Commentary: Why the Hoops Nickname Will Never Go Away
October 3rd, 2009 . 12:31 am . By: John CarltonOn Friday, Steve Davis at his excellent blog, Daily Soccer Fix, wants to atone for the ripping he delivered to the FC Dallas organization for their adventure in re-branding the Dallas MLS franchise circa 2004. In the original post he was discussing the name change from Dallas Burn to FC Dallas, and he made a number of interesting points regarding the fate of the franchise since that decision was made. It’s mostly very convincing, but it doesn’t all have to do with branding. Much of it concerns the location of the stadium, the ineffectiveness of Michael Hitchcock, etc. His latest article praises the decision to drop the “Hoops” nickname. Alas, I’m not sold on his underlying argument. First, let me state I am an enormous fan of Steve Davis. For sheer writing quality, there’s not a better American soccer journalist. I just think, in this case, he’s got it wrong. While Davis does state that “the little Hoops beast is proving hard to kill”, I think he’s underestimating the nickname’s saturation in the American soccer community, proving this bit of re-branding may have already achieved the desired effect. Early this season, the new FC Dallas marketing team decided to quietly drop the Hoops nickname for good. They asked the media not to use the nickname anymore and for the most part, the league’s website has complied. But not entirely. On Friday, Peter Hirdt of the Elias Sports Bureau includes the following line in his article about Jeff Cunningham’s recent form: “Never could Hoops fans have anticipated what was to come.” As someone who has written on and off for 3rddegree for a few years now, I have to say that it’s nice to have something else to call FC Dallas other than FC Dallas. A nickname allows the writer to avoid redundancy and choose from a larger palette of descriptors. A lot of insiders welcomed the abolition of the Hoops nickname for reasons aptly put forward by Davis, but there was no ready replacement nickname and this has caused confusion. First of all, as Peter Hirdt’s article demonstrates, some journalists in the wider American soccer scene either don’t know about the moratorium on the nickname, or don’t care. Personal anecdote: ever since the federally-mandated digital TV changeover in June, I can’t get Channel 52 on its digital signal over the airwaves. I don’t pay for cable or satellite anymore, as I rarely watch TV. I get my soccer fix on the greatness of ESPN360.com and various other…um…outlets. As a result, I’ve seen a lot of FC Dallas games this season called by the opposing teams’ announcers. And almost to a fault, those announcers still refer to FC Dallas alternately as the Hoops. Sometimes “Los Hoops”, but you get the picture. The nickname is well-known and has been embraced by those in the media. In his article, Davis goes on to argue that the Hoops nickname is confusing to the people of North Texas because of its synonymity with basketball. OK, fair enough. But aren’t people always talking about marketing American soccer to soccer fans instead of marketing to soccer moms? I mean, who cares if lay people think of basketball when they see Hoops? Were those people coming to the games anyway? Personally, I liked the fact that Hoops was somewhat confusing, it might make people curious what the name meant. I’m sure more than a few people saw the “Hoops Nation” billboard on the Dallas North Tollway and Googled it when they got home. That’s pretty saucy marketing if you ask me. Think of the “I Am Second” campaign for a parallel. My point is this: if you complain about re-branding as a practical matter, it’s hard to argue that re-re-branding is the answer. If someone can tell me what the current nickname is for this team, I’d love to hear it. Until then, I’m going to call them the Hoops and stick my fingers in my ears and sing tra-la-la if you try to interrupt. Three games to go and we need all three. C’MON YOU HOOPS!!! 25 Comments Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI Leave a comment |
Personally, I think the “Hoops” nickname is as dumb as the name “FC Dallas”, but that’s what we’re stuck with, just like Pizza Hut Park’s location in Frisco, so I don’t lose any sleep over it.
I personally like the hoops name also because it is different and so is soccer in the states to most people so I will continue calling us the hoops.
Didn’t some of us on this very site start referring to FC Dallas as the “red stripes”???
I think the parallel there is obviously to beer, and aren’t beer and soccer pretty synonymous anyway?
Personally, I like the red stripes a heck of a lot better than the hoops.
If you want to kill the nickname ‘Hoops’, you’re gonna have to sober up to reality and do away with the striped kits. You can do a partial re-branding and just give the team a makeover.
Here’s to Max points out of 3 matches!
If, by “sheer writing quality,” you mean “has unbelievably dumb takes on things and makes you scratch your head,” I’m right there with you.
I agree; the nickname will stay until the uniforms change. And The team in Seattle is called something like FC Seattle Sounders. Why can’t we be something like FC Dallas Burn (or burritos or whatever), and redo the unis.
The re-brand is ok by me – and “hoops” is fine. Those red striped uni’s rock. I like the the nickname “red stripes” but it doesn’t really matter to me. If the team would just win – and management needs to help the players out – nobody would be talking about this stuff.
