What's in a name?

Congratulations, Philly. You've got a team. Now tell us, what will you call it?

Although the new Philadelphia MLS franchise won't take the field until 2010, the first hurdle to be cleared will be selecting a name. And that is no small task.

Jeff Gammage of the Philadelphia Inquirer takes a look at the process of naming the league's 16th franchise. He doesn't make any suggestions but gives some pointers on some of the things they may want to avoid.

As far as MLS is concerned, gone are the days of the Burn and the Wiz, so we probably won't be subjected to a similar name.

Whatever the new club is named, officials will have plenty of time to make that decision.

Philly on my mind

I just filed me Press-Enterprise column. I wrote about the ever-changing league that is MLS these days. It's funny how much things change. In 2005, we were getting ready for teams number 11 (Real Salt Lake) and 12 (Chivas USA) and now we've got 13 (Toronto FC), 14 (San Jose), 15 (Seattle) and 16 (Philadelphia). Before long, we'll have 17 (possibly St. Louis) and 18 (who knows? Montreal, San Diego, Portland, Las Vegas, Miami, etc.), and then who knows.

Anyway, Philadelphia won't being play until 2010 which may not seem like a long time from now. But consider, when Philadelphia MLS begins play, we'll be about two months or so from the World Cup, we'll be more than a year into the next president's tenure and the Winter Olympics will have just been completed.

With such a long time to go before joining the league, can there possibly be any planning done in the near future or at some point this year about putting together an actual roster? Is it even worth it for owners to hire a coaching staff this year? I mean, this team doesn't even have a name yet.

One thing the new club should plan for is to have in place a youth developmental system by 2009. Start the process of cultivating young talent in the Philadelphia area so that when the team starts play in 2010 the youth system will already have been in place for a year.

In terms of a roster, I wonder if there are any plans to try and get a Philly-area product to play a prominent role on the team. Would bringing Bobby Convey into the fold be a viable option, even if it means having to pay to get him?

I know, these questions aren't really going to be answered soon, but they were just lingering from having written about Philadelphia.

Welcome to the league

Philadelphia might have a rich soccer tradition but the city itself is new to MLS. The league awarded Philadelphia a franchise that will begin play in 2010 and thus the city has two years to prepare for entry into America's top flight.

As with any new venture, the local media will take to acclimate itself to the inner-workings of MLS and soccer in general. Outside of a Manchester United-Barcelona game a few years back, Philadelphia is not a city generally used for soccer purposes as neither the US nor Mexico has played there in recent history.

This story gave a good overview of what the new Philadelphia MLS club may try to accomplish and what it might try to do in terms of aligning itself to a foreign club and where some of the fan base may come from. It's a pretty good read for Philly soccer fans who may not have followed the ins and outs of MLS or what other clubs have done off the field to get to where they are today.

Of course, we are reminded of how much more there is to learn about soccer by stories like these. The picture that accompanied the story was one of River Plate, and part of the caption read: "...Mexican teams are a big draw in U.S. cities with large Latin populations."

Philadelphia on tap

It's official, folks. Shout-out to Greg Daurio, who must be thrilled. He's a Philly guy.

Twisted logic

Philadephia clearly does not deserve, nor does it actually want, a Major League Soccer team. There's a reason that the city didn't make the mistake of jumping on to the soccer bandwagon in 1996. After all, the city was the country's first capital, so Philadelphia knows what is All-American, and soccer clearly isn't it. Philadelphia has gotten this far without soccer, and continues to resist attempts by MLS to get suckered into joining the latest version of the sport that has never really caught on in this country.

Red-blooded sports like the NFL, the NBA, and baseball have been embraced by Philly fans for years, but clearly, no true Philadephian can get behind a game that cancels the use of the hands that have developed a good part of their strength hefting so many cheesesteaks.

A recent poll revealed that interest to bring MLS to Philly is minimal - a majority of responders did not vote for the city to receive an MLS team. In fact, the idea of an MLS team even failed to win 30 percent support.

The lunatic fringe that supports soccer is better suited to the towns that are predisposed to an empty-headed worship of worthless celebrities, like Los Angeles. Philadelphia should remain a pure bastion of real U.S. sports. After all, Ben Franklin never played soccer.