Home NASL & USL Ottawa Fury Ottawa will stick with Fury name for NASL

Ottawa will stick with Fury name for NASL

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For Ottawa soccer, everything old is new again.

After taking thousands of suggestions from fans through an online contest, the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group decided that the Fury name fit the club just fine.

John Pugh, president of the NASL franchise that will begin league play, announced Tuesday that the name of the new team will be Ottawa Fury FC.

Only the “Football Club” suffix has been added to the name that has been associated with Ottawa soccer at the PDL, youth-league and W-League levels. The Ottawa Fury women are the defending W-League champs.

“It already associates Ottawa, across the United States and Canada, with a winning tradition,” said Pugh live over the air on TEAM 1200 Radio in Ottawa.

In a Feb. 5 interview with The 11 (CLICK HERE), Pugh mentioned several of the fan-suggested names that had been bandied about: Rivermen, Loggers, Ottawa City, Rovers and Rangers.

But he said that the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group, which is also launching a CFL franchise, felt it was important to put “football club” in the Fury name.

“Football is the name of the world’s game and, yes, we’re a football club,” said Pugh.

The next step is a logo. Once again, fans will be part of the process, as they will choose from a series of logos — much like the Atlanta Silverbacks did ahead of the 2013 season. New uniforms and a new website will follow.

NASL commissioner Bill Peterson was on hand, and admitted he was surprised that there were no boos from the Ottawa soccer fans in attendance at the Algonquin College Soccer Complex when he mentioned the name “FC Edmonton” in his speech.

“Gonna work on the rivalry between Ottawa and Edmonton,” he said.

As well, he said that he sees Regina, Quebec City, Calgary and Winnipeg as potential markets in the future. Peterson, who has acted as a consultant for the CFL Blue Bombers before coming to NASL, has been bullish about Calgary and Winnipeg before, but the mention of Regina and Quebec City is new.

Peterson also talked about the team’s split-season strategy, which begins in 2013. The winner of the first half of the season will take on the second-half winner for the Soccer Bowl.

“Playing for a tie is not a good strategy and, ultimately, that’s good for our fans,” said Peterson.

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6 Comments

  1. Mike

    March 10, 2013 at 4:08 pm

    The Fury name was used by the Winnipeg team back in the CSL days. Ottawa is using a quasi-new name I’m afraid. This is the city that also went with Roughriders in the CFL when Saskatchewan had the name. Anyone know of some of the possible names bandied about that were considered?

    • Mike

      March 10, 2013 at 4:12 pm

      Ooops. Re-read the story and answered my own question. 😉

      • Steven Sandor

        March 10, 2013 at 5:28 pm

        To be absolutely technical, Mike, Saskatchewan had the Roughriders, while Ottawa had the Rough Riders. One word vs. two words!

    • Me

      March 22, 2013 at 4:40 pm

      Ottawa had the Rough Riders name before Saskatchewan did!

  2. Dennis

    February 27, 2013 at 6:10 pm

    I live in Ottawa. I’ve never been over the moon about the name and brand of Ottawa Fury, but I appreciate the continuity in this decision. That continuity will hopefully extend throughout the organization’s already-established youth, women’s and PDL structures. NASL expansion really is putting a men’s pro squad on top of a broad and established structure, which is the best possible expansion situation IMO.

    I’d rather they stick with the established name than pick another. I’m not that in favour of most official nicknames, and certainly not in favour of most of the ones bandied about.

    Good choice, given the circumstances.

  3. footy

    February 27, 2013 at 6:03 am

    Generic and weak. Hopefully this doesn’t reflect on the rest of their operations…

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