NYCFC's Nickname for Its 12th Man Might End Up Being "Blue Steel"

To say the launch of MLS expansion team NYCFC hasn’t gone as smoothly as the club owners intended is a slight understatement, at least from a public relationships standpoint. For much of 2014, NYCFC touted European stars Frank Lampard and David Villa as the faces of the new franchise. Problem is, Lampard never exactly signed a contract with MLS and is spending the rest of the English Premier League season with Manchester City — NYCFC’s parent club — and plans to arrive in New York sometime in June or July.

In one fell swoop a club — which at that point in its existence never kicked a ball in a game — managed to piss off its fans (and fan clubs), raising questions about the ownership’s commitment to the project. Yeah!

This week NYCFC polled its fans about what its “12th man” at Yankee Stadium (the club’s temporary home) ought to be called. Via the Telegraph, here’s the options it gave voters:

Roughnecks
Skyliners
New York’s Loudest
262 Crew
Blue Steel

All of these names are fairly lame, particularly New York’s Loudest on various levels. Of all the suggestions, the only one that stands out is “Blue Steel.” The description on the website reads, “The steel infrastructure that the core of NYC was built on, NYC is blue all the way to it’s core.” Never mind the fact few people associate steel with New York — that’s Pittsburgh’s claim to fame, right? — this is a direct reference to the movie Zoolander.

Handing out a nickname to the fans through a totally inorganic, online poll — again before the team’s played an official match — reeks of soulless, corporate groupthink. NYCFC fans who register for the “City Voice” option, allowing them to vote on pressing club matters such as the fans’ nickname might as well embrace the Zoolander stuff compared to the other options, which are more relevant to 1930s New York City than the modern landscape of the City.

Perhaps someone making the decisions for NYCFC ought to take some classes at the Derek Zoolander School for Kids Who Can’t Read Good and Wanna Learn To Do Other Good Stuff Too before it’s too late because this is looking like a PR trainwreck. At least, however, fans from around the Tri-State can take a train to the game.