First, my appoligies to John Carlton who wrote this piece. I mssed up the by line in the database.
Second, yes some people on this site, including myself, use Red Stripes. I also have used Toros.
My thoughts are much like Bullet Tooth Tony from the movie Snatch: “You can call me Susan if make you happy”. I don’t care what anyone calls them. I just want them to win!!
With Harlan on this one… I love the Red Stripes. I am a huge soccer fan and when I came to Texas 3 years ago and saw ads for the Hoops, I totally blanked because I thought of basketball. To me, hoops remind me of basketball, hula hoops, spaghetti hoops, and big dangling earings hanging from my ex wife’s ears.
Now Red Stripes has a more determined, demonstrative feel about it. It reminds me of beer, which reminds me of fun, which reminds me of soccer. “No brainer” as far as I am concerned… RED STRIPE ARMY, just give us one win at a time guys!
Celtic has a hundred year tradition (of among other things, of winning) and they are the original and real Hoops. They are called Hoops with no apparent confusion to basketball.
I will call them Hoops and if the front office does not like it…well, then so much the better. If i don’t call them Hoops i will have to call them Losers.
I would rather call them Hoops.
They have blown the whole rebranding thing. I mean really blown it. Oh well, since it has been pointed out that it will not change, i am over it.
John
the stadiums location is NOT the problem. Not directly.
The problem is mostly the on field product and how poorly the operation has been run for the last several years.
Rebranding to uniforms most adults would never wear outside of the stadium and giving the team a name that makes no sense to the average American sports fan was the branding mistake.
There are 5 million people within an hours drive of PHP. Just like there are 5 million within an hours drive of the cotton bowl, cowboys stadium, AAC and the ballpark.
If the team was a winner and the game day experience was worth a crap there are 15k willing fans that would be there every game – no question about it. Hell, there are 15k with 20 minutes of that place.
Win games
provide a good customer experience
watch the stands fill up
oh. New hoopless tops would be trick too
You know I don’t think the location is the problem and here’s why:
the north end of Dallas is where the money and future growth is with families and kids who do and will love everything soccer.
the location is right near the toll-way.
there are plenty of people in the plano, frisco etc areas who have money to spend and have soccer stickers of some sort on the back of their car
lots of people can be seen attending a Rough Riders game – and that includes lots of families who are looking for quality entertainment
So there are enough bums in the local area to fill the stadium to a much greater number than has happend this season
I think the main problem is the lack of focus to really hone in on one particluar market and then mould the product around that market
they just need to decide who they are going to go after – hispanics, the families, the soccer die hard fans, or the local community who are simply looking for something fun, entertaining, well priced, competitive, and offering a sence of belonging and prid
if they try too hard to be all things to all of the above mentioned groups then the end product will be a grey wash of a bit of everything and hence it will not completely/truly resognate with any particular audience
Also, they need to consult some true brand experts and get their input or atleast read some of their books – Seith Goddon Purple cow etc and then do some re branding specific focus groups (with their decided target market) and see what is the most appealing/eye catching, curious building, thing for them. Now this takes time and money but maybe if the right people put in the long hours for little money and thn present a Fn good presentation that spells money to be made BIG TIME to the bosses etc then things may change for the better.
As for the whole hoops thing, personally I think red stripes is really stupid! it does not speak football in any manner of the word or world game nor would it entice any potential market, that is not currently attending games etc, to come.
I think calling the team red stripes would appeal to a very small market at the expense of a much larger market and that doesn’t make any business sense at all. And what would happen… even less people would attend and engage with the brand meaning less money coming in to be spent on things leaving you silly people with even a bigger headache than you currently have.
If they re-brand, the name etc needs to be one of three things – soccer, animal or Texan related!
OK Mud I will now call you Susan. As for FCD hoops was foisted on us by the FO who said they wanted the fans to organically come up with a nickname over time. Like everything else from GE’s biggest liefest of maybe all time it was (sound horns) a lie. Within a year they were the Hoops according to the FO even though many fans disagreed and were using Toros, Waldos others I have forgotten. When Red Stripes started being bandied about it took off quickly. Unlike hoops which is very confusing to non hardcore soccer fans in the US, Red Stripes describes the look with only a nod to a Jamaican beer to confuse. What’s a hoop? What’s a red stripe? Easy. Had the FO not jumped the gun the original intent would be behind Red Stripes IMHO (with Waldos as the mocking name from other team’s fans).
Love the nickname. Love the jersey. Can’t believe you could write the article without mentioning Celtic
.
I recently moved out to DC and I consistently see people sporting DCU jerseys. In all of my years in Dallas I’ve only run into one person rockin the hoops (all observations outside of a game of course). I actually like the kits, they’re unique in the league; they just aren’t very flattering to the everyday causal dresser.
