With USLPro expanding from 14 to, at least, 22 teams and two other franchises relocating and starting new identities, we figured we could kill some of the off-season boredom by letting you get to know the new competition. “Meet the New Teams” will run, roughly, every other week leading up to March 2015.
Name: Charlotte Independence
City: Charlotte, NC
Home Field: American Legion Memorial Stadium
Previous Leagues (if any): None (bought franchise rights from Charlotte Eagles, but is a new team)
Supporters’ Group: Jack’s Militia
Oh, man, where do I start? This team, in their short existence, has done enough obnoxious things to deserve everyone’s ire for years to come. Let’s take a look, shall we?
Last season, the Charlotte Convicts Eagles decided to stop pretending they were professional and just drop down to the PDL after the 2014 season. That left an open franchise right to use in the region, which was scooped by a new ownership group with an announcement back in September to officially make the Independence a thing. At that announcement, they had the balls to dangle the MLS carrot in front of potential season ticket buyers.
After that, the team started having a ‘choose the crest’ type promotion. Except, here’s the thing, it’s still going on. They announced which design (the one you see above) received the most votes from the public, but they haven’t actually committed to using that design/color scheme as the logo. So, thanks to everyone who voted, we may or may not use your choice. It depends if it’s the same one we’ve wanted to use all along. I told you, these people are jerks.
About that logo and name, anyway… All the potential logos have the same elements, the horseback rider, ‘1775’, and the name. So, the team is committing themselves to those elements, with the colors and specific styling to be determined. Yes, a team that was founded in 2014 to start play in 2015, is giving themselves false historical elements by using the date of 1775 (the year of the colonies’ first attempted declaration of independence from England) right in their crest. It’s such a slimy move. Why actually have history, when you can just tack any date to your central piece of branding and hope people don’t mind too much. Ugh…
Also, the name, ‘Independence’, a proud and bold name that conjures up visions of people breaking away and having the courage to do their own thing, no matter how hard or difficult the going gets. I mean, they are (falsely) using 1775 in their branding to drive home how big independence will mean to the team’s culture. They must be ready to live up to that standard, right? Hell no, they’ve affiliated with the Colorado Rapids. They actually refer to themselves as a farm team in the same piece they hint at MLS aspirations.
I don’t know if a team could try to play things both ways any harder than the Charlotte Farm Team. I was kinda hoping we could keep calling them the Charlotte Convicts, but Charlotte Farm Team will work. I mean, they’ve already said it’s true.
