David Beckham's MLS Franchise Should Absolutely Be Named Miami Vice
Earlier this month the MLS and David Beckham announced that the former British soccer star will launch an expansion franchise in the city of Miami.
This of course is exciting news for the growing sport and especially for Miami taxpayers, as Beckham and his ownership group will attempt to secure resources for a privately-funded stadium.
On Wednesday, The Palm Beach Post revealed some possible names for the franchise which included the Miami Current, an undisclosed name tied to a corporate sponsor and... the Miami Vice.
With respect to Brian Straus of SI's fantastic soccer blog Planet Futbol, who believes the name "represents the easy, and cheesy, way out," I think the Miami Vice would be a pretty perfect name for Miami's professional soccer franchise.
Firstly consider the two other options.
We have the Miami Current, which sounds like a great name for a college newspaper but that's about it. It's just not a name that inspires much confidence.
"The Miami Current: Gradually pushing the competition aside!"
Then we have the yet to be determined name that will be tied to a corporate sponsor. The biggest company located in the Miami-area is World Fuel Services. Using (very poor) deductive reasoning, I can only assume that the alternative name that would be used is World Fuel Services FC, which is also a bad name and works perfectly as a straw man in support of my argument.
I feel that too many MLS franchises cheapen their brand by attempting to give their teams European-sounding names. Names such as Sporting Kansas City, FC Dallas, Real Salt Lake all seem like cheapened knock-off brands of superior European products. And don't get me started on the New York Red Bulls, which is an advertisement rather than a legitimate franchise name.
American soccer shouldn't feel the need to mask itself as something it is not, and thus, I genuinely like the idea of Miami embracing its pop culture roots and owning the name Miami Vice.
But most importantly, the name is hilarious and will sell a lot of t-shirts.
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