Hoops, Toros, Red Stripes, Puffy, Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, Diddy. Whatever.
Adam E-Agreed. They do NOT look good on anyone but soccer players, so it is a hard sell to get people to wear them around.
However, I have seen a lot of people outside of the games wearing FCD shirts (not all jerseys). Maybe that is just up in Denton where the students are?
To all of you who say that location is not the problem: Have your heads examined. If you have been around since day 1, you would know that half (or more) of the fandom were Hispanic. When the team moved to the burbs (both Southlake and Frisco), the Hiapanic audience all but disappeared. FO went after the White soccer-mom suburban money, thinking that they would actually come to games. WRONG!!! After little Johnny and little Susie have their U-7 games, parents don’t want to drive to the stadium and pay $20 minimum per person to see even a good team play. Hispanic poputation has all but given up on this team, it doesn’t play in the city center where most of them are. BTW, do you notice where the successful teams attendance wise have their stadiums? In or near the center of town. And the not-so-successful? They built stadiums in the styx, just like FCD did.
Prices are a HUGE ISSUE with this as well. Tix are way too expensive for games. End zone seats should be $10, corner seats $12-15, east side seats $15-20, West side seats $20-25, with club section $30-35. HSG is soaking what little public is left.
Chad, you are partly right.. The Hispanics dont’ like the location. For SEVERAL reasons..Wcich Im not going to say here. ALSO, the fO threw them away before they went out there. They traded away the very marketable Hispanic players they had. They stopped marketing to them completely. And, they fired, or let get away, very key hispanic marketting fo people. (IMHO one of them could bring back a HUGE portion of the lost Hispanic fans) Charlie might confirm my opinion on that.. So IMO it’s been the overall ATTITUDE of the club since Hunt’s took over and ANdy Swift left. My advice is they hire back three key Hispanic people they let get away and the whole face of this team would change. IMMEDIATELY !!
Oh shit,, I forgot one more thing!! HIRE OSCAR FOR HEAD COACH !!
The Tater is SICK of the whining about FCD/Burn “losing” the Hispanic market. Face it white folks- ya never had it to begin with.
You can blame Sucklake, HSG, Uncle Lamar, John Wiley Price, Laura Miller or anyone else- the fact is the Hispanic market turned their backs on Dallas soccer generations ago.
Sure you could go to the Cotton Bowl and see a few thousand sitting in GA. Big Deal. Those tix were either free, in-trade or heavily discounted by sponsors. Even at game day prices it ran as little as $5 a butt.
The Cotton Bowl kept every last $ of parking and concession revenue and FCD/Burn got jack for playing there. Moving ANYWHERE else was a sound financial decision.
The vaunted, lamented Hispanic crowd we all cherish was walking distance to the Cotton Bowl and still only managed to sell about 5,000 seats per game. With most of those day of game seats, Uncle lamar knew that selling season tix to our alledged Hispanic fan base was wasted dollars.
Hey “Time for Oscar” did you convienantly forget about Davino, Ruiz, or Denilson? those are perfect examples of player selection by a marketing idiot.
Overage & overpaid.
This team has bent over backwards to provide a hero for all the little Jose & Juans to idolize. Unfortunately their parents don’t care about Dallas soccer enough. Oh, they’ll pay $130 a seat for a third string El Tri playing a meaningless exhibition game but won’t drop $50 for the entire family to see FCD.
F#@& em! Bring on the Plano soccer moms with fake boobs and the season tickets they’ll buy.
Just FYI, the Seattle Times reporter called FCD “the Hoops” on his blog two days ago.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c...eek_30_things_to_watch_fo.html
Whatever word your FO thought they put out didn’t travel far.
This club is the Hoops! Funny how the newbies to the great game don’t have any idea! Hoops is a great nickname that has years and years of tradition in Scotland (Celtic). I have know idea why the so called “Marketing Team” would want to kill it, other than the fact that like everything else they do, it makes no sense. The biggest problem this club has is that there are no “Soccer” minds in the front office. The so called “Marketing Team” should contact some of the old pro’s still in the area such as Moffat, Renshaw, and Cooper Sr. to revisit how the Tornado used to do things! I could go on forever. One more thing..Gordon Hill for gaffer!!!!
Soccer is about being unique…being yourself…being true to your sport. For all you Americans…maybe you are too close to other sports. If the FO and all reporters and all players pushed the “Hoops” as a nickname it would stick, it would work and it would be soccer. Fans – get a backbone and stick with it with pride.
Sure this isn’t Scotland but what is? There are plenty of boring, conservative “nicknames”…why not stand up and be unique? Why do you cower to the American media (David, Buzz, etc.). If this were any other ownership and FO, it would be everywhere. And because it is so “non-American” people would notice, people would remember and if the team would ever win, people would follow.