2026-07-11, 12:46 PM - Word count:
Howdy reader. Thanks for being here. I hope you're feeling good and are ready to be entertained.
As Expansion Team 2 is moving along in its location confirmation and branding behind the scenes, I figured it might be a good idea to share some of the locations/brandings that were not approved. Several of them were not necessarily "rejected" as really, our first choices for both teams were accepted. So these are moreso some alternatives that won't be used.
Let's start with a fun one.
Fiji Football Club
![[Image: 768OiiQ.png]](https://i.imgur.com/768OiiQ.png)
![[Image: DS9uBgN.png]](https://i.imgur.com/DS9uBgN.png)
I know that normally we tend to stick to more populated cities in countries that have a strong cultural buy-in to football, but since New Zealand (North Shore United, Minor League) and Australia (Sydney City, Academy) were already spoken for in the SSL, I decided that the rest of Oceania deserved some representation, too.
Honestly, I really really liked this crest and color scheme. You can see some elements of a sailboat in the middle of the crest, which, of course, is a rather important part of a Melanesian island's history. The bottom of the center badge shows rippled water. This plays a couple of ways. The obvious one is that Fiji is an island and therefore surrounded by water. The average Fijian will interact with the ocean on a near daily basis. But it also plays into Fiji's primary export: bottled water. The American bourgeois that can afford Fiji water help this island's economy stay afloat. On the sides of the center badge, you might notice a distinct pattern. This is what's known as Fijian Masi art patterns. It is a defining characteristic of the Oceanic islands and is heavily featured both on the crest and on the kits. At the top of the crest is a cross of two important cultural referents. The first one you might notice is the coconut palm tree. An ancient Micronesian wisdom poem sums up the importance of the coconut tree to an island:
Consider the coconut
Consider its tree
We use each part of the coconut, that's all we need
We make our nets from the fibers
The water is sweet inside
We use the leaves to build fires
We cook up the meat inside
Consider the coconuts
The trunks and the leaves
The island gives us what we need
The second of the two crossing referents is what's called the "Kava Bowl (Tanoa)". This represents kava, the popular beverage on the island that is considered to have significant cultural and social importance. The "Tanoa" is used in welcoming ceremonies and community gatherings, symbolizing hospitality, unity, and respect.
Overall, I really liked this option, but I didn't rank it very high on my list due to the lack of football culture and population around the islands. But boy did I love the branding.
Kuala Lumpur Football Club
![[Image: MaQAFOw.png]](https://i.imgur.com/MaQAFOw.png)
![[Image: U6quEIZ.jpeg]](https://i.imgur.com/U6quEIZ.jpeg)
This was a fun city to dive into the history of when thinking through this crest. The foreground of the crest is taken by the Hibiscus flower, Malaysia's national bloom. Directly behind it is the Petronas Towers. These twins connect on the 41st and 42nd floors where a nearly 200-foot skybridge allows traffic to cross over. The Towers dominate the Kuala Lumpur skyline and are a source of architectural pride for the city's residents. Sitting above the towers is a crescent moon and sun. That is taken directly from the upper left quadrant of the Malaysian flag.
The kits themselves are pretty neat. I love that each jersey subtly includes a major aspect of the crest and city's identity. The colors are simple, yet not overdone. I'm a sucker for a navy blue.
To be quite honest, I didn't spend a lot of time thinking of a name for this one. That's probably rather obvious. The club name came after the locations were approved, so I decided to wait on the name for most of these until I knew what was confirmed.
Matterhorn Football Club (see what I mean? no creativity used in naming. smh i'm so lazy)
![[Image: vYd3rZr.png]](https://i.imgur.com/vYd3rZr.png)
![[Image: KpYlqAx.jpeg]](https://i.imgur.com/KpYlqAx.jpeg)
If I'm being completely honest, this brand started as an idea I had for my fantasy football team. Our dynasty league decided to make each team decide on a realistic naming convention instead of something stupid like "Team 3" or "Run CMC". Several friends of mine went with their hometown or local cities nearby, but I wanted to break the mold and go international. Living in Switzerland is a pipe dream of mine, so I decided on the country pretty quickly. But if you're like @Zoone16, you might have read the name of this team and thought, "Dom, you idiot, Matterhorn isn't a city." And you would technically be correct. I am an idiot and Matterhorn is not a city. If I had to choose a specific city, then Zermatt is the closest one. But I was going for an AF Sacres Masques kinda vibe where the team name doesn't directly reference the city. So voila, Matterhorn FC. Like I said earlier, I am a complete sucker for a nice navy blue and even moreso for a gold accent. Naturally, the Matterhorn mountain peak dominates the design. It is a mountain unlike any other and is recognizable in a lineup with other mountain peaks. The Ibex is a majestic creature that roams the Swiss mountain range, known for its disproportionately massive horns and stable footing on steep inclines. (@norththegreatestshowman fact check me please)
All in all, I didn't really expect this one to be chosen. I'm still probably going to use it for my fantasy football team (-:
Last but certainly not least...
