Why is there this move to have soccer team names simply “FC”? (The Montreal Impact are thinking of changing their name to “FC Montreal” or “Montreal FC”). There are already four teams in Major League Soccer that are named with just the city name, followed/preceded by “FC”, and a few others with “FC” (or “SC”) somewhere in their names. As well, there are two teams with “United” in their team names.
Why no originality here? In other sports, maybe we will soon have “Cleveland BC”, “Atlanta BC”, “Chicago HC”, and “Washington (A)FC” (the “A” to indicate “American” football).
A few years ago, I started a thread about the MLS aping European soccer names and culture, and one of the responding posters explained that MLS fans want their teams to resemble European teams, with things like team songs, flags, and scarves. That’s why only a few of the oldest MLS teams have the “city+nickname” (“Portland Timbers”, “Seattle Sounders”) common to other American sports, while the newer franchises have names that sound ridiculous in English, like “Real Salt Lake”, “Sporting Kansas City”, “Atlanta United”.
That’s also why they’re calling themselves “football clubs”, despite the fact that “football”, in this country, means the game played by the NFL. MLS plays soccer. (And I’m not going to get into the whole “which one is the real football?” nonsense. Soccer, gridiron, Australian rules, and rugby are all “football” exactly the same way, and for exactly the same reason, that bonobos, gorillas, and humans are all “apes”.)
Three teams - DC (the original), Atlanta, and Minnesota.
And @Slow_Moving_Vehicle is correct, it sounds European. For those of us who were following from the beginning, a lot of those original names got SAVAGED. And there is a subset of European soccer fans who live in the US who simply won’t follow a team with an Americanized name. So the league has continued to move away from those original names for the most part.
Although in 2022, the Sacramento Republic will join up - which will be the first Americanized name since the Impact (as you note, who are debating of changing their name).
You are aware they aren’t the only Red Bull team in football? The most famous one, of course, is Red Bull Leipzig, but Red Bull Salzberg is also in the UEFA Champions League a lot. And I believe there is a Red Bull team in Australia’s league too.
Interestingly, the reverse is happening amongst British Rugby teams, where many are changing their names to sound more ‘American’ - Leicester Tigers, Bristol Bears, Exeter Chiefs. It’s also been happening in Cricket for the newer 20/20 style game - Sussex Sharks, Exeter Eagles. Over here, it’s to attract a younger fanbase, who find the old names (Sussex County Cricket Club, for eg) stuffy and for old men.
The Portland Timbers have sold out every game for years, and have a waiting list for season tickets, so it’s certainly not necessary to have a European-sounding name to be a popular club.
The Washington Redskins have already temporarily changed their name to the Washington Football Team, pending the selection of a non offensive nickname.
Red Bull also sponsors a Formula One racing team, again under the Red Bull name. As I understand it, that’s sort of their thing: they insist on any team they fund use their name. That blatant commercialism would turn me off, even if I were a New Yorker and a soccer fan.
Red Bull OWNS the F1 team (and one other - who they call Alpha Tauri after RB’s clothing line, the secondary team was previously called Toro Rosso, ie, Red Bull in Italian). It’s not who they sponsor, but rather the teams they own they rename to Red Bull. RBNY, RBSalzburg, RBLeipzig are all owned by Red Bull.
That’s 99% of the issue. The MLS teams have deliberately aped European-type team names which generally make little sense in the context of US sports leagues, like “Real Salt Lake” Real Madrid picked up the “Real” (Spanish for “Royal”) in 1920 because the team was having great international play success. Salt Lake’s soccer team has nothing whatsoever to do with any monarchy.
Some of the others are less absurd, but still deliberately aping European team names - Inter Miami is aping Inter Milan and all the United, Union or FC teams are taking European style naming.
It does have a reference to the Mormon majority in Utah though. Mormons consider each member to be part of a Royal Priesthood. Though Royals would have been a more appropriate name.
It’s also named for the energy industry. A dynamo being, of course, an electrical generator
First of all, “technically (in the legal sense)” isn’t really an applicable standard.
The teams each have their names, the ones that they use in public. Those are “technically (in the legal sense)” their actual names.
Each team is also supported or operated by one or more corporate entities. Those are “technically (in the legal sense)” the actual names of those corporate entities, not of the team that they run.
Second, those corporate entites have all kinds of different names. They don’t follow a pattern.
For example:
Buffalo Bills LLC
Miami Dolphins Ltd.
The Cincinnati Bengals
New York Football Giants
Pro-Football Inc. (this is the Washington Football Team’s corporate entity–it’s not new or the result of the “Redskins” controversy; it has been the name for decades)
Chicago Bears Football Club Inc.
DLI Properties LLC (the Detroit Lions’ corporate entity)
It’s not just the names. The Atlanta team (which I persist in calling “the Uniteds”, as a petty protest to their name) wears black and dark red striped jerseys with yellow shoulder trims. I suspect that’s a deliberate nod to … is it Barcelona (?) that wears the blue and red striped shirts?
Granted, that’s not entirely inappropriate - red and black are also the team colors of the University of Georgia, and the Atlanta Falcons, who are also owned by Atlanta United owner Arthur Blank.
I had a discussion a while ago about all this, and @ISiddiqui, who’s a big AU fan, pointed out that these things are conscious marketing choices, and preferred by MLS fans, who apparently like to see their league as part of the global professional soccer community. Which is fine, of course; YMMV.