Yesterday afternoon, I participated in a focus group with D.C. United staff, including the COO, director of marketing, director of ticket sales, and other staff. While the main point was for the fans to provide feedback to the club, the staff also provided a lot of insight into decisions and operations. I'm unable to share everything that I learned, but I am going to focus this post on a topic that we have discussed on several occasions over the past year: refreshing the club's brand.

There have been a lot of rumors on this front, some more accurate than others. Overall, this is truly more of a refresh than a re-brand. I'll begin with what is not changing:

The name. Not many rumors mentioned the possibility of a name change, but I still wanted to confirm that the name will not change. They did mention an interesting conclusion from their market research. Every other area sports team uses "Washington" in their name, but "Washington" evokes thoughts of politics and discord. "D.C." on the other hands evokes the culture of the city. They feel they have the perfect name and have no desire to change it. I also want to note that they fought hard against allowing other teams to use the name "United," but the league didn't see things their way, choosing to follow the EPL precedent of multiple teams with "United." The colors. Black and red are here to stay. We did ask about the colors for the new LA team, and they confirmed that nothing is final there yet as far as they know. They were disappointed in their announcement. Hopefully they have better luck than they did in the "United" battle.

That covers what is staying the same. The only thing I know that is changing is the badge. I should note that, while they originally hadn't planned to show us the new badge, Tom Hunt went down to his office and brought back several design boards and the finished badge at our request. We were far from the first group to see it, as he informed us that multiple focus groups of fans along with the league office have already seen it (he said about 1,000 people have seen it, with about 90% positive reception -- better than they were expecting). They expect to announce the new badge to the public in November.

Since the badge design is final and the official release is not too far away, I don't want to go into great detail of the design in a public forum. I do, however, want to alleviate some fears.

Rumors about incorporating more of the "District" in the badge are true, in both subtle and obvious ways. The more obvious addition is the incorporation of the District's flag (or at least elements of it) within the shield. The more subtle change has to do with the shape of the shield, which is now modeled after the Washington family crest, which had been mentioned in earlier rumors. While I am a fan of the current badge's shape, the new badge takes on an arguably more traditional shape, while incorporating new elements to give it a more modern feel, matching the club's goal of honoring tradition while being forward-looking.

The badge was designed by a firm based in SoHo, which has previously worked with teams such as Liverpool. I don't believe this is the same designer referenced in a previous post: A Refreshed D.C. United Badge For Your Examination. That design is more of a "tweak" than a "refresh." One similarity to it is the bolder font, which is a new, hand-drawn font by the designer. This aspect received vocal, unanimous approval from everyone present. It's much easier to read, especially at a distance.

The one change that still needs to grow on me (but I'm confident it will once I see it on the new home kits), is the replacement of the red background with a black one. The club seemed to have been hinting at this over the past year, with designs such as this shirt and the badge on this year's away jersey. Ultimately, not everyone will love the new design, but that is to be expected with almost any change, especially among a fanbase that values tradition; however, as far as change goes, there's no reason to fear the outcome of this refresh.

Other Tidbits from the Focus Group

The club has not yet selected an architect for the new stadium. They will be inviting proposals from at least three firms, including Populous. If ready, the club will open the new stadium during the 2017 season, even if it's only for one game. The club currently does not have a full-time PR person on staff. This will change next year, and we can expect to see greater off-season promotion. The also recently hired a new director of marketing (from the Washington Nationals), and he led much of the focus group. (Ed. note: United emailed B&RU to tell us they have two full-time PR on staff.)



If you have any questions for me, post them in the comments, and I will do my best to answer them publicly when I can.