Is The Heritage Cup Becoming Irrelevant? Or Was It Ever Relevant?
Quake, Rattle and Goal takes a look at the Heritage Cup, which is designed to celebrate teams that draw their lineage from the NASL. The Earthquakes won it in Year 1, the Sounders won it in Year 2 and in Year 3 we need to ask if it matters at all? Part of the problem is that it overlaps heavily with the Cascadia Cup and the Whitecaps and Timbers supporters have refused to sign on.
The argument seems to be that this was never about forming a rivalry, but just about bringing attention to the defunct league. But is a trophy really necessary for that? The idea of celebrating the NASL is great, but trading around a trophy doesn't seem to be necessary.
about 1 year ago
Jeremiah Oshan
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No offense to SJ
but I never really cared about it much and still don’t.
Scoreboards, not billboards.
Regular season, not pre-season.
Define relevant
I find it amusing that Vancouver and Portland aren’t going to participate it the Heritage Cup. Really? You’re going to withdraw from the games? A group of fans (San Jose) seem to have invented it. It’s kind of a contrivance isn’t it? If the soccer community of the Puget Sound Region hadn’t overwhelmingly voted to include Sounders in the team name, we would have had Raincloud United, or Seattle Wednesday or some lame thing. San Jose would have been left with a one team competition.
We could have a Teams with Red Kits Cup, or Teams with Pretentious Euro Sounding Names Cup. Relevance is in the eye of the beholder, or more accurately the ticket buying public.
The Heritage Cup (Is there an actual cup?) would be pretty far down the list of competitions that the coaches tailor a plan for. They are MLS Season games with the weight that comes with them. That goes for the Cascadia Cup. The difference is, all the fans of the Cascadia teams seem to give a rip.
Will the (allegedly) someday to be Cosmos want to play the Heritage Cup game? Will there someday be Rowdies, Sockers, and Teamen?
Will the Heritage Cup fill everyone with such envy that the Galaxy will change their name to Aztecs so they can get in on it? I’d doubt it. But as far as hating it… having a make-believe sub competition seems harmless enough. It might give the media something to talk about, besides not understanding soccer.
My understanding is that it was created by Sounders fans, actually
Editor/writer at Sounder at Heart, North American soccer editor SB Nation and of course follow me on Twitter
by Jeremiah Oshan on Apr 2, 2011 6:25 PM PDT up reply actions
According to Wikipedia
which of course is not the definitive end say of anything. It says a Earthquake fan conceived of the idea. Heritage Cup
There is information about its creation
on the GoalSeattle forums. I remember it being discussed there.
also the team would have been seattle FC
they included sounders because of overwhelming write in votes, but FC was the option that was winning
A sky of blue, a sea of green...(or claret)
History matters
While the Heritage Cup may be contrived, I think it’s a great idea. Not because we have a great rivalry with the ‘Quakes, but because history is meaningful, and in a league that was created by FIFA fiat I think it’s worthwhile to find the things that take the game beyond the game. (See Dave Clark’s post on bowling…)
Meanwhile, it’s not San Jose’s fault that they don’t have the Cascadia rivalry to look forward to. The fact that their fans are invested enough in their team to come up with the idea of the Heritage Cup is laudable. And that they would reach out to their northern mates only makes sense? Can we offer them our respect, at least?
Someone on the Earthquakes board suggested throwback jersey night. How cool would that be? (Maybe not every year…) Would that make the Cup more interesting to folks? If so, why?
by asimismo on Apr 2, 2011 11:01 PM PDT up reply actions 1 recs
I really like the throwback jersey idea
but there will be some sponsorship issues. Sponsors are spending big $$ for their name to be where team name/logo used to be.
I wouldn’t have been disappointed if the Sounders had retained the original colors. Same with the Quakes. Portland seems to have retained the most of the original culture in their franchise. They probably hate the H.C. because it wasn’t their idea.
The whole league could pay tribute the the NASL sometime, by having all the teams wear NASL kits from their city or the closest one to them The fans could dress like the Eighties…
How is the Heritage Cup any more/less make believe than any other supporters cup?
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart
True enough.
My point is if the fans don’t buy into it, it means nothing. There will be some years for some teams that that is all they have to cheer about.
I’m just saying that if we, the fans hadn’t rescued the team from the idiotic names they were looking at, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.
The Cascadia cup means nothing to anyone outside of our region, but it’s a blood feud, so there is relevance.
It’s like finding shapes in the clouds. We see what we see, but in the end they are still just clouds.
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