One More Team Name Eliminated

Not too much suspense or surprise in this week’s eliminated name in Chicago WPS’ Name the Team Sweepstakes. We’ve reduced the field to eight by taking out Chicago Towers, which maintained its last place standing since Progress was eliminated March 10th. The name was in honor of Chicago’s famous skyscrapers including the nation’s tallest building, the Sears Tower.

Towers suffered a bit from political incorrectness. The same concern that prevented me from headlining this post “Towers Fall” or “Towers Dropped” was brought up as a concern by most people who even bothered to comment on the name. The fear, of course, is that the name could lead to insensitive references to New York City’s destroyed World Trade Center twin towers in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. As an aside, the 9/11 attacks are occasionally brought up as a reason WUSA failed. The argument is that first year sponsor renewals and second year new sponsorships were shelved by companies fearful of a major economic downturn after the attacks. 9/11 may have contributed to WUSA’s economic struggles, but i personally feel the overspending, lack of ownership engagement and de minimus outreach were the real culprits.

The Wind, Blues, 1871 and Riot all made gains on the first place Red Stars who continue to maintain the lead in the popular vote of this advisory referendum. We’ll eliminate one name each of the next five Mondays and the votes will be used to influence, but not make the decision for the name of the team.

Chicago Red Stars numerical lead shrunk from 170 to 44 points and its percentage lead dropped from 3.4% to 0.8%. Riot, Blues and 1871 remain in double digit percentages followed by Massacre and Union. Stinking Onions, the English translation for the Potawatomi "Checagou" now holds on to the last of eight remaining names in the popular votes. Come on Stinking Onions fans. NOW is the time your support is needed. Vote early, vote often! It’s the Chicago way!

With balloting in the third of the eight stages, fans are welcome to vote again here. The Sweepstakes continue through May 16th. One lucky winner will be chosen at random to receive more than $2,500 in cash and prizes including inaugural season tickets and suite tickets to our first game at Toyota Park. Ten runners up will receive two tickets to our inaugural home game.

Below are the current and last week standings that include votes from paper ballots distributed at more than 100 locations in the area including all 44 AthletiCo Rehabilitation, Fitness and Performance Centers and many area indoor soccer facilities and soccer retail stores. Comment below if you have a high traffic area that would be good to display the counter card/ballot box with tear off ballots/sweepstakes entry blanks and we’ll mail or drop off a box. Fans who voted for Progress and Towers before, may want to vote again and choose a replacement for their selections from the remaining options:

Cumulative Voting:

Red Stars...........1179..........19.6%
Wind................1135..........18.8%
Riot.................864..........14.3%
Blues................811..........13.5%
1871.................696..........11.6%
Massacre.............460...........7.6%
Union................406...........6.7%
Stinking Onions......291...........4.8%
Towers...............183...........3.0% (Eliminated March 17)
Progress (Eliminated March 10)

Week of 3/10 - 3/17

Wind................246..........23.1%
Blues...............185..........17.4%
1871................157..........14.8%
Riot................155..........14.6%
Red Stars...........120..........11.3%
Union................67...........6.3%
Stinking Onions......51...........4.8%
Massacre.............48...........4.5%
Towers...............34...........3.2% (Eliminated March 17)
Progress (Elimintaed March 10)

In order to brand the team with a connection to the City of Chicago, we nominated ten names that have direct historical connections to Chicago. The eight remaining nominated names and their historical connection to Chicago are here.

Like “Towers” a few of the eight remaining names could also be perceived as being politically incorrect or at least politically charged. In fact, I’ve received criticisms of every name and comments criticizing eight of the original ten suggestions due to some people feeling that the names are offensive, insensitive or politically incorrect in some fashion. Care to guess which names have been causes for complaints? Any guesses which two have escaped the pc complaints (so far)? Feel free to comment below.