Southsiders Inc. Upset By Whitecaps New Uniform Comments!!!

My comments regarding my bitter disappointment concerning the Vancouver Whitecaps new uniform and logo have garnered some interest. Indeed, I am getting towards a thousand hits on my blog entries concerning the new uniform and logo. Those interested in seeing the abominations which will be worn by Vancouver Hotspur FC in the MLS can see them here:

http://www.vancouvermls2011.com/news_and_events/archive/news06101002.aspx

Those that read my blog know I am deeply disappointed with the Vancouver Whitecaps approach to the new uniform. As one of those who experienced the magic of Soccer Bowl 1979, the Vancouver Whitecaps uniform and colours of that period are emblazoned on my soul. It was like a death in the family when the Whitecaps went defunct in 1984. I had to wait 16 long years for the team to re-emerge. Frankly, the Vancouver 86ers were no substitute in the meantime. Did the 86ers ever celebrate a championship in downtown Vancouver with 100,000 delirious fans? Did the Vancouver 86ers ever defeat the mighty New York Cosmos?

When the Whitecaps came back in 2000, it was like a dream come true. When the Whitecaps returned, the team adopted a close variation on the classic strip. The team modified the classic logo (again for he worse!) but at least retained the colours and basic pattern of the 1979 uniform.

Somewhere along the line in the new Whitecaps MLS regime, some new souless bureaucrat and his phoney focus groups decided to throw our 1979 football strip and colours, which were both classic and original in world football, into the garbage bin. They did this in exchange for a grossly inferior product with absolutely no character or relation whatsoever to club traditions. I blame new CEO Paul Barber, who has essentially given us the uniform of his favourite club, Tottenham Hotspur (I wonder if Steve Nash, also a die-hard Spurs supporter, had something to do with it as well!!!). I dare say if Paul Barber’s favourite club was the Vancouver Whitecaps, our new uniform might look something like the Vancouver Whitecaps. We might as well change our name as well; why keep the pretension of calling ourselves the Vancouver Whitecaps when we look like Vancouver Hotspur FC?

You would think Vancouver Whitecaps fan groups, especially the Southsiders, would be offended and have something to say about all of this. Think again. None other than the President of the new Vancouver Southsiders Inc. has taken offence at my comments concerning the Whitecap’s new uniform and lack of opposition to it among his new organization. He calls my comments “libelous and insulting” to both his own Company and the Vancouver Whitecaps. Mr President did so recently in the BC Soccerweb. He does this at the same time as trumpeting Southsiders Inc’s free speech rights vis-a-vis the Whitecaps. I won’t be silenced by such silly comments, and will continue to exercise my free speech rights, thank you very much Mr. President!

Perhaps the President is angry because I have not bought the required membership shares in his new company. I won’t be buying any. I prefer to remain independent, thank you very much. As a supporter of the Vancouver Whitecaps, I have no interest in being co-opted and answerable to any “President”. This new organization is most certainly NOT the Southsiders of the past, who once had an independent and critical approach to the club. Despite Mr Presidents protestations to the contrary, it seems the recent honeymoon with the club is so sweet the Whitecaps have been allowed to turn their back on the club’s traditional colours with no opposition whatsoever from Southsiders Inc. I suppose getting seats in the new stadium where you want them is far more important than Vancouver Whitecaps traditions.

What is the point of joining a fan organization that will not defend the colours of the Vancouver Whitecaps? Does Mr President not even care that the Vancouver Whitecaps now look more like Tottenham Hotspur than the Vancouver Whitecaps? One of the points of having a fan group is to staunchly defend the club’s traditions. By simply rolling over and dying on the Whitecaps abandonment of its classic uniform, colours and logo, Southsiders Inc. is falling down on the job in my view. I suppose it can probably be explained by the fact that Mr President and most of his company were not even born when we won the Soccer Bowl in 1979. If it didn’t happen 15 minutes ago, I suppose it is not worth remembering at all.

The uncaring attitude of Vancouver Whitecaps fan groups towards the teams traditional colours and logo stands in stark contrast to Portland Timber’s fan groups, who are aggressively holding their team’s feet to the fire over changes to their uniform and logo which are relatively small compared to the Whitecaps own ditching of its traditions:

http://www.soccercityusa.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1253121592/1560

Perhaps it is time to move down the I5 to Portland where there is at least some pride in club tradition. I’m not going anywhere however, and I WILL continue to defend my beloved club’s traditions and exercise my free speech rights in spite of what the President of Southsiders Inc. says. That is the beauty of being independent of such groups.

For those of you who can remember beyond 15 minutes ago, and are willing to remember the brave and wonderful lads of 1979 who brought this city one of its proudest moments, please remember them along with me in considering the great and classic football uniform they once wore, now shamefully abandoned by Vancouver Hotspur FC and Southsiders Inc. both:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver_Whitecaps_(NASL)

http://www.nasljerseys.com/images/Whitecaps/Whitecaps%2079%20Road%20Jersey%20Roger%20Kenyon_small1.jpg

http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.onionbag.com/images/copa/COVANHSS1980.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.onionbag.com/1980-vancouver-whitecaps-home-retro-shirt-4956.aspx&usg=__nQPpDz4l5TV4mPCA-NztlyEbCdA=&h=454&w=281&sz=28&hl=en&start=23&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=zHjvBBQ-H0YpBM:&tbnh=128&tbnw=79&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dvancouver%2Bwhitecaps%2Bjerseys%26start%3D20%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Den%26ndsp%3D20%26tbs%3Disch:1

http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.nasljerseys.com/images/Manic/Manic%252081%2520Home%2520Thompson%2520Usiya

8 Comments »

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Sheesh! Get your facts straight!

