BY RBNY OPTIMIST
Staff Writer
With four columns for Empire of Soccer under my belt, and a fairly quiet week behind us (I know we lost, it’s pre-season, remember?) I thought I would take on a slightly bigger topic this week. Something meaty, even. So, let’s all wade into the deep end together, shall we?
On Wednesday evening, RBNY journalist, Dan Dickinson (@GothamistDan) posted a picture of a new Red Bulls track jacket he found in the Adidas store. It looks quiet lovely, sporting that not quite black, not quite blue of the away jerseys and the customary Red Bull logo on the chest.
The true point of interest is the inscription that lies just under the zipper: “New York Red Bulls since 2006″.
The inclusion of this inscription reaches into the depths of the Red Bulls fan base insecurities and stirs up those feelings like a bumpy ride on the PATH after a post-game Five Guys burger and fries. It's a true statement. The team became the New York Red Bulls in 2006. But, if you were a fan at the time, from that moment on you fell into one of three camps. The final group is the most interesting to me. They remained fans, but either have chosen not to acknowledge that the Metrostars no longer play in the MLS, or they root for the Red Bulls, but revert to “Metro” when it suits them, to either separate themselves from the n00bs, or to wallow in the despair of the team’s checkered history (See: Metro, That’s So) To me, it’s an incredibly interesting conundrum that each fan (except for true newcomers) has needed to work through for themselves. Even the team itself seems to struggle with this. For every track jacket inscription, there’s an all-time XI. For each entreaty to hashtag #RBNY, there’s a history page on their website that goes back to 1994. It all makes one ask the BIG questions of sport: Who are we rooting for? Are we rooting for a team? A brand? A badge? A kit? The colors? Ourselves? And when is a team not the same team that the team was before this team? Does it really matter what the name is or was? Many say the Metros should have been the Cosmos to begin with. Or that the Red Bulls should still be the Metros (or the Cosmos). And what about the Cosmos, anyway? A team will take the field at Hofstra in August, but is it REALLY the Cosmos just because they have the rights to the name and are wearing the colors? I don’t have definitive answers to these questions, and my point is that I don’t think anyone does. What I do know is that this is why I love soccer, and more specifically, The New York Red Bulls. After all, where else can you start with an inscription on a track jacket and end up in an existential crisis?
That’s So Metro
Quoted by @RBNYOptimist. Well, now I KNOW I’ve made it as a journalist. http://t.co/qy8m2onz30
I came to this team post Metro. But I’m enough of a fan of the game to know that a team’s history is important. Metro wasn’t the only franchise that had this reaction to how RB handled the rebranding. “That’s so Metro” speaks to the history. If your a total noob you might not understand it but if you’ve decided to delve into fandom of the club, read some boards, etc, you get it. Since I came post Metro, most of the time I sing and chant I say Red Bulls, but sometimes I say Metro. Even w/ my background, and knowing the feelings of a large portion of the fan base, I think this was a mistake to incorporate that date. Luckily it hasn’t seemed to blow up too badly.
p://www.bigapplesoccer.com/teams/redbulls2.php?article_id=32922
Christiansen and Bustamante to sign
“The final group is the most interesting to me. They remained fans, but either have chosen not to acknowledge that the Metrostars no longer play in the MLS, or they root for the Red Bulls, but revert to “Metro” when it suits them, to either separate themselves from the n00bs, or to wallow in the despair of the team’s checkered history (See: Metro, That’s So)”"
To know nothing of what happened before you were born is to remain forever a child.
So someone in the front office approved an otherwise nice looking track jacket that demonstrates with this inscription that they’re out of touch with their fanbase. What’s new about them being out-of-touch? Then they’ll wonder why people don’t buy the jacket and it’ll be just one more revolution on the wheel of “why can’t we reach our fans?” At least the captain of the team understands that people connect in part with the history of a club (See: Henry wears retro Metro captain’s armband). Alluded to website doesn’t even have a discussion thread on the topic on its forum boards, begging the question, does this really matter?
I’m pushing 40. My first live pro sporting event was a Cosmos game at Giants Stadium in ’82, and I was a huge fan. Posters, banners, shirts, games on TV whenever I could watch, the whole enchilada. After the league folded, my soccer fan-ship kind of fell by the wayside…
…until the MetroStars came along. To me, no matter what they were called, they were the true heirs to that NY pro soccer tradition. I still felt that way after the name change in ’06, and as was mentioned in the original post I do appreciate the club having an owner willing to invest. Yes, I do occasionally say “That’s so Metro” – and it’s usually at times of frustration but underpinned with affection. That’s part of the history of this club.
