r/USLPRO • u/Relevant_Ninja2251 Orange County SC • 1d ago

League 1 New USL League One Team in Eugene, Oregon, Unveils ‘Sporting Cascades FC’ Name, Crest

https://news.sportslogos.net/2025/08/25/new-usl-league-one-team-in-eugene-oregon-unveils-sporting-cascades-fc-name-crest/soccer/
80 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

26 comments sorted by

10

u/longlostkingdoms Portland Hearts of Pine 1d ago

Yay, another Rocket League-styled team badge in the USL

9

u/noahsmusicthings 1d ago

On one hand, I don't like team names that have the region in them instead of the actual location, and Sporting is a bit of a generic affix.

On the other, I was fully expecting 'Eugene City FC' or 'Central Oregon Soccer Club', so this is better than that I suppose. Badge is cool - simple, stands out, nice blend of colours, doesn't go overboard with the font or number of words. As long as the team's kits are a light colour, it should look great in action

20

u/jcc309 Tampa Bay Sun 1d ago

The badge is a little clip-arty for me and I'm not a fan of team names where you have no idea where the team actually is. The Cascades are huge. This team could be in Washington for all I would know just by the name.

12

u/thisbenzenering Spokane Velocity 1d ago

Funny enough, Eugene isn't in the Cascades either! The Cascade Range basically ends on the east side of I5 and Eugene is a bit off to the west of I5.

But I'm thinking they were thinking they represent Oregon as a whole and much of the state is in that mountain range.... along with California, Washington and BC.

5

u/duckfan541o 1d ago

Yes, technically Eugene is not 10,000 feet up in the Cascade Mountain range, but we are a 20 minute drive from the mountains. Plus we are in the Cascadia region and part of the Cascadia Subduction Zone…

According to management, USL didn’t want “Eugene” in the team name.

5

u/thisbenzenering Spokane Velocity 1d ago

thanks, I'm just poking fun. glad to have a fan from Oregon to back and forth with 🤙

Boise can be like Vancouver in our domination of USL1

3

u/DemonicBison Milwaulkee Pro Soccer 1d ago

Why is soccer a dirty word?

2

u/BigWillyStyleX 14h ago

Cascades Soccer Club would’ve been an amazing name. Literally could not have come up with anything worse than this.

1

u/spreadred North Carolina FC 22h ago

In what sense? Part of a team's name or in general conversation? Looking above at flair, it seems Pittsburgh Riverhounds don't think it's a dirty word. For team names, in general, I'd prefer something that evokes the uniqueness of the area it serves and its residents; something that lends itself to good logo, merch and mascot opportunities versus the generic "football" or "soccer" club

2

u/BigWillyStyleX 14h ago

I don’t understand any of these comments. The problem with this name is having “Sporting” and “FC” together. You can’t do a Portugal and an English thing together for no reason. That makes it possibly the worst club name of all time. This is so much worse than Sporting KC. Literally anything would’ve been better.

4

u/PaddyMayonaise North Carolina FC 1d ago

lol this is a funny one

“FC Cascades” or “Sporting Cascades” is a cool name.

But where the fuck are the cascades? Aren’t they in Washington and Canada?

This is like having a team Albuquerque call themselves the “Rockies” because they’re close to the Rockies. No one thinks of ABQ as “the Rockies” tho.

No one thinks of Eugene or Oregon as the cascades.

Yea, like, there’s a mountain in the background.

But this is what people think when they think of the Cascades.

Also the logo needs work but it’s not bad, just simple

All of this said, I’m glad they at least tried to give themselves a cool name. I hate that “my” team is “North Carolina FC” lol, very uninspiring. I just never in a million years would think that a team called the “Cascades” is in Eugene, Oregon

4

u/therealflyingtoastr Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC 1d ago

No one thinks of Eugene or Oregon as the cascades.

As someone who lives in Oregon, we absolutely consider the Cascades as part of the state. The interactions between the costal range and the Cascades is pretty core to the geography (and as a result the demographics and culture) of the entire region.

