An ownership group in San Diego, comprised of former U.S. Men’s National Team Captain Landon Donovan and other influential San Diego business people, revealed the results of their fan vote today, which garnered a lot of national attention over the past few weeks.
Today, they released a video on their Facebook page to reveal the name of the squad. Landon Donovan also posted on his Twitter (which is a rare sight) to announce the news.
The expansion side, which hopes to attain MLS membership, tallied up the votes and that name is… SAN DIEGO FOOTY MCFOOTY FACE.
Look at this stud.
Footy, as the mascot is affectionately known is already on some garb to be seen all around the city of San Diego. Check out this pretty cool baseball-sleeve shirt:
The fans voted, the Internet did its thing and democracy prevailed! What’s a cooler story than that?
It’s pretty fantastic, right?
Well…
That’s right, we all got duped! Heck, I even got duped when I first started watching it.
Landon Donovan explained that there had been… wait for it… election interference from potential rival fans with the LA Galaxy and Los Angeles FC. (Not to mention all that garnered worldwide attention as soon as people saw Footy was an option.)
Talk about staying on top of newsworthy jokes.
After this explanation, Footy then makes a second appearance on the video to crush LAFC and LA Galaxy logos into dust, which is admittedly, pretty fantastic, considering it’s a foot with (pretty ripped) arms.
In all seriousness, the voting has ended, with the reveal of the actual name to be made at a later date. At last check, Footy McFootyface led the tally, with the San Diego Surf, San Diego Football Club (yuck), and San Diego Bad Hombres trailing behind.
Other names further down the list include San Diego Armada (a nod to San Diego’s naval history), Mission San Diego (a nod to San Diego’s origins as a Christian mission station) and the San Diego Bolts.
Donovan and his friend in the video play it cool in a typically Californian way and even manage to make a pretty funny jab at the departing Los Angeles Chargers, who begin play at LA Galaxy’s StubHub Center next season.
And the fun is still to be had for the fans of Footy McFootyface, even if it won’t be adopted as the official brand of Soccer Club SD. You can buy an official t-shirt at footymcfootyface.com, with all proceeds going to various area charities.
It’s a pretty awesome PR move for Soccer City SD to embrace the silliness of the Internet while still finding a way to present a more serious option to the league, all while having a bit of fun with it. The fact the poll happened to end yesterday lends the joke even more credence.
And hey, each Footy-emblazoned shirt purchased is an $18 donation to charity. That’s pretty wicked.
Soccer City SD has a long road to go in order to attain franchise rights, but they have an ambitious plan for two proposed shared-use stadiums and an entertainment district and have clearly gotten the community involved enough for MLS to seriously consider them. That’s pretty good regardless of if you’re sad about Footy or not.
Check out the full video for yourself here:
HOT SPROTS TAKES 