1. If you are going to blame someone for have Tottenham colours, blame Steve Nash since he is a lifelong Spurs fan; Barber came along WAY too late in the design process to have any effect on colour selection. (And Spurs don’t use light blue as trim they use yellow; and they have navy shorts; and they don’t have horizontal stripes.)

2. The Eighty-Sixers of the A-League are the same club as Vancouver Whitecaps of the USL-1. Did the USL-1 Whitecaps celebrate their championships downtown with 100,000 fans? No they celebrated with the same fans that celebrated the 86ers championships, in the same stadium, with much of the same FO perssonel. Why don’t you understand this? You can easily get this information from wikipedia or from the club website.

You’re blog has the potential for being cool, but this is bar far the worst post you have put up as it is smug and self-promotion, and just plain loose with the facts.

Come on, I KNOW you can do better than this post. I am with you on the old badge and strip, but PLEASE don’t misrepresent the facts to try and prove your point. That is something reserved for American talk radio.

Comment by Jeremy— June 23, 2010 #

Reply
- Thanks for your editorial comments Jeremy, which I appreciate. Its just I am so bloody mad! I disagree with you with respect to the History, which you have backwards: The Vancouver Whitecaps came first, and the team which built the legend was the 1974-1984 team. The 86ers were a different organization altogether, being formed completely independent of the Whitecaps. When Stadnyk bought the team, the Whitecaps were reborn. When Kerfoot took over, he bought the Vancouver Whitecaps, and it was clear his vision was greater than that of USL-1. What gave the Whitecaps the status as a brand was what occurred in the years from 1974-1984. In particular the 1979 team in its classic strip is what people in Vancouver remember. There was no protest to speak of when the 86ers were phased out, and it was near unanimous that soccer in Vancouver was about the Vancouver Whitecaps.
  
  Comment by whitecapsfan— June 24, 2010 #
  
  Reply
  - But using this logic, since the 2010 Whitecaps are also a COMPLETELY “DIFFERENT ORGANIZATION ALTOGETHER” and ought to have the same latitude that every other iteration of top-level soccer we have had in Vancouver. I like the wave badge, but it is not like it is the only badge we had; it is not the original badge (that’s the boring soccer ball one); it is not the badge we have won the most titles with (86ers original badge); it is not the same “organization” as the MLS 2010 team; nor is it the badge we have used the last decade (cartoony wave).
    
    Comment by Jeremy— June 26, 2010 #
i’m sorry but this is really getting sad.

first you proclaim the glory of the new portland logo.. only to realize no one in portland felt the same. now you are lauding them for their zeal to protect their tradition. you can’t have it both ways.

and your attack on the southside is equally irrational.

your devotion to the club and history is admirable. your attacks are just sad.

Comment by don— June 23, 2010 #

Reply
- What is sad is that no one cares about club history. There is a reason why the team is now called the Vancouver Whitecaps, and that is because of what the Whitecaps achieved back in the late 70′s and early 80′s. I would expect any fan group worth its salt to at least know that.
  
  What is sad is that the CLub threw away a uniform which is classic and original in world football and people are not upset. I don’t care if I am a minority voice, that is just sad!
  
  I don’t think we will be seeing team Canada playing in purple anytime soon. If they did, there would be an outcry.
  Why is there no outcry concerning changing the Whitecaps colours? Because people do not understand the history.
  
  Comment by whitecapsfan— June 24, 2010 #
  
  Reply
I fully agree that the new uniforms are very bland and lack any sort of inspiration.

The 79-84 Whitecap is magical and it would have been fantastic to see a modern version. The Seattle Sounders did a fantastic job of taking an old brand and modernizing it. The Caps dropped the ball on this one. The bright Green is very visable in all of Seattle. Malls, downtown, youth soccer games among many places. The bland dark navy choice for an away kit was very cowardly and lacked any aesthetic ambition. The glorious royal blue is representative of Vancouver and not navy blue. A fun sky blue kit would have been very marketable. If you want to sell jerseys why not create something that stands out?

Comment by Captain Canuck— June 23, 2010 #

Reply
It’s a balancing act maintaining ties to the past to keep old fans feeling a part of things and making a break with the past so people don’t associate you with a time of smaller crowds, names and ambitions.

They kept the name but changed the look. I see the sense in that but I agree that the new look is nothing special.

I grew up with and was, to a small degree, a part of that move from NASL to CSL. I don’t feel my memories are compromised by an ugly kit.

Comment by Gregor— June 23, 2010 #

Reply
- The Whitecaps should have done better than an ugly kit. If they only looked to their own history they could have developed a winner with a modernized version of the 1979 strip. I was really looking forward to what Adidas would do with the classic strip but what a disaster! I find it hard to believe there is not a revolt a la Portland.
  
  Thanks Gregor.
  
  Comment by whitecapsfan— June 24, 2010 #
  
  Reply

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