All Grown Up: Why NYCFC wants you to call them New York City

The true New Yorker secretly believes that people living anywhere else have to be, in some sense, kidding.

– John Updike

A few days ago, New York City FC changed their URL.

Ever since Alexander Hamilton walked the streets of Manhattan, the web address of the club was nycfc.com. No more. Now it’s newyorkcityfc.com.

The old address still works – type nycfc.com into your browser and the cables and tubes that make up the internet will redirect you to newyorkcityfc.com. But those extra letters are a small but important part of a visual refresh announced by the club.

The update includes a custom font from hotshot design firm Frere-Jones Type that is “inspired by the unique letterforms of the pre-unification New York City Subway,” a bright palette of secondary colors (Excelsior Blue, Neon Yellow, Roosevelt Violet, Copper Green), and new iconography. It also features the declaration that “we now proudly refer to our club as New York City FC.”

As our friends at The Outfield put it:

The franchise mindset

True, the name is and always has been New York City FC. But when the organization was officially launched in May of 2013, it was often referred to as City to bank on the strong identity of parent club Manchester City. These were early days in the City Football Group empire, when it was shaping up to be something like a brand of luxury properties: They were going to bring that Four Seasons/Aman/Mandarin Oriental quality to every club they owned throughout the world.

In 2014, CFG bought Melbourne Heart and renamed them Melbourne City. In 2017, they bought Club Atletico Torque and renamed them Montevideo City Torque. In 2019, they bought Mumbai City. CFG owned City, City, City, and City, and they all played in sky blue and white.

About that kit: Writing in these pages in 2013, Raf Noboa y Rivera said “We’ve all heard and read the critiques. It’s bland; boring; utterly derivative of Manchester City.”

That franchise mindset didn’t sit well with the growing fan base in New York City. Yes, it was fortunate that the CFG pedigree let the club jump to the head of the Major League Soccer line in terms of scouting, signings, and front-office hirings. And the sky blue color scheme is sweet, if we’re being honest. But New Yorkers wanted the club to have their own stuff, and not just the older brother’s hand-me-downs.

And so the City nomenclature faded in favor of NYCFC. It put just enough distance between New York City and CFG to allow for the club here to evolve and find an identity. It worked. New York City now reflects the team’s diverse fans, and the urban environment we call home.

City signed Frank Lampard; NYCFC won the MLS Cup; New York City FC will build a stadium in Queens.

Time to grow up

By the time New York City won the 2021 MLS Cup, the club was comfortably known as NYCFC. That was the name that was used in headlines and in conversation.

But something was lost by marginalizing the “city” in New York City. After all, this is New York City, which comfortably uses the word in its name. Melbourne City and Montevideo City Torque are exercises in branding. New York City is a natural fit.

Besides, other MLS teams were staking out the City name. There was Orlando City SC, which joined the league the same year as New York City. Orlando’s use of “City” feels more aspirational than anything — with due respect to the fine folks who live in Central Florida, Orlando isn’t exactly a city.

Then St. Louis City SC joined last year. They insist on capitalizing “City,” so that it reads “St. Louis CITY SC,” which we refuse to do at Hudson River Blue because we find it suspect. But you have to wonder if St. Louis referring to themselves as City – or CITY – prompted NYCFC to look at what they left behind.

After all, there is really only one city in the United States.

The motivations for reasserting the New York City name are more complex than that. A visual refresh like this one takes time and money to pull off, and it likely didn’t happen because an expansion club in Missouri called itself CITY.

But it might have been one of the reasons for NYCFC to reexamine their relationship with New York City, and with themselves, and own “City.” Maybe their name wasn’t so embarrassing after all.

Youthful rebellion is an important part of life. So is embracing your true nature. It’s all a part of growing up, and becoming what you were meant to be.

You love your parents, you hate your parents, you are your parents: City becomes NYCFC, then becomes New York City FC.

We’re here for it.