Philadelphia settles on finalists for team name

Philadephia fans still have to wait more than a year for their expansion MLS team to take the field, but they are finally closer to knowing what that team's name will be.

According to sources within MLS, the Philadelphia expansion team has settled on four finalists for the club's name. AC Philadelphia, Philadelphia City, Philadelphia Union and Philadelphia SC. The club is expected to hold a vote in the coming months, allowing fans to choose the name of the team. The Philadelphia expansion team is scheduled to begin play in 2010.

So now that the name possibilities are out, which one do you like the most? Vote below:

poll by twiigs.com

Which ones do I like? Philladelphia City and AC Philadelphia are pretty snazzy and none of them are Kansas City Wiz terrible.

What do you think if the final four name finalists? Do you dislike any of them? Is there a nickname that should have made the cut that didn't?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

[BJR]

e) none of the above

[Mike from linden]

what does AC mean? Athletic Club? Philadelphia Union sounds like your working for a union.

[WeatherManNX01]

They all suck.

The clear winner should be Philadelphia Liberty.

[eric]

"what does AC mean? Athletic Club? Philadelphia Union sounds like your working for a union."

Or a railroad.

[Gibson]

Soccer Club Philly Sounds the best too me and should be the real name for dallas seattle and the rest instead of fc

[Dan in LA]

AC Philadelphia is by far the best. City only works if there are two teams in 1 city, ie Man U and Man City. It doesn't work for Philadelphia and Union just plain sucks. Philadelphia AC or FC would work as well.

[KW]

They're all boring

[Scott A]

I think they're all good

[Ryan]

Instead of AC Philadelphia they should have gone with Philadelphia Athletic.

[Murphy]

is it sc philadelphia or philadelphia sc?

philly sc would be good, but sc philly wouldn't.

maybe philadelphia city... like you said ives, all of them are better than kc wiz... or real salt lake...

[Nathan]

They all blow, I can't vote for any of these.

[drewdat]

"what does AC mean?"

Associazione Calcio. Oh, you wanted to know what they're pretending it means so it makes sense in English, can't help you there.

I like Philadelphia Athletic too, but I guess SC Philadelphia is the choice here since it at least makes sense in this country and league.

[Ken U]

Philadelphia City or Philadelphia Union I think is the way to go.

[Dante]

They're all terrible. I see MLS wants to stick with the Euro poser names. Terrible.

[Charley]

yeah, I like that one Ryan, Philadelphia Athletic is a good one. oh well, my vote goes to AC. I like that one, or SC.

[Garrett]

How about they worry about getting that stadium built and then start worrying about what they're going to name their team.

[Eugene]

What exactly does SC mean? Soccer Club? Sporting Clube?

I'm not inspired by any of these either. Liberty sounds like a women's basketball team. Oh wait, it IS a women's basketball team.

I think Philly should come up with something more unique.

[Josh]

They all suck. I like a good old FC philly. I HATE SC Philly (assuming it means soccer club philly). If I had a gun to my head I would have to choose AC Philly.

This is all too remnant of a US presidential election, picking the best of the worst.

[Vinny]

SC Philly!!!!

[Katatonia]

AFC PHILADELPHIA

[Filthy Delphia]

I'd venture to guess that Philadelphia Athletic would conflict with an existing trademark of Philadelphia Athletics (who became the Oakland A's).

[JohnC]

I guess Philadelphia City but I was really hoping for Philadelphia 1776. But City somewhat makes sense especially when you consider downtown Philly is called Center City- kind of a backward city.

[Chase]

"all too remnant"?

Philadelphia Union all the way.

[Travis]

I'd hate an SC, and I think the league needs a team that we can just call "City" and people will know what you are talking about.

[A.S.]

SC Philadelphia.

Can we please, please, PLEASE have a team that understands that the sport in this country is called SOCCER, and not football.

And please, no AC Philadelphia or Philadelphia City. If they want to moronically copy a European team's name, I insist the name be Philadelphia Hotspur.

[Giuseppe]

Philly city

[thomas]

Philadelphia City is hoooorrrrrible. That would probably top Real Salt Lake as worst use of a traditional soccer name in MLS. (RSL should have been Royal...not ree-all...to most Americans, the 90% who don't follow the game, it just looks like they RSL called Non-Fiction Salt Lake). I figured "idependence" or some form of the word would be an option.

[NateinSF]

AC!!!

[A.S.]

BTW - it would be kind of ironic if the team were called "Philadelphia City", given that the team will actually play in the Philadelphia suburbs and not in the city.