If I was truly rooting for the badge, I suppose that I should join some of the people I know who plan on jumping ship to that club at Hofstra. Not gonna happen.
Other sports wear throwback unis to pay homage to years gone by….but they are the teams of now, not then. No confusion there. Much ado about nothing.
LOVING the comments on my new post at @EmpireOfSoccer http://t.co/TqVVwMHDJA Nothing better than passionate #RBNY conversation. Have at it!
Camp 1 here! Having any powerful emotional connection to an energy drink marketing scheme is near impossible for a serious and educated football fan. How can you be taken seriously when you shout I love a consumable good/ product (red bull) while simulatanouly promoting their brand identity over that of your own?
Also correction, metrostars were not ned after a corporation, and even if they may have been inspired by the owners former business…the team itself was seperate identity and nowhere near analogous to red bull.
Other than that..no issues with the arricle
“Even old New York, was once New Amsterdam. Why they changed it? I can’t say, I guess they liked it better that way.” The flag of NYC is full of symbolism from that prior era — people don’t forget, just because of a name change.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_New_York_City
I am not a fan of the New York Red Bulls but I love Red Bull New York.
In case you missed it: What kind of fan are you? Do you root players? Club? Colors? Badge? Some thoughts on EoS here: http://t.co/TqVVwMHDJA
I think it’s a way for the ownership to try to build a history with the fans. That’s a good thing.
For those of us who grew up or spent a long time in areas of the country without professional sports, we connected more with local college teams as a way to represent us. As someone who lives in New York state, I prefer the name New York Red Bulls over Red Bull New York. I follow the team because they’re in NY, not because I like an energy drink (which I don’t really like but I see the need once a year.) I wish they would stick with one name and quit switching between them. The switching doesn’t help building team history.
I’m sorry, but what consumable product was Metromedia trying to shove in our faces? Am I missing something here?
I think you’re rooting for a franchise. Not a “team”, meaning not 18 specific players, a coach, etc. Not a logo because inevitably that will change. Fans often say they “root for the laundry”. To me, that means the franchise, the club, in all its various forms. Players and coaches will come and go, uniforms and stadiums will change. The franchise is constant, the changes and controversies along the way simply become part of the story. The Metro/Red Bulls rebranding or identity crisis or whatever is part of the story for the NY area MLS franchise.
As far as the jacket goes – the “New York Red Bulls since 2006″ inscription is historically accurate, the Red Bull branding started in 2006. While it’s awkward and can be interpreted as dismissive of the Metrostars legacy, the actual explanation seems straightforward. Adidas wanted a stylized line of some sort referencing club history. “New York Red Bulls since 1995″ would probably attract criticism for retroactively rebranding the Metrostars years. Something along the lines of, “New York Red Bulls since 2006, and prior to that New York/New Jersey Metrostars since 1995″ would look ridiculous. So they just went with what’s posted above.
Is it wrong? I don’t think so. Frankly it’s just part of the overall experience of supporting the franchise for Red Bulls/Metro fans. The ongoing identity or branding conversations among fans are, from my perspective, a valuable part of the club culture. It’s an internal conflict that differentiates the club from the rest of MLS, and makes the experience of rooting for the Red Bulls markedly different than say rooting for DC United or the LA Galaxy. Something as simple as stylized historical reference on a track jacket is a potential source of controversy – that’s something uniquely suited to RBNY. Is that annoying or regrettable? I guess on some level. In one sense it’d be nice to have a constant, stable identity stretching back to the beginning. But it’s also such a unique issue you almost have to embrace it.
Read this post by @RBNYOptimist earlier today on @EmpireOfSoccer Beginning to wish I hadn’t. (continued next tweet): http://t.co/1xAU7GyPTS
[...] around online for a bit my goal was to do some laundry and get work done. Then I landed on this post over at Empire of Soccer, and began my descent into the rabbit [...]
“..they root for the Red Bulls, but revert to “Metro” when it suits them, to either separate themselves from the n00bs, or to wallow in the despair of the team’s checkered history”
I hardly consider it wallowing. I’d like to think of it as more like nostalgia. If you’re capable of remembering those times, you do. Otherwise, the team has always been a spokesmodel for an energy drink to you.
There is also no passing of the torch. The Cosmos were the Cosmos and the Metro were the Metro. You can’t pass a torch and skip teams the represented NY while neither existed (ie: New York Centaurs/Fever). They’re all their own entities.
@DanCovello It all depends on your perspective as I wrote here: http://t.co/Tu77lfNn0j I think it’s a valid statement.