By Ben Knight

 

Sorry for the long absence, folks.  I’m very much in off-season mode, and my life has become quite interestingly busy (in two cities!) behind the scenes.  Onward! will become a regular part of my life again come spring, but there will still be intermittent (and, I hope, amusing) updates throughout the winter.

Last week, the not-quite-so-breakaway group of former USL-1 owners who are now trying to pass themselves off as the new NASL held an annual general meeting, and issued … a logo.

If you’re a fan of the old – the REAL – NASL, you probably recognize the typeface.  It is exactly (or no worse than 97 per cent of exactly) what the old league used. 

And this has me feeling concerned.

As an avid tabletop sports gamer, I’ve invented quite a few imaginary leagues in my time.  Generally, they’re a hodge-podge of ideas from all over the place.  I never felt that grabbing used logos was particularly honourable, but certainly it happened from time to time.

NASL-2 is feeling more and more like a league someone just dreamed up.  And it is, of course.  The someones in question just happen to own real soccer teams, and want to get the heck out of the league they were in.

And of course I understand there was a lot of last-minute edge work to deal with, significantly including hammering out a deal with the United States Soccer Federation so the second tier of men’s pro soccer in the United States and Canada could actually kick off come spring.

But, honestly, this is getting sloppy.  First, you grab the name of an old, legendary and still-loved league which you will never even remotely equal.  Then, just in case we didn’t get the point, you boost its logo.

It feels like that nerdy friend-of-a-friend who’s always nagging you to come see the toy train set in his basement.  I love trains – and I adored the NASL – but this is getting embarrassing.

It’s one thing for a league to be a hurriedly thought-out, largely improvised idea.  It’s another thing – entirely – to look like one.

If you want to be taken seriously, NASL-2 – and if you’re going to be home to the Vancouver Whitecaps and Montreal Impact, you’d darn well better be the real deal – please lose the shortcuts, and create your own identity.

Otherwise, guys like me are going to spend all the attention we give you writing about what you’re not, instead of what you are.

So … what are you?

Onward!