Can we replace "Philadelphia City" with "Philadelphia Suburb" as the potential team name?

[Balls Mahoney]

We already sorta have a Philadelphia 1776 in town, sadly, or else it'd be perfect. And "Athletic" is definitely a trademark problem.

[metrostar 4 life]

I thought they would've chosen Philadelphia Atheltic but o well I chose Philly City

[Rudy]

None of them are mindblowing, but I've always felt MLS needed a "Citeh" so I voted Philadelphia City.

[Kevin]

A.S., it's plain and simple. The sport is called football. If we Americans ever want to be thought of as serious supporters of the sport, we need to get away from 'soccer'. Philadelphia City all the way.

[Andrew]

THESE ARE ALL HORRIBLE. ITS AN AMERICAN LEAGUE TEAMS SHOULD HAVE AMERICAN NAMES. I LIKE PHILLY LIBERTY OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT.

[alex]

I'd say anything but SC. That's just crap.

But, then again it's ironic that a team far outside of Phily is going to call itself "city".

[CACuzcatlan]

Ben Franklin FC

I hope they have a write in option

[sublicon]

You've gotta be kidding me. I hope this is a lie, honestly. These names are about as predictable as you can get.

[FlapJack]

I was expecting one of these bland copycat names, but I still can't believe how incredibly boring they were. Count me as one who's tired of the copycat names. Doesn't anyone want a unique and original name anymore? Sure none are as bad as Real Salt Lake, but is anything?

And if you're going to to go with such a boring name why not just call your damn team "Philadelphia". Tacking on AC, FC, SC, City, Union, just reads to me like - "see we're really a soccer team because we know you'd have no idea if we didn't copy from somebody else"

I like SC PA because my dislexic mind just keeps thinking - "They're the local animal shelter!"

[Chris]

AC Philadelphia all the way.

[Aljarov]

Philadelphia City is my choice....but would give it a bonus point if they tagged on SC at the end (so long as it's Soccer Club, and not just SC, like FC is on Toronto FC - way to miss the point).

[brian]

Stupid.

[Mike]

I agree, they are all horrible names. But no point arguing about here if we can't come up with better options ourselves.

So let's start throwing some names out and see if we can find a good name and maybe, just maybe, the powers that be can find out and reconsider before they end up with one of these horrible choices.

I like the Philly Liberty name that was tossed out but the WNBA already has a team called the NY Liberty and I don't like sports franchises sharing the same names (even if they are different sports).

What about Philadelphia Forefathers? ;)

[A.S.]

"A.S., it's plain and simple. The sport is called football."

No, here in America, it's called soccer.

You may wish to review the name of this very website, for example, if you don't believe me.

"If we Americans ever want to be thought of as serious supporters of the sport, we need to get away from 'soccer'."

If we Americans ever want to be
thought of as serious supporters of the sport, we have to have the confidence to use our own damned name for it, rather than just be Euro wannabes.

[Mark]

God they're all Awful!! All 4 possibilities just scream Mickey Mouse.

If I was a Philly fan, I'd be downright embarassed.

[SoccerMavn]

Anyone still lobbying for "Philadelphia Athletic" has simply not been paying attention for the last year. Ain't gonna happen. There this little thing called "trademark," and MLB's got it.

Euro-posing by a city with a rich and lengthy soccer history (this ain't Salt Lake) is disappointing. Go with a name used by one of the many great Philly teams over the years, and reclaim the history that is yours--"Atoms," "Nationals," "Americans." Leave "AC" and "City" for the posers.

[Hopper]

Yeah, we had this problem in Seattle too. All the suggested names were garbage. You guys in Philly are gonna have to band together and write-in a good name like we were forced to do here. Those are some terrible names.

[Mike]

Philly Hitmen?

Philly Stallions?

Philly Cheeseteaks? lol

[wendel]

they're all terrible and unimaginative. you could tack on any city to these names. none of them captures anything special about Philadelphia. this obsession with european names has got to stop most of them sound stupid. how many "blank FC's" do we need? i was hoping the team would be called the independence or something that uniquely captures Philadelphia rather than a name with alienates mainstream fans and gives fodder to mls bashers.

[kebzach]

AC Slater and SportsCenter Philly are HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE names. HORRIBLE.

HOR

RIBLE

HORRIBLE!!!!

[Mike Caramba]

I hate all the arbitrary "rules" some MLS fans have for naming teams, as if there's a "right" and "wrong" way to name a team. As lame as The New England Revolution is, I would take it over Real Salt Lake any day. I think the "FC" names are pretty boring, but I'm fine with the "SC"...it's not great, but at least we're embracing our country's soccer identity.

