Orlando Pride, you say? Not bad, but it hardly wins points for originality.
The National Women’s Soccer League’s long-rumored Orlando franchise was announced on Tuesday, and the league’s 10th team — to being play in 2016 — will go by the name “Orlando Pride.”
[MORE: Ex-USWNT coach Tom Sermanni named first-ever coach of Orlando Pride]
The Pride’s name seems somewhat loosely based on the community’s pride in the area (which, again, is less than inventive) as well as tying in the lion theme from Orlando’s brother club, MLS’ Orlando City SC. See the video below:
The Pride are owned by the same group — headlined by Phil Rawlins — which Orlando City SC, but the Pride’s logo does not include the trademark golden lion which adorns the Orlando City SC crest. That’s because of the complicated corporate hold-ups between MLS being a league funded and outfitted by Adidas, and NWSL being a Nike league.
Rawlins explained on his Facebook page that Orlando City SC’s lion logo belongs to MLS, and the Pride could not use anything similar to it:
Per @OrlandoCitySC owner, City not allowed to use lion or derivatives for NWSL team because it's owned by MLS. pic.twitter.com/G9kiwcuH6H
— Abel Iraola (@miamiabel) October 20, 2015
So what is that logo all about? The Pride have a pretty nice piece on their website about how the logo was drawn up and approved, as well as what that splash of blue is. The fountain at Lake Eola, a Central Florida landmark and site of Tuesday’s press conference, is what is represented there.
“The logo features the colors City Purple, which represents the Orlando City soccer culture, and Eola Blue which represents the water geyser at Lake Eola and the chain of lakes known to Central Florida,” the Pride’s site states.
According to the club, 40 different concepts were designed, as well as 50 iterations of the final logo.
Orlando’s marketing team came up with design, and by the photos, it almost included gold (Orlando City SC’s colors are purple and gold):
