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NYCFC unveils fan-selected club badge

NewYorkCityFCBadge1 (NYCFC)

By DAN KARELL

In a public unveiling in Manhattan, New York City FC introduced the club’s inaugural badge.

The badge, inspired by defunct New York City subway tokens and designed by Rafael Esquer of Alfafa Studios, was selected by fans in online voting between March 10-13 on NYCFC’s website. The logo was unveiled in the presence of NYCFC head coach Jason Kreis, sporting director Claudio Reyna, and Chief Business Officer Tim Pernetti at the Adidas Store in New York Ciry.

“Given the significance of a club’s badge and what it means for a team’s identity, it was important for us to have our fans included from the beginning—a commitment that we’ve made from the start,” Reyna said in a statement. “Thanks to the the voice of our fans, we feel that we have a design that truly represents our club and our city.”

NYCFC are expected to begin their life as a Major League Soccer club a little less than a year from now, joining Orlando City SC as the league’s 20th and 21st teams.

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What do you think of this badge? Do you like the design? Think the other design was better?

Share your thoughts below.

 

Comments

  1. Nice logo, I voted for the other one because I thought this was a little too Man Cityish .. But it’s still a great design

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  2. MLS – the only sports league where “fans” try to restructure the entire league every week.

    Let’s change the location of all the teams! Let’s rename everyone! Let’s play on the moon!

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    • That’s what NASL is doing with their teams but with no long term future 🙂
      And MLS is crying for their past mistakes with their Mickey Mouse team names and stadium locations.
      If NASL get loaded owners and fix their league, and think straight, and get 20 teams with conferences, then MLS will start to worry about NASL.
      MLS has done mistakes that will hurt them forever and NASL has realized those mistakes.
      Why did MLS partner with uslpro? Because MLS didn’t want a NASL uslpro combo versus MLS.
      If MLS doesn’t rebrand teams or raise salary cup or get teams from NASL or uslpro, MLS would be nothing and NASL know it.

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      • At least you’ve given up on the ridiculous idea of MLS *ever* coming to a tiny metropolitan area like El Paso. But now that you’re all about “NASL to El Paso” you’re bashing MLS and predicting its demise? Pretty sad…

      • Actually I’m one of the ones who thinks NASL will be a threat to MLS sooner rather than later.

        People don’t really “get” geometric progression. The best example is the myth of the Indian mathematician Sissa, who allegedly invented the game of chess, and showed his invention to the king, who was so pleased with it that he allowed Sissa to name his reward. Sissa told the king he wanted one grain of rice on the first square, and two on the second, four on the third, and so on, up until the 64th square…the king blithely agreed, until his bookkeepers did the math and realized there wasn’t that much rice in the whole of India….

        The Indian king didn’t understand geometric progression, but corporate America (and corporate entities across the world, like the oil guys bankrolling NYCFC) certainly do…which is why every billionaire with money to burn is trying to buy an MLS franchise right now. They’ve seen the demographics, and they know that soccer in this country is at the so-called “heel” of a geometric growth period. Basically MLS has trucked along for the last 15 years in fits and starts, and over the last 5-6 years has shown consistent 5%-7% growth…but again, if you look at the infrastructure (stadium, training facilities, development academies) that has been built in that time, and combine that with the age 12-24 demographic that rates soccer as more popular than any sport except the NFL, and you start realizing that pro soccer in this country is poised for explosive expansion on a level that American sport simply hasn’t seen since the rise of the NFL.

        It’s going to happen. And people really haven’t grasped the second, most essential part of the equation: football (as in, American-rules football) isn’t 32 NFL teams. The second tier of football is occupied by the 200+ college teams organized in four tiers under them…that occupy the same niche in American-rules football as the Championship, League One, League Two, etc, occupy in the English soccer pyramid.

        Also keep in mind it takes a minimum of 65 guys to make an NFL or college football team (most Division I college teams have 85 scholarship players), and have massive equipment requirements…and compare that to the 25-man rosters of soccer teams, and the math is pretty plain: if America can support almost 250 pro/college football teams, America can conceivably support well in excess of 600 competitive soccer teams. Even if soccer only achieves HALF the popularity of American-rules football in this country (and the demographics suggest it’ll achieve far more than that), then we’re still talking about a base of 300+ teams.

        It’s actually bigger even than that, because that doesn’t even include the potential impact of the Canadian and Caribbean fan bases.

        Right now, between MLS, NASL, and USL Pro, there’s still fewer than 45 teams. MLS simply isn’t going to be able to expand fast enough to keep up with rising demand. Way more cities are going to want professional soccer than MLS is going to be able to deliver (look at the way new cities and owners are queuing up almost daily to make a pitch for why they deserve the next MLS expansion franchise) and you start realizing that a lot of these guys are just going to go ahead and start their own franchise anyhow…and if MLS doesn’t want them, why, they’ll just play in the NASL. And some of them, like the Cosmos, are going to like the freedom to spend what they want to spend, buy who they want to buy, and do what they want to do with all these intricate (and artificial) rules that MLS imposes on their franchises….