FC Birmingham (technically it says Birmingham Football Club, but I am too embarrassed to have 4 "location football club" so here we go)
![[Image: JaikTTX.png]](https://i.imgur.com/JaikTTX.png)
![[Image: xMReA71.jpeg]](https://i.imgur.com/xMReA71.jpeg)
This one is close to home. Like, really close to home. Birmingham, Alabama is where I was born and where I grew up. I have a special place in my heart for the city. Yes, it has quite an ugly history. But I have been formed by the positive results of that ugly history.
Now, if I was going to choose an American city, why not choose one that, I dunno, has more people? or can at least handle a professional team? Those are great questions and I wish you wouldn't have asked them, but I'll answer them anyways. I tried to avoid cities that already had an MLS team. Because there was already well-known branding there and I didn't want to add on. I found a website that ranked the best football markets in America, and if you take out all the cities that already have an MLS team, Birmingham is 5th on the list. It seemed close enough to just go for it. And besides, how often do you get to pitch an expansion team in your own city when you don't live in a major urban area? Not to mention, for all my USMNT fans out there, Chris Richards is from Birmingham, AL. So I dunno, if that makes you feel like it makes sense than use it.
The colors are chosen to pay homage to Birmingham’s university: University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). The background is a silhouette of Sloss Furnace, an important iron-making producer during the industrial boom. Birmingham was nicknamed the "Magic City" during that time as well. Not because of the local wicken sects that pop up the occasional coffee shop selling crystals and spells, but because the city seemed to magically pop up overnight. Why, you ask? Well, this time I'm glad you asked. Birmingham, AL is one of the only places in the world where all the essential components of ironmaking (limestone, coal, and iron ore) were found within a 30 mile radius. Needless to say, Sloss Furnace made a whole lot of iron. The foreground is the Vulcan statue on Red Mountain in Birmingham. Vulcan was the Roman god of metalworking and the forge. He characterized Birmingham’s growing stature with thanks to their production of iron. I also made the shape of the crest a gear because that's kinda metal forge-y. Plus, there's not a lot of gear-shaped crests out there, so we'd stand out!
At the end of the day, I also didn't expect this one to be chosen either, simply because of the location. I get it, Birmingham, AL isn't a good enough market to really justify an expansion team. But I'm rather proud of the crest, though it is quite simple. I was really hoping that one of our legendary graphic designers who help us so much with team crests would be able to make my dreams come true with this one.
So! Please, share your favorite of these 4 unused locations! Shoot your shot at guessing where Expansion Team 2's locations will be! I'll give a crisp "nice one!" to whoever guesses both the locations correctly. And trust me, I don't just hand those out for free.
As Expansion Team 2 is moving along in its location confirmation and branding behind the scenes, I figured it might be a good idea to share some of the locations/brandings that were not approved. Several of them were not necessarily "rejected" as really, our first choices for both teams were accepted. So these are moreso some alternatives that won't be used.
Code:
disclaimer: I am not a graphic artist. So many of these brandings were done through AI graphic design. I know, I know, I hate myself for it, too. But it was highly prompted and are all very close to something I would have proposed if I had any graphic design talent myself.Let's start with a fun one.
Fiji Football Club
I know that normally we tend to stick to more populated cities in countries that have a strong cultural buy-in to football, but since New Zealand (North Shore United, Minor League) and Australia (Sydney City, Academy) were already spoken for in the SSL, I decided that the rest of Oceania deserved some representation, too.
Honestly, I really really liked this crest and color scheme. You can see some elements of a sailboat in the middle of the crest, which, of course, is a rather important part of a Melanesian island's history. The bottom of the center badge shows rippled water. This plays a couple of ways. The obvious one is that Fiji is an island and therefore surrounded by water. The average Fijian will interact with the ocean on a near daily basis. But it also plays into Fiji's primary export: bottled water. The American bourgeois that can afford Fiji water help this island's economy stay afloat. On the sides of the center badge, you might notice a distinct pattern. This is what's known as Fijian Masi art patterns. It is a defining characteristic of the Oceanic islands and is heavily featured both on the crest and on the kits. At the top of the crest is a cross of two important cultural referents. The first one you might notice is the coconut palm tree. An ancient Micronesian wisdom poem sums up the importance of the coconut tree to an island:
Consider the coconut
Consider its tree
We use each part of the coconut, that's all we need
We make our nets from the fibers
The water is sweet inside
We use the leaves to build fires
We cook up the meat inside
Consider the coconuts
The trunks and the leaves
The island gives us what we need
The second of the two crossing referents is what's called the "Kava Bowl (Tanoa)". This represents kava, the popular beverage on the island that is considered to have significant cultural and social importance. The "Tanoa" is used in welcoming ceremonies and community gatherings, symbolizing hospitality, unity, and respect.
