LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The National Women’s Soccer League club coming to Louisville next season now has a name: Racing Louisville FC.
I’m pausing for the Twitter crowd to ridicule it. That’s what happens now. You announce something, everyone says they hate it, and you move on. LouCity FC released a logo last fall, then dropped it three days later after supporters didn’t like it.
In general, I’m not a fan of firms that come up with these things. But I’m also sympathetic to people charged with creating them, because you’re not going to please people, especially people on social media.
“What does racing have to do with soccer?” was the most common question I heard after this name was announced.
The answer: More than you might think. A quick search turned up more than 17 “racing club” teams throughout Europe and South America. Generally, you see them in cities with a racing tradition or a well-known race.
Racing Club de France is one of the oldest football clubs in the country, dating back 138 years. In truth, a lot of the other “Racing” teams probably were imitators. But who are we in Louisville (named after a French king), Kentucky (place names Versailles, Paris, London, Middlesboro, Cadiz, Glasgow, etc.) to look down on that?
So the name “racing” does have something to do with soccer tradition, and beyond that, it has something to do with a little event we have thrown in this city for quite some time, the Kentucky Derby (the latter word also borrowed from European racing).
“It was perfect for us,” said Brad Estes, president of Louisville-based Soccer Holdings LLC. “It took us a while to get there, with several iterations, with owners and supporters and players. Racing is a nod to our culture locally, but it’s a nod to the global game. It fit together perfectly.”
The name is fine, but it doesn’t make the team, anyway. The team makes the name. If the NWSL team comes in here and replicates the kind of success that the USL team has had in its first seasons, if it embraces the community the same way and builds the same kind of culture, they’ll be singing the name from the supporter sections for decades to come.
This league is an exciting opportunity for Louisville. The best women’s soccer athletes in the world will come through here. Some of them will play here, perhaps. They are among the most visible athletes in the nation, some of them.
That there is such passion around the name shows how seriously folks take it. That’s a good thing.
Bigger than all that, though, is the overall position of this soccer enterprise in the city of Louisville.
There are a lot of trees right now. COVID-19. Social unrest. Financial uncertainty. Political brushfires.
Step back and look at the big picture: In this time, when everything else is going crazy, this one, highly visible business continues to move forward. For this ownership group, the worst of times means opening its new $65 million stadium on national television Sunday. It means breaking ground on a training facility soon. It means moving forward with a top-level women’s franchise next season.
The only brakes that have been applied on this franchise have been by the coronavirus, and those have been easing up. In the meantime, the group has moved forward with a new executive vice president of development with an established and proven name in this city: James O’Conner. It has hired a vice president of sales and marketing, a chief financial officer, a director of marketing, content producer, partnership fulfillment coordinator and a significant staff.
The NWSL team has a corporate partner in PNC Bank, and O'Connor is down to a short list of potential coaches.
“We have the talent in house to take us to the next level, and we’re ready to do so,” Estes said. “We’re all running a hundred miles an hour. ... A lot of people during the pandemic slowed down. They pumped the break. Our ownership group said it’s time to double down. You invest in yourself during these times and you come out stronger, and hopefully we’ve done that.
”If nothing else, the new name might serve as a reminder that in a difficult time, this operation kept racing forward."
There’s something to be said for that.
Copyright 2020 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.
