A month or two ago, HBO Real Sports ran a cool segment on the Seattle Sounders of the MLS (clip above). If you're like most Oklahomans and not familiar with the franchise, you should be. They win games, sell out their stadium, and the fans cheer and chant like they're European hooligans. Plus, they get to vote every four years on whether the team retains its general manager. Can you imagine Sam Presti making one of 10 worst trades in NBA history if he had to answer to the fans? I don't think so.
When I watched the segment, the first thing that popped in my mind was that we need an expansion team like the Sounders for Oklahoma City. I think it would be a perfect fit. OKC is a sports town with loyal fans and plenty of places to build a stadium (would you rather have an outdoor soccer stadium as part of MAPS III ,or a boring convention center for no one). Also, we'd have a natural rivalry with Seattle. If we ever get a team, we should name them the Sonics.
Anyway, I'm not the only one who thinks professional soccer in OKC makes sense. Earlier this year, some group called Prodigal LLC announced they were bringing soccer to Oklahoma City this spring. Today, potential team names and logos were leaked for the new expansion franchise.
Via NewsOK:
Prodigal Soccer has moved a step closer to naming its USL PRO soccer franchise.
Prodigal, which will field the USL team starting this spring, filed five logos and team names with the U.S. Patent and Trademark office.
Hold on one second. USL Pro? After a quick look at Wikipedia, that's a group of third-tier minor league franchises. The average attendance for the league is only 2,600 fans per match, and franchises are in world-class cities like Rochester, Harrisburg and Richmond. That's almost as bad as the old Central Hockey League. We're a Big League City that's supposed to compete with the New Yorks, Chicagos and L.A's. We're better than that, right?
The short answer to that questions is "Probably," but let's continue with the NewsOK.com article and see what team names they dreamed up for Oklahoma City's newest minor league franchise that no one will really care about:
It is uncertain when the decision will be made which logo and team name will be used, but it appears they will come from these filings.
The names are: Oklahoma City 46ers FC, Oklahoma City Energy FC, Oklahoma City Flyers FC, Oklahoma City Spirit FC and Oklahoma City Wind FC.
The team names and logos were submitted to the patent and trademark office on Oct. 31.
Let's check out those logos:
No lie, it took me about 10-seconds to figure out the meaning of 46. If you're not from around here, that represents the fat grams in a Braum's Blue Cheese Bacon Burger.
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If you're going to call the team "The Energy," you should probably work out a sponsorship deal with Monster and just call them Energy Drinks.
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I could live with this. The bird's head kind of resembles the state capitol. That's kind of abstract, and probably proves the graphic designer who designed it smokes a bunch of weed.
If they go with this team name, their theme song should be the old Channel 9 "Spirit of Oklahoma" jingle. Which, by the way, is something Channel 9 should probably bring back.
Wind? That's a joke...right?
Out of the five possible names, I'll immediately pass on Energy, Wind and Spirit. That being said, the Oklahoma City Energy Wind Spirits is absurd and catchy team name. For what it's worth, I think that's also the name of Bob Barry Jr.'s fantasy football team.
46ers seems okay, but it wouldn't work because it makes everyone wish they would just call the team the 89ers. That's the best professional team name in Oklahoma City history. That just leaves the Flyers as the only viable option. It's boring and recycled, but I think it will work for the five years the franchise is in existence.