AMERICAN FANS! WE DON'T HAVE TO IMITATE EUROPE! Yes, it's stupid and impractical to play overtime in regular season matches. Yes, the MLS PK was a terrible idea. But when it comes to other things (like naming clubs), I say we choose unique, local flavor over boring, globalized (more accurately, European) homogeny.

[Mike]

For everyone that replies to this topic, post a team name that you would come up with in place of the options. If we can all agree on a good one we can write it in to the powers that be in Philly and have this thing changed and go down in MLS history as well! =)

[The Man]

I don't think A.C. is supposed to be a rip-off of Milan, but rather stands for Athletic Club. Its a good way for getting around the trademark on Philadelphia Athletics that the MLB has.

[Richard]

I voted for AC Philadelphia, but now realized a conflict. It really annoys me when people say AC MILAN instead of just MILAN ... Do you hear people say "I went to the Manchester United FC game" or "I went to the SS Lazio vs AS Roma game" (I hate when people say "AS" too...)

Philadelphia City - people are poking fun at the stadium not being 'in the city' so thats a no-no... cmon, philly city is gonna start to be used and sound dumb imo... but there's a chance it'll work...the more you think about it, the better it sounds actually!

SC Philadelphia and Philadelphia Union are dumb imo.

So, my choice (write-in?)(maybe), understanding the history of the "Philadelphia Athletics", will take the Atletico Madrid route... Officially, they are "Club Atlético de Madrid" so something like Athletic Philadelphia could be good? They'd be known as "Athletic" if your talking casually as I think "Atletico" is not dumb to say in Spain like AC / SS / AS is in Italy...

[Miguel]

Ay Caramba! I guess you just loved San Jose Clash, Tampa Bay Mutiny, Dallas Burn, Kansas City Wiz and NY/NJ Metrostars as well. Oh, and Miami Fusion was pretty good too, eh.

Anyway, it would be too funny to have Philadelphia City playing two hours up the road from DC United. Those United/City 'fixtures' would be incredible! Ha, ha!

I would go with Philadelphia SC, but not SC Philadelphia. Which is the correct candidate Yves? It says the former in your blurb and the latter in the Poll.

[Bob]

Philladelphia City is the dumbest idea ever. Really Philladelphia is a city. no crud.

[Skinn]

To take a historical view of the name for the Philly franchise, I like AC Philly best of the four proposed for the fact it alludes the city's sporting history--Philadelphia Athletics; though I think Philadelphia AC would be better.

Also, to take a historical view of the football vs. soccer debate, neither is specifically "World" or "American." The term "soccer" derives from "Association football," differentiating "soccer" from rugby football, or Aussie rules, or "Gridiron." Both football and soccer are perfectly acceptable terms for this game anywhere in the world, though usage differs from place to place. Anybody with a strong opinion on the terms one way or the other may need to find something else to be angry about.

[RJ Dvorak]

I'm seriously annoyed by people who say these names are unoriginal? What's wrong with being traditional, I like that soccer is different from other sports. My issues with AC and SC Philly are not that they're unoriginal, just that they're placed before the city and not after like they should be. If you changed those I would go with SC its somewhat original but is also american. Seeing as its SC Philly and not Philly SC, I would have to go with Philadelphia City

[A.S.]

I got it - since the stadium will be on the river, call them River Delaware. If Philly ever gets another team, they could be Philadelphia Juniors. :)

[Wispy]

Considering where the team's stadium will be, I'd go with Phildelphia Outskirts. Then we DC United fans can look forward to United/Skirts fixtures every season...

[Mike Caramba]

Miguel, I'm not saying mistakes haven't been made...those names were horrible. But honestly, I'd take the clash over Real Salt Lake. There has to be some middle ground...

And by the way, I still call the Wizards the Wiz

[Steve T.]

They are all pretty safe, I dont dislike any of them really. Philly Union sounds the best to me, but yeah i'd prefer something else.

[Mike Caramba]

Time for another rant...

Why do so many people think "the whole world uses 'football' and therefore we should use 'football' or no one will take us seriously!!"? Just to name a few off the top of my head, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland are all English-speaking countries known to, at least sometimes, use the word "soccer." And let's not forget about ITALY! "Calcio." Sounds nothing like "football." Doesn't translate to "foot" and "ball." I could be wrong about this, but I'm pretty sure the world takes them seriously.

