complicated in 2010 at the end of the season the team was dissolved moved to orlando and reborn as a part of the usl now one of the owners was a board member of stoke city fc in england and orlando city sc became a natural fit for the new soccer team the mls then announced in 2013 that orlando city sc would be awarded a new franchise in the mls beginning play in 2015. they became the first mls team back in florida since the tampa bay mutiny in miami fusion were folded in 2001. Atlanta United FC the mls once again looked to add two new teams this time set to begin playing in 2017. atlanta was chosen as one of those locations and the team was named atlanta united fc they landed on the name by surveying fans and selecting a name based on fan opinion as we discussed before both united and fc have strong ties to several soccer teams around the world and make atlanta united fc an easily recognizable soccer brand the other team joining for the 2017 season was minnesota united fc Minnesota United FC minnesota united began playing in the same ussf d2 pro league previously mentioned in the orlando city section they were founded by the national sports center a multi-sport complex owned by the state of minnesota in blaine minnesota just north of minneapolis the team was named nsc minnesota after the national sports center itself the team also had a nickname the stars after that one season in 2010 with the ussf d2 pro league nsc minnesota began playing in the nasl but they ran into a problem it was a requirement for nasl teams that the owner's net worth exceed 20 million dollars this created a bit of a ticking clock for the nsc ownership in 2012 the team announced that they were changing their name dropping the nsc and rebranding to minnesota stars fc after that season the team was purchased by a new owner bill mcguire and in 2013 the team was renamed to minnesota united fc the name was chosen because of quote a tribute to the team's vision and a three-decade-long legacy of soccer in minnesota bill mcguire also happened to be the ceo of unitedhealth at one point so he may have also had an affinity for the name united in 2015 it was announced that minnesota would be receiving an mls franchise minnesota united fc played one final season in 2016 before dissolving and becoming a new mls franchise retaining their name to be minnesota united fc beginning play in the mls in 2017. after chivas usa folded in 2014 Los Angeles FC it was announced that a second la based team would soon take its place originally los angeles fc was a placeholder name but in 2015 it was announced that the team would officially be called los angeles fc that team would then begin playing in the mls in 2018 keeping the mls's promise to return a second team back to los angeles in 2016 fc cincinnati was founded and like many FC Cincinnati other clubs on this list before them fc cincinnati began playing in the usl in 2018 it was announced that cincinnati would be awarded a team for the start of the 2019 mls season and like many of the teams before them they retained their name as they joined the mls beginning play in 2019 in the mid-2000s the mls was Inter Miami CF working hard to court david beckham to play in the united states beckham is one of the most famous soccer players in the world and at the time he was still at the peak of his fame playing for real madrid in la liga he joined the los angeles galaxy in 2007 and a part of the agreement to compensate him for joining the league gave him the option of purchasing his own mls franchise for the fee of 25 million dollars now considering that the latest expansion team fees are now upward of 300 million dollars that is quite the lucrative opportunity after his retirement beckham and the league began discussions over the possibility of a miami-based franchise and in 2014 it was announced that beckham would indeed be exercising his option and seeking to bring a franchise to miami working team names that weren't official were miami vice and miami currents and in 2018 it was announced that the miami team would officially join the league in 2020 later that year the team name was revealed club international the football miami or enter miami fc for short or enter miami for even shorter inter is a name that several clubs around the world use most famously perhaps being inter milan which is short for football club internationale milano but however you slice it beckham was quite the shrewd businessman when he came to play in the mls leading to the eventual founding of inter miami cf in 2020 nashville soccer club or nashville sc for short was founded in Nashville SC 2013 as a fan owned club playing in the national premier soccer league a fourth tier amateur league in u.s soccer in 2016 nashville was awarded a usl team the amateur team dissolved and the branding colors badge and name were purchased for this new usl franchise in return the fan ownership of the amateur team received a one percent stake in the new franchise and a seat on the board in 2017 nashville was awarded an expansion team in the mls set to begin playing in 2020 in 2019 it was announced that upon joining the mls the expansion franchise would retain the name and branding of the usl team giving us nashville sc Austin FC in 2020 joining just this season in 2021 is austin fc austin was chosen in part because of its history of previous soccer teams such as the aztecs that moved and became orlando city sc and their current usl team austin bold the name austin fc is consistent with current mls teams following the european stylized naming conventions set to join the mls in 2022 is charlotte Charlotte FC fc charlotte as a city had been interested yet unsuccessful in getting an mls franchise since the founding of the mls itself in 2019 it was announced that the city would finally receive an expansion franchise potential names for this new franchise included charlotte crown fc charlotte fortune fc charlotte monarchs fc charlotte athletic fc charlotte town fc carolina gliders fc and all carolina fc in 2020 it was revealed that the franchise would go by charlotte football club or charlotte fc for short and that they will begin playing in the mls next season in 2022 in 2019 the mls announced that st louis St. Louis City SC would be one of two cities receiving a new mls franchise the team will be called st louis city sc the name was chosen for civic pride in the city of saint louis the team is set to join the mls beginning play in 2023 and finally we get to the more distant Sacramento Republic FC and murky future in 2019 the league also announced an expansion that would see sacramento republic fc joining the mls in 2022 and then that was pushed back to 2023 however at this time it has been placed on hold due to one of the principal investors backing out sacramento republic fc was founded in 2012 joining the usl for the start of the 2014 season the name was decided by fan vote and it plays on the california republic featured on the california state flag and they even have the same bear adorning their crest but whether sacramento republic officially joins the mls in the future Outro remains to be seen the mls is not a finished product from the uncertainty surrounding sacramento fc and the potential for new teams being added or existing teams being rebranded continues to make this relatively young league exciting and new every season as more happens rest assured i will cover any future news in future videos as footnotes to this video when that happens and it will i'll collect any and all footnotes into a playlist that will be added to the end screen of this video but there you have it how every mls team got its name i hope you enjoyed this video be sure to check out my other videos on the channel and stay subscribed with the bell on so you don't miss any future videos on the channel