Overall, I really liked this option, but I didn't rank it very high on my list due to the lack of football culture and population around the islands. But boy did I love the branding.
Kuala Lumpur Football Club
This was a fun city to dive into the history of when thinking through this crest. The foreground of the crest is taken by the Hibiscus flower, Malaysia's national bloom. Directly behind it is the Petronas Towers. These twins connect on the 41st and 42nd floors where a nearly 200-foot skybridge allows traffic to cross over. The Towers dominate the Kuala Lumpur skyline and are a source of architectural pride for the city's residents. Sitting above the towers is a crescent moon and sun. That is taken directly from the upper left quadrant of the Malaysian flag.
The kits themselves are pretty neat. I love that each jersey subtly includes a major aspect of the crest and city's identity. The colors are simple, yet not overdone. I'm a sucker for a navy blue.
To be quite honest, I didn't spend a lot of time thinking of a name for this one. That's probably rather obvious. The club name came after the locations were approved, so I decided to wait on the name for most of these until I knew what was confirmed.
Matterhorn Football Club (see what I mean? no creativity used in naming. smh i'm so lazy)
If I'm being completely honest, this brand started as an idea I had for my fantasy football team. Our dynasty league decided to make each team decide on a realistic naming convention instead of something stupid like "Team 3" or "Run CMC". Several friends of mine went with their hometown or local cities nearby, but I wanted to break the mold and go international. Living in Switzerland is a pipe dream of mine, so I decided on the country pretty quickly. But if you're like @Zoone16, you might have read the name of this team and thought, "Dom, you idiot, Matterhorn isn't a city." And you would technically be correct. I am an idiot and Matterhorn is not a city. If I had to choose a specific city, then Zermatt is the closest one. But I was going for an AF Sacres Masques kinda vibe where the team name doesn't directly reference the city. So voila, Matterhorn FC. Like I said earlier, I am a complete sucker for a nice navy blue and even moreso for a gold accent. Naturally, the Matterhorn mountain peak dominates the design. It is a mountain unlike any other and is recognizable in a lineup with other mountain peaks. The Ibex is a majestic creature that roams the Swiss mountain range, known for its disproportionately massive horns and stable footing on steep inclines. (@norththegreatestshowman fact check me please)
All in all, I didn't really expect this one to be chosen. I'm still probably going to use it for my fantasy football team (-:
Last but certainly not least...
FC Birmingham (technically it says Birmingham Football Club, but I am too embarrassed to have 4 "location football club" so here we go)
This one is close to home. Like, really close to home. Birmingham, Alabama is where I was born and where I grew up. I have a special place in my heart for the city. Yes, it has quite an ugly history. But I have been formed by the positive results of that ugly history.
Now, if I was going to choose an American city, why not choose one that, I dunno, has more people? or can at least handle a professional team? Those are great questions and I wish you wouldn't have asked them, but I'll answer them anyways. I tried to avoid cities that already had an MLS team. Because there was already well-known branding there and I didn't want to add on. I found a website that ranked the best football markets in America, and if you take out all the cities that already have an MLS team, Birmingham is 5th on the list. It seemed close enough to just go for it. And besides, how often do you get to pitch an expansion team in your own city when you don't live in a major urban area? Not to mention, for all my USMNT fans out there, Chris Richards is from Birmingham, AL. So I dunno, if that makes you feel like it makes sense than use it.
The colors are chosen to pay homage to Birmingham’s university: University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). The background is a silhouette of Sloss Furnace, an important iron-making producer during the industrial boom. Birmingham was nicknamed the "Magic City" during that time as well. Not because of the local wicken sects that pop up the occasional coffee shop selling crystals and spells, but because the city seemed to magically pop up overnight. Why, you ask? Well, this time I'm glad you asked. Birmingham, AL is one of the only places in the world where all the essential components of ironmaking (limestone, coal, and iron ore) were found within a 30 mile radius. Needless to say, Sloss Furnace made a whole lot of iron. The foreground is the Vulcan statue on Red Mountain in Birmingham. Vulcan was the Roman god of metalworking and the forge. He characterized Birmingham’s growing stature with thanks to their production of iron. I also made the shape of the crest a gear because that's kinda metal forge-y. Plus, there's not a lot of gear-shaped crests out there, so we'd stand out!
At the end of the day, I also didn't expect this one to be chosen either, simply because of the location. I get it, Birmingham, AL isn't a good enough market to really justify an expansion team. But I'm rather proud of the crest, though it is quite simple. I was really hoping that one of our legendary graphic designers who help us so much with team crests would be able to make my dreams come true with this one.
So! Please, share your favorite of these 4 unused locations! Shoot your shot at guessing where Expansion Team 2's locations will be! I'll give a crisp "nice one!" to whoever guesses both the locations correctly. And trust me, I don't just hand those out for free.