Why are we so insecure? Why do we feel compelled to copy others? Honestly, if some people from some football-saying country don't take us respect us simply because we call the sport soccer, then I really don't care. It's trivial, and they're obviously narrow-minded people.

Call it what you want. But please don't tell me that I should call it football. And if you are, for the sake of fairness, please go onto some Italian soccer blog and demand that they stop calling it calcio.

[Mike Caramba]

*"take us respect" is my new, fancy way of saying "respect us"

[A.S.]

Maybe if we are going to imitate a Euro club, we can imitate Bayer Leverkusen, and name the club after one of the local pharmaceutical companies. The Philadelphia Rohm & Haas's? Hey, the Philadelphia FMC's sounds *almost* like Philadelphia FC - best of both worlds. Plus, a built in marketing tie!

[Richard]

Mike Caramba, Calcio isn't the only word for soccer in italy... Pallone is used just as often if not more.. Palla = Ball so there is some sort of root I suppose...

And a United-City game would be funny too lmao...

Athletic Philadelphia or Philadelphia AC (Athletic Club) works for me!

[RJ Dvorak]

Mike, I like and agree with your point. I do believe however that the typical soccer names for clubs are better that other sports. It allows the fans to come up with their very own nicknames for the clubs and not something some marketing department came up with. Liverpool are the reds, Fulham the cottagers, and Man U the Red devils, its not like they go by the Liverpoll Red, the Fulham Cottagers, etc. I see americanize it by calling it a soccer club but keep it traditional. Given time, the fans will decide upon a nickname. Also, any idea what they're color scheme will be in Philly?

[Scott A]

I second Mike Caramba on the last post
And for those calling for less boring names, I dunno. I hate when new teams try to make themselves exciting through their colors and names like the Tampa Bay Devil Rays(oooh scary) or the Arizona Diamondbacks with their teal and purple coloring

[Justin T]

Independent 1776

American. Copy Cat. Original. Everyone satisfied?

[Cosmos Forever]

How about Independence SC?

[Mike Caramba]

One last point. If we want to imitate other soccer team names (call it "traditional," if you prefer), let's at least steal some interesting ones. How about these:

-Young Boys Philadelphia
-Grasshopper Philadelphia
-The Philadelphia Millionaires
-Joe Public Philadelphia
-Philadelphia Meat Commission FC
-Philadelphia The Strongest
-Philadelphia Old Boys
-The Philadelphia Hearts of Oak

[biological]

kevin, i sure hope the italians get with the program and forget using calcio... i guess that goes for the dutch use voetball... na wha im sayin?

take this sport srsly, yo.

[Zaza]

All of these are MUCH better than being named after an energy drink...I am guessing AC stands for Athletic Club, so technically it would be Athletic Club of Philadelphia. I like that and City

[shelbo]

I'm with those that are tired of all the FC, SC, and AC BS. You are allowed to pick an actual name! However, Union and City don't really count as names either, so try again. Personally, I think Liberty has a nice ring to it.

[RJ Dvorak]

liberty is a wnba team

[Mike Caramba]

I hope they choose brown and yellow for their colors so we can call them the Steaks

[Daniel]

Associazione Calcio (Italian for Football (soccer) Association)Philadelphia

Soccer Club (I guess thats what it means) Philadelphia

Philadelphia Union
Philadelphia City

None are that good but I guess Philadelphia Union sounds the best out of those four.. I would probably go with just Philadelphia because nothing really sounds or looks good with it.

[Zaza]

All of these are MUCH better than being named after an energy drink. So if thats the original you want, you can have it. It is possible that AC stands for Athletic Club. I like AC and City. Maybe Philadelphia AC is a little better.

[RJ Dvorak]

or the sh***y underpants

[Derek]

I go for the write in vote

-Philadelphia 1776
-Independence FC
-Penn Athletic
-Quakers
-SC Continental
-Colony FC
-Penn Militia

OR for good comedy sake...
-Poor Richards
-Brotherly Lovers
-Ginos FC
-Chester Molesters

[Justin T]

I hope they are powder blue and yellow. Ties back to the Sweedish Heritage of the city. (I actually don't know if that is true. I just remember the Eagles beating up on my poor Lions wearing those colors).

But seriously, if they do Americanize the name, please tie it to the city. I love the Lions, but wtf do Lions have to do with Detroit? Sorry to rant about my NFL team.

[WeatherManNX01]

Someone said it above - Independence! Philadelphia Independence, Independence SC...something like that. That's the best name. I take back my Liberty comment and go with Independence. So much better.