But not really Eugene.

2

u/PaddyMayonaise North Carolina FC 1d ago

I guess I’m giving a very outsider perspective. Oregon is actually a pretty neat state, much more diverse geographically than anyone gives it credit for.

But when I think of Oregon I can’t help but think of this lol

3

u/Pristine7531 1d ago

Any chance NCFC will eventually change the name of the club to something more inspiring? You would think NCFC would sell a LOT more merch if it was like "Hearts of Pine" or somesuch?

3

u/spreadred North Carolina FC 22h ago

I made a similar observation in another thread. What even is our mascot? The Courage have that lion, but we got, nothing that I'm aware.

1

u/PaddyMayonaise North Carolina FC 1d ago

If I had it my way they would rebrand to Oak City FC and change their colors to Green, Blue, and Yellow.

Raleigh is known as the “City of Oaks” and Cary’s official colors are Green, Blue, and Yellow.

Connect to both the overall greater Raleigh area but connect with the host town by using its colors which happen to nicely fit with the colors of an oak tree.

Right now their branding is “N O R T H C A R O L I N A” with red white and blue coloring. which is insanely bland for a state as cool, geographically diverse, and historically rich as NC.

2

u/Pristine7531 1d ago

Love those ideas! I see that NCFC attendance has been about 2000-2500, and which is third worst in the USLC. The ownership is try harder to drum up interest and attendance?

3

u/PaddyMayonaise North Carolina FC 1d ago

I can’t answer, I simply don’t know enough. But I can say I see absolutely zero adversing for the team, I only started getting social media ads after I already looked them up on social media lol.

It’s a tough area. Everything here is UNC, Duke, and NC State. The soccer teams for these schools all average 8k+ in attendance, and the professional women’s team does well, so it’s not like there isn’t an appetite for soccer in the area

It sounds weak, but if the stands the stadium were covered attendance would probably be better lol

1

u/Pristine7531 1d ago

Why can't NCFC do deals with all those schools, like scrimmages/friendlies, training and trial opportunities, all to harness all those college student interest and energy to ultimately get them to a NCFC game? You would think the college talent pool is also vast to get interns who can do the NCFC social media marketing at scale?

3

u/spreadred North Carolina FC 22h ago

The Courage, however, enjoy much better attendance. I speculated on why this might be in a different thread. Part of it was the competition from other sports, collegiate or Pro. Part had to do with the generally popular nature of women's sports for the past decade plus in the area.

Why can't NCFC do deals with all those schools, like scrimmages/friendlies, training and trial opportunities, all to harness all those college student interest and energy to ultimately get them to a NCFC game? You would think the college talent pool is also vast to get interns who can do the NCFC social media marketing at scale?

That's a great idea. But with college sports now being able to pay their student athletes directly, maybe that would discourage such a partnership or potential intern program?

2

u/Pristine7531 20h ago

Could you share the link to the thread in which you had commented/speculated? I'd love to read it!

Only the athletes get paid, but there are vast worlds of students who aspire to future careers in sports adjacent endeavors. Getting the USLC experience in their resume/LinkedIn in return for unpaid (or gifted NCFC sportwear or swag) internship work would supercharge their next chapters after graduation!

3

u/spreadred North Carolina FC 20h ago

Took way more effort than I expected to track it down. Even though I've been a member of Reddit for a long time, I'm still a newb when it comes to using it.

Anyway, here is the thread I commented in; just a more wordy version of the summary I gave above, probably.

https://www.reddit.com/r/USLPRO/comments/1mri12e/comment/n93seyy/?context=3&utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

1

u/Pristine7531 16h ago

Thanks! That was a good read! A factor not yet articulated for more local fans coming out for the women's side, is that the women's side is comprised mostly of American-born and raised women --kind of like your next door neighbors or as American as apple pie (no accents, fully integrated culturally). In contrast, the men's side is still heavily international, with many players who probably don't interview well or for whom English is not smoothly fluent....?