Why The Hoops Nickname Will Never Go Away

John Carlton

On 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 redundacy 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 sattelite 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.