[Mike]

Philadelphia Rocky Balboas

[duck1318]

SC just sounds like a soccer mom, rec league travel team name or something. The players should all just put orange peels in there mouth at half time like I did when I was four. I would have to say the best of the worst is City.

[Iammetro]

AC Philadelphia? Wheres do I get my membership to that "Athletic Club"? At least with AS, FC or SC you know its a soccer team. And not some fictitious Euro name. I would love to hate FC Philly or SC Philly.

[hillad]

So Seattle had to vote between 3 choices when it was up for a vote. Those three were Seattle Alliance, Seattle Republic, and Seattle FC. Missing something? Seattle fans were so unhappy with those choices, they had a write-in with Sounders or some derivative getting half the vote. For a write in! So there's hope if voters are unhappy with these choices. I think I like Philly Athletic better but that harkens back to the baseball team which moved to Oakland.

[CommonSense]

I think AC Philly is money, I'm pretty sure they ran into copyright trouble when trying to name the club Philly Athletic, thus the Athletic Club Philly.

Some cities, funny Americanized names work, others, the classics. I think Philly, being a classic Colonial town, sounds really nice with a Euro-sounding name.

AC Philly just seems classy to me.

[Matt in SF]

Ryan: "Instead of AC Philadelphia they should have gone with Philadelphia Athletic."

^^ What he said. Philadelphia Athletic or Philadelphia AC would be my preference.

[jpc]

Philadelphia City? is this the WNBA? Thats the worst name i've ever seen... Why not call them the "Son's of Ben", that names awesome, and the logo's better

[Justin T]

Independence 1776 - I like it. Although they weren't formed in 1776.

[jig]

Like many people, I'm not too stoked on any of these either. Philly 76 would be sooo sick.

To those who are opposed to all these, can you come up with anything that's not listed?

[roberto]

totally agree with Mike caramba the name should be AMERICAN this is a unique league and I wish it will remain that way.
Thats why I loved the NY Cosmos for ex. it had a larger than life element that connected well with the players they signed Pele Beckenbauer etc.As a young kid living in S America and learning about this American way of seeing soccer/football ...I just bcame hooked for life!!!
stick with that originality!! its unique.
remember philadelphia atoms??
that was a great name, why not revive it

[spaz]

All terrible. A.C. Philadelphia is the best, I guess, but if it doesn't stand for anything, it seems silly.

Is there any way that we as a soccer community can come together and go all Seattle Sounders on the voting and get a historical Philly name like Atoms or Americans or Spartans?

[JesseMT]

Nowhere near as bad as the crap the league tried to make Seattle choose from. As a Sounders fan, I remember when the Sons of Ben helped us out in our write-in campaign. I'm sure that if the Philly fans get organized around one of these choices or a write-in alternative, Sounders fans will return the favor.

Philadelphia Union - that's pretty bad.

[killa]

76? You realize there is an NBA ream in the same market called the 76ers! That would send mixed messages to people in the area as well as in media coverage. Not gonna happen, nor should it.

[A.S.]

Should it be Philadelphia Independence or Philadelphia Independents? I'm not so big on concepts for team names - Liberty, Mutiny, etc. At least "Independents" can be people.

I'm still going with River Delaware - or, better, AC River Delaware (the Argentine team is actually Club Atlético River Plate, right?).

[Ed]

With some of those choices, I'd rather see Rocky FC, AC Balboa or Philadelphia Stallions be chosen.

[roberto]

i got it;
PHILADELPHIA SOUL
philly has a history and a tradition of very good music/musicians,

O'jays stylistics etc etc. the philly sound.

you know ..soul music that has been heard all over the world...especially England, (what an irony) so screw the English names like FC philadelphia
IM GOING TO WRITE NICK SAKIEWICZ AND PROPOSE IT!! thats it, ill gladly collect signatures

[Justin T]

76? You realize there is an NBA ream in the same market called the 76ers! That would send mixed messages to people in the area as well as in media coverage. Not gonna happen, nor should it.

Posted by: killa | January 08, 2009 at 10:27 PM

Mixed message? Seems consistent to me. Obviously its something important to the city. 76ers and 1776 are different.

[roberto]

Philadelphia Soul or Philly soul, this team should have a Funk vibe to it, colors should be red white and blue. Im sure football fans all over the world are going to like it.
Ives what do you think of all this...the american originality vs the boring old FC, AC Association crap?

[Justin T]

Hope you were kidding about Soul. That's the name of their Arena Football team owned by Bon Jovi if you weren't kidding.