San Diego NASL team officially unveils 1904 FC name and crest

We haven’t heard much from the Southern California 2018 NASL expansion teams in recent weeks due to some external factors, but the new team scheduled to begin play in San Diego next year revealed their brand on Wednesday: 1904 FC.

If you, like me, believed that that year was chosen for some historical reason, nope. I looked up San Diego history and the year 1904 and only notable hit I found in a cursory search was the beginning of the United States Navy’s presence in the city, which is notable but maybe not the stuff soccer team names are made of.

Instead, the team explained their name in the following way:

A fellow supporter and most importantly, a San Diegan, suggested 1904, deriving from S, the 19th letter of the alphabet, paired with D, the 4th letter, making 1904 an iconic name for San Diego soccer.

I mean, without context that’s fine, and doing something different in naming a new team is not a bad thing. But when I think of “groups that use letter-number exchange systems” I think of a hate group whose predecessors were rightly defeated in World War II. Not a great connotation.

Aside from that, the name is fine, and the detail of the 9 looking like an S and the 0 looking like a D in the crest is a nice touch. The telescope in the background of the crest is a little retro, but it gives off an old NASL vibe so that’s kind of nice. The colors for the team will be black and white and guess what? Hardly any teams use those perfectly good colors exclusively together.

So, now the two Southern California expansion teams have a name and crest. Next up? We don’t know, but we’ll keep you posted.

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