        NASL is almost certainly going to become a competitor league, and the demographics suggests it’s going to happen very quickly – like, gold-rush fast. Be very, very fascinating to watch the process unfold, actually….

      • You are overthinking it. NFL and college football make tons of money thanks to very lucrative television contracts. Some MLS teams still have trouble giving away their local broadcast rights. How many NASL teams have a television deal in place? Billionaires are only going to invest if there is money to be made, and right now there is no money in American soccer. Top college programs are getting $15-30 million a year from TV deals and don’t even need to pay their players. When MLS teams start earning that kind of cash from TV then we will see this boom you are forecasting.

      • I found quozzel’s comment far more interesting than you’re oversimplified “overthinking” dismissal (that, in the end, agreed with quozzel anyway).

      • Wow, great post. A real rarity here. I’d love to read a comprehensive piece on the theory of the burgeoning soccer boom, so please, feel free to share a link if you know of any

      • So the NASL poses a threat even though its flagship team plays in front of 5k at a college stadium in Long Island and their fans talk about Pele every time they open their mouth? Doubt it.

      • International schedule. Continued financial growth. Responsible leadership… there are a lot great things there

  3. I really don’t like the cop badge or circle, but Im tired of circle badges in MLS. You have timbers but timbers is original but not union and fire and now nycfc. ( unions is sweet and fires is a firefighter badge lol)
    If I was nycfc, I would have put the circle in the cop badge and u got both in ONE!!!!!
    And as for the name, to plain, like the badge. I would have gone for New York City empire fc or New York empire fc with a crazy soccer logo like man city or even chivas USA.
    Also Thank god there is no soccer ball in the crest and thank god there is time for teams like crew, revolution, chivas USA, rapids, fc Dallas and even dynamo and fire to rebrand.
    If I was fires owner, I would call Chicago bears owner to join the ownership group and move the team to a new Downtown stadium and rebrand the team 🙂
    Then u got frisco fc, why not Dallas Fort Worth united or north texas united and play in Arlington.
    Revolution, just be Boston colony or Boston & New England fc
    Make it happen MLS 🙂

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  4. Red Bull, for their sake, should just concede that they are a NJ team and focus on a different strategy because they are going to be such an after thought when NYCFC are actually playing

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  5. Do we really believe the fans voted on this? This was picked already, and the other option was such a crap design that could never win. I’d like to see the team release the vote totals. Anyway, I think it’s a lost opportunity. Too much Inter Milan, and way too much focus on NYC’s past. A subway token? Really? Why not have trolley cars, the old Penn Station, or CBGB’s? Too bland. Just like this designer’s “Made in NY” thing. It’s just boring. One positive is that it’s not a Man City ripoff (despite the sky blue). Anyway, it’s just a badge. Look forward to a team, NY derbies, a stadium, etc.

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    • Vote totals? Those things exist?

      I doubt that if they went through the trouble of manipulating ppl into picking their obvious preference they’d back track at this point.

      Supporters should of started a viral campaign and chosen a crap logo in protest when it kicked off to really scare the hell out of them

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    • worth noting that the designs themselves didnt come from the fans like they initially suggested; and there were only 2 choices, both designed by the same guy hired by NYCFC. This is less grassroots than astroturf. But yeah the fans got to choose between the two that NYCFC picked.

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      • No professional franchise would ever allow anyone other than a major professional firm backed by teams of market researchers to ever touch something as necessary as the actual branding collateral.

      • Which is too bad, because some fans produced much better art than this.

        (Which, obviously, could have been turned over to the “teams of market researchers” for analysis and approval.)

  6. Zzzzzz

    Retro chic like everything else that’s “new” in the city.

    Aside from this being in a circle, how is this inspired by the subway token? And why does that matter?

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    • It matters because it suggests the club’s marketing strategy, particularly when you consider the white elephant in the room (the NYRBs). It’s almost unquestionable at this point to state that the Red Bulls lack any significant presence within NYC. And I don’t just mean that Red Bulls Arena is a 35 minute train ride from Union Square. It just doesn’t feel like part of the cultural sporting landscape, despite the fact that the sport itself does.

      And this is troubling if your an MLS executive looking at demographic data that shows numerous neighborhoods with social groups/classes that fill other stadiums across the league. Statements like the badge design represent a symbol of the city’s past and suggest the new team hopes to reap the rewards of a market the Red Bulls should have cornered long ago.

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      • So to compete with the marketing juggernaut and its unmistakable, vibrant logo, you go bland and inoffensive? I assume the teams will be drawing upon different geographies, and the players will be more important, but this would be the third best branding of the three teams in town, including the minor league pretenders.

      • Cosmos brand is much bigger than these two hacks pal. I would add it’s actually the only brand that has any real history and connection to NY.

      • There’s zero evidence that a second MLS team in the NYC area is needed or desirable. The only thing more laughable than NY Yankees FC and their permanent residency in a baseball stadium is the Cosmos and their constant reference to their brand and Pele playing a few games for them 40 years ago.

      • man, I get your arguments against recruiting players for the USMNT who are from outside the US youth setup. But how could you POSSIBLY think that there is no evidence that a team INSIDE nyc would be desireable? Really?!

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