The Name Game Again

The word on the street is that the expansion club in Toronto is going to be called Inter Toronto. Seeing as how this is just a leak, and based on things like domain registrations, I'm not convinced it's the full story.

On the one hand, it's no surprise that MLS may be pushing for yet another Euro-poseur team name after the silliness of FC Dallas, Real Salt Lake and the brief debacle that was Houston 1836. But if the full legal name of the team is, in fact, Inter Toronto FC, the most egregious error is that they went for surface trappings instead of creating a real, legitimate name that could be shortened to the one they want anyway. Which is the other hand I'm holding out for between the rumor and the press release.

Toronto would be the first team outside of the USA in MLS. So "International" certainly does apply. I'll even concede the "Football Club" hack that so emphatically doesn't work in Dallas, because I'm not sure anyone will be confused with the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League. That gives you the proper name "International Football Club of Toronto," and at the end of the day, isn't that more similar to the true origin of Inter Milan anyway?

This is what makes me crazy about MLS sometimes. They seem to gravitate towards the shallow, at the expense of not quite credibility, but substance.