What to name the new soccer team? Fans to decide

The first lengthy lists of suggestions encompassed everything from favorites like

Independence

to banalities along the lines of

Lions

and

Panthers

and

Bears

, oh my.

The rough possibilities were culled to a roster of 135 more realistic choices, and then to four publicly announced finalists. But even the short list might not hold the name of Philadelphia's new pro soccer team.

Club officials reserve the ultimate right to christen the team, whatever the outcome of fan voting. The online ballot allows for write-in suggestions, scads of which are being submitted. And if the brief history of Major League Soccer is an indication, when it comes to naming a team, anything can happen.

The club in Columbus, Ohio, adopted a name,

Crew

, that was suggested by exactly one person, who wanted to honor the shipmates of one particular Columbus, Christopher.

When the San Jose Earthquakes relocated to Texas, they became Houston

1836

, which recognized the year the city was founded and evoked the German club Munich 1860 - and enraged the Hispanic community, which knew 1836 as the year Texas fought a war against Mexico.

The result? Goodbye, Houston 1836. Hello, Houston Dynamo.

Executives with the new Seattle club insisted they would not call the team

Sounders

despite the name's long association with Washington state soccer. They said the new club deserved a new name, and fans could pick from Seattle Alliance, Seattle Republic or Seattle FC.

So what will the team be called?

The Sounders.

That after fans swamped the write-in portion of the ballot.

Could the same happen here? Is there a contingent that longs for the return of Philadelphia

Atoms

, the team that won the North American Soccer League championship in 1973? Or the

Fury

, which followed the Atoms' demise? How about the

Spartans

, who represented Philadelphia in the American Soccer League?

"That's why we left a blank," said Tom Veit, a sports consultant who is handling marketing for the Philadelphia team.

But he expects that so long as the vote is decisive, the new name will come from the announced choices:

Philadelphia SC, the initials standing for Soccer Club.

Philadelphia AC, for Athletic Club, though trademark restrictions bar the team from being called the Athletics.

Philadelphia City, standing for, well, the city, although the team will play 18 miles away, in Chester.

And, lastly, Philadelphia Union, a nod to the original 13 colonies and the region's working-class roots.

The placement of the initials also could be reversed, to make the name SC Philadelphia or AC Philadelphia.

Fans can vote through next Friday at

» READ MORE: www.mlsphilly2010.com

and

» READ MORE: www.philly.com

as well.

Four to six weeks after voting ends, the team will announce its name, colors and what is called a wordmark, the graphic script used for the name.

For a pro sports team, choosing the right name, colors and logo can reap millions of dollars in sales and licensing. The goal is to grab fans not just in the region but also across the country and, in soccer's case, around the world.

The pick is especially crucial in Philadelphia, where the new club will compete in a crowded sports market - and one where previous soccer teams have failed.

In an informal tally on the Soccer by Ives Web site, Philadelphia City claimed 30 percent of 3,600 votes. AC Philadelphia got 27 percent, Philadelphia Union 26 percent, and SC Philadelphia only 14 percent.

"I like all of them, except for SC," said Bryan James, head of the 3,600-member Sons of Ben supporters group. He leans toward Union, though, because the name offers many levels of interpretation.

The words "a more perfect Union" were written here, in the preamble to the Constitution. The song possibilities - and if you're a soccer fan, you sing at games - are enormous, from Civil War battle hymns to Pete Seeger labor ballads, James noted.

Monikers such as City, AC or SC might seem odd to sports fans raised on names drawn from popular culture, birds of prey and man-eating beasts: Cowboys, Giants, Hawks, Falcons, Bears, Tigers. But they're familiar to soccer fans who track overseas teams such as Manchester City, AC Milan and Charlton Athletic. Many teams, such as Liverpool, simply add the initials FC, for Football Club.

Some MLS teams follow that international example, including FC Dallas, Toronto FC and Real Salt Lake, which aped storied Spanish club Real Madrid. But the league has been mocked for using team names as a means to assert a history that, after only 14 years of operation, it has not yet established.

Nick Sakiewicz, the Philadelphia team's chief executive officer and operating partner, said the criticism was unfounded.

"We live in the global world of international football," he said. "If we're going to live in that world, we need to behave and act like it."

Unlike domestic leagues of 35 years ago, MLS doesn't actively seek to convert followers of other sports or lure people who can't get tickets to NFL football. Instead, MLS draws mature soccer fans who know and love the game - and the traditional names speak to that, Sakiewicz said.

The Philadelphia club will be MLS' 16th team when it takes the field in 2010, to play at a $500 million stadium complex being built on the Chester waterfront.

At the start of the naming process, team officials gathered suggestions from everywhere and everyone: fans, staffers, Internet sites, focus groups. Some people liked

Freedom

, from the old World Team Tennis club the Freedoms that starred Billie Jean King. Others wanted

Admirals

, to recognize local sea-faring history.

"They didn't want the Liberty or the Bells," Veit said. "Philadelphians have a real vision of what Philadelphia is and what it stands for. Rocky and the Liberty Bell are part of it, but that's more for people outside."

Veit took a bucket of 135 names to Sakiewicz and another co-owner, Jay Sugarman, CEO of iStar Financial, and told them, "Tell me what you hate." Further consultations reduced the roster to 10 choices. Those were checked to see if trademarks were available, and some were not, which cut the list in half.

Which name does Veit favor?

"I'm fine with any of them," he said. "If there's a clear-cut winner, we're going to go with what's picked. . . . Our end goal was to create something our fans would like, that would represent our city, our region and our team."