« I'm turning into a lawyer | Main | Faux March Madness »
March 09, 2006
Come on!
This is one of the stranger pieces of news:
Red Bull is expanding its interest in soccer with a unique, yet logical, next step in a process that began less than a year ago: the MetroStars will take the field in the upcoming 2006 Major League Soccer season as Red Bull New York.
With that, the fall champion of the Austrian Bundesliga, Red Bull Salzburg, will become the first organization in the history of Austrian soccer to gain a sister team in the MLS - one of the most rapidly expanding leagues in the world.
Red Bull CEO Dietrich Mateschitz said, "18 million Americans actively play soccer in the USA. Up to 60 million are soccer fans. We were so fascinated by these figures that we made the decision to join and support this development by taking over the responsibility for the MetroStars. Our goal is to further strengthen the team and position the New York Red Bulls as the soccer metropolis of the East Coast, as well as to join the investment for a new tailor made soccer stadium - the "Red Bull Arena"- which will serve as the new home for the New York Red Bulls."
To briefly explain, I am a huge fan of Major League Soccer. Amazingly enough, the whole thing started ten years ago when my beloved Columbus Crew first took the field at Ohio Stadium. I am quite pleased that the league is still around, but I have to say I am flabberghasted that Red Bull is buying the hated MetroStars (formerly the New York/New Jersey MetroStars) and instantly renaming them the Red Bulls.
First off, I would think the name Red Bulls would be pretty cool, if I didn't know that it was because they were owned by the energy drink company. Red Bull is an interesting company. I don't have exact figures, but I once read that they increased their business by like one thousand percent over the past decade. And I'm thinking, why? I mean, who drinks Red Bull? The only time I ever touch the stuff is when it is mixed into a delightful and potent concoction called a jager bomb. I guess Britney Spears drinks the stuff, but enough people drink it to make it one of the fastest growing businesses on the planet?
But back to the New York Red Bulls. I say, cool. One of the biggest problems with Major League Soccer is that some of the teams have ridiculously cornball names. Columbus Crew is one of them. Sure, it's original, but it just makes me scratch my head. As a rule, I don't care for singular nicknames, like Orlando Magic, Minnesota Wild, or Utah Jazz. I think it sounds dumb. Needless to say, I was pretty cheesed off when MLS unveiled its original teams and nearly all of them were of the singular variety: Columbus Crew, Tampa Bay Mutiny, Kansas City Wiz, San Jose Clash, Los Angeles Galaxy, Dallas Burn, and New England Revolution. To muddle it up even more, Washington decided to call itself DC United, which is about as traditional a soccer name as one can get. And thankfully, many of the teams are moving to more traditional names. Dallas redubbed itself FC Dallas; Tampa got shitcanned; San Jose moved to Houston and renamed itself Houston 1836 (the year of the city's founding), until the Mexicans got angry because 1836 was also the year Texas won a war of secession against Mexico, and now they are Houston Dynamo; and expansion teams Real Salt Lake and Chivas USA were added. Yes, if you were going to give a team a name in Spanish, you would probably not do it with a team in SALT LAKE CITY, but the point is it's not a ridiculous name like the Macon Whoopee.
Anyway, I guess I don't mind New York becoming the Red Bulls. I can tolerate that one. I wonder if they'll have free jager bomb night?
Posted by oz115 at March 9, 2006 10:04 AM