At Lynn Family Stadium yesterday, Louisville City owners Soccer Holdings, LLC and the National Women’s Soccer League announced that the league would welcome a new team in Louisville to the fold in 2021. “With the club’s growing, passionate fanbase, coupled with its strong ownership group, its significant investment in a soccer specific stadium in a central, downtown location, the organization has the key elements that will allow it to be successful,” said Amanda Duffy, NWSL president.
John Neace, Charman of Soccer Holdings, LLC said via the NWSL Louisville press release, “As an owner, we jumped at the chance to join this exciting league. The athleticism in the NWSL is second to none while attendance is growing. This is a sound business decision as we complete the new soccer-only stadium and expand the entertainment district around it.”
Brad Estes was on Barrel Proof last night and answered a lot of questions that the crew had about the new club, but here are some highlights:
- There aren’t going to be a lot of necessary structural changes to the stadium to accommodate the new NWSL team, which is good.
- The new club is guaranteed to get at least two “allocated players” through an expansion draft that will take place after the 2020 season. That means Louisville’s new NWSL team could feature at least two USWNT or CanWNT players in its inaugural season, and maybe more depending on salary budget and any other potential roster construction rules the league enacts between now and then.
- The team is planning to build a training center that will host the men and women (!!!!) though there aren’t any specifics nailed down on that front yet. This is just as exciting, to me, as the NWSL coming to town.
- Ownership is very interested in hosting USWNT international friendlies, NWSL exhibitions, and Women’s ICC games at Lynn Stadium.
- The owners first priority now is to hire a general manager familiar with the women’s game before a coach is hired, and player selection begins in earnest.
- The new club will not be called Louisville City FC or share the badge, so that means a new name and a new logo. A bit more concerning, though, was this note from the press release:
The NWSL team will be owned by the same ownership group, Soccer Holdings, but will not share the LouCity name, crest or colors.
LouCity Press Release, October 22, 2019
The name and crest I sort of get, thanks to intellectual property and copyright laws and franchising agreements with leagues, etc. USL clubs that have moved up to MLS have all had to change their branding, and in some cases, names. But colors is another matter. There is a real chance the new NWSL team in Louisville is not purple, at least partially because Orlando Pride’s primary color is purple.
When the Louisville City was first getting off the ground, my personal opinion was that the club should adopt the colors of the old city flag, navy, gold and white. Then-chairman Wayne Estopinal felt differently, and we got purple and gold. Everyone since then has totally leaned into purple. The team and owners and some front office routinely rock purple blazers at press events, the Coopers’ theme song is “Start Wearing Purple” by Gogol Bordello, and so on. The city and club has totally made purple and gold their own, and the colors are synonymous with professional soccer in Louisville.
However, the NWSL apparently sees differently. So differently, in fact, that I noticed that there wasn’t any purple worn by the club owners at the press conference yesterday. Well, maybe a couple missed the memo, but it was mostly blue. Brad Estes wore a blue suit and tie, John Neace wore a blue blazer, Tim Mulloy had on a blue blazer, and Mike Mountjoy wore a blue suit. Blue, from a mens’ fashion perspective, is a pretty neutral, vanilla color, so I’m not going to take it as anything more than “we didn’t want to send any off-putting signals to the league by wearing purple” at this point.
But NWSL’s ostensible steps to protect their member clubs’ brands seems odd here. North Carolina Courage are navy, gold, and red. Washington Spirit are navy blue and red stripes. Sky Blue FC are navy blue, white and orange. Seattle Reign are navy and black. Chicago Red Stars are powder blue and red. Utah Royals are gold, red, and, you guessed it, navy blue.
That’s a lot of red, white, and blue. Especially a lot of blue. There’s only one purple team, and they’re not very good. Why not add some more?
I’d even be happy if they just reversed the primary color scheme to predominantly gold with purple accents or something. That would be perfectly fine.
I know this is a lot of bitching about colors, but people identify with that stuff – soccer fans sometimes more than most. If you’re a Louisville City fan, you’ve got some purple in your closet. I’m sure Soccer Holdings and the NWSL plan on marketing their new team to existing Louisville City fans with closets full of purple t-shirts, sweatshirts, jerseys, flags, etc. It’s a big ask to get those same people to adorn their cars and persons with a different set of colors the next day.
There will be plenty of time to marinate on the branding, which is reportedly coming pretty soon. For now, let’s get back to being excited that a top flight soccer team is going to be playing in our yard in 2021. That is awesome, and it’s a huge credit to the owners and fans that this is happening. Welcome to Louisville, NWSL!
