A-League - Cairns Flying Foxes

So if you didn't know, I posted a poll trying to figure out team names for the teams. I got a lot of great responses, and the majority of the teams were spun off from this poll. One I really liked were the Cairns Taipans. The Taipan is the 3rd most venomous snake in the world, and native to the Northeastern city of Cairns. The logo is the shape of the head, and forms the snake with the team name over it. I went with 3 shades of brown to match the colors of the snakes. Here it is.

But my friend Lachlan Sands, who is an Australian, pointed out the team already exists. The Cairns Taipans are a team i the Australian basketball team. So it was back to square one. Then @HockeyBrunch suggested the name "Flying Foxes". The Flying Fox is a nickname for a massive bat that he saw fly in bunches over the mango trees when he was in Cairns. I looked it up and it'd be so unique I had to do it.

I made a simple crest with a bat silhouette, which is different from Batman. I made the orange and white pop as much as I could. The kits are Under Armour, and I recolored the ones I made for the Taipans. I did all black for the home, then all mango for the clash because it'd be pretty unique color wise.

A-League - Tasmania United

The A-League concepts finished last night, and I heard the most about how dumb I am for not putting a team in Tasmania. Well here is that team.

Even though there is a team called Tasmania United, this is completely done from scratch. First, I saw the colors of the state are green red and yellow. I thought of an idea for a Barcelona striped look using green instead of blue. So I went from there. The crest shape is pretty similar to the shape of Tasmania. It features a banner across it, and an updated lion from the state flag.

The kits, like I said before, are inspired by Barcelona. I like how the yellow pops off the two stripes a lot, and I feel like it's unique to any colored stripes I've ever done before. I threw in a little shading in the red to make it a little less boring. The clash clashes with the rest with a nice blue-aqua color.

A-League - North Queensland Fury

I'm giving this team a second chance! The team from Townsville played in the A-League from 2008-11 before they folded due to financial struggles. A team formed after they folded, and they currently play in the lower levels as the Northern Fury. Originally I as gonna use the winged ball logo they had before in some way, but the more I worked with it, the more I realized how much it sucked. So I went in a new direction. I decided on a kelly green and dark green for the team since they used a weird lime green gradient before they folded. It's probably the reason they folded. I did a crest shape and really really played with it. I used the Colorado Springs' USL logo as inspiration. I just tried my best to make it look furious with tapered stripes.

The kits are a green version of the USMNT's bomb pop kits. Nike has the template in their catalog, and I miss the USA wearing them. The clash just has some stripes that get darker and darker as it goes down.

And since it's the last of the 14 A-League teams, here is all the logos together!

A-League - AFC Geelong

For the only team not from Melbourne in Victoria, I was told that tying the Aussie Rules team the Geelong Cats would be my best bet. They're known for their blue hoops, so I wanted to carry that over. Think of blue and white stripes as the Aussie version of the Pittsburgh teams' yellow and black. The AFL team uses a darker blue, but there was too much navy by the time I did it. So I wanted to expand the palette of the league a little.

I really couldn't think of an actual brand, so I needed to be somewhat generic for the logo. I did a crest with hoops, a ball at the top of it like the Swedish logo. I could only fit the initials and year on the crest because I didn't want a banner. According to Wikipedia, "Geelong was named in 1827, with the name derived from the local Wathaurong Aboriginal name for the region, Jillong, thought to mean "land" or "cliffs"" So I threw in some boomerangs. because it needed something I thought.

A-League - Canberra United

I think this may be my favorite concept I've done. Canberra is the best candidate to get an expansion team. I'm basing that off of being a pretty large city without a team. Currently, the women's league in Australia is the W-League. They teams in that league have the same names as their male counterparts, EXCEPT Canberra United. Their logo is okay, it looks like it fits into the rest of the current A-League. So I wanted to make it my own. I made a shield, and decided on a green since the team hasn't. I love dark cool grey as a color, and chose it over black. These colors are really unique in sports individually and together. I brought over the Capitol Building in the current logo, and simplified it. Through on words, and called it a day.

The kits are pretty basic. I did monochrome green for the home. Completely unique to everything else in the league. The clash is white and grey. I accented it a little with green. I wanted to try a different stripe than normal, instead of up and down, or left and right, I made it cut diagonally from the neck hole. Hire me Nike.

Major League Cricket

In an alternate universe, the Beatles' British Invasion left an even bigger footprint on American Culture. The Beatles performed at Shea Stadium in August of 1965. The following off season, 6 teams with stadiums with big, circular, cookie cutter stadiums decided to switch to a more proper sport. The teams formed Major League Cricket. Those teams were the Mets, Athletics, Orioles, Cardinals, Braves, and Astros. The teams invented the Twenty20 version cricket to appeal to the American spectators. Each October, the teams would compete for the Ashes Series.

The game began growing, and interest sparked in other Major League cities. Teams began defecting to MLC when they opened their big stadiums, splitting them with the NFL team in the same city. Soon following, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Philadelphia switched in time for the 1970 and 1971 season.

Major League Cricket started to expand in the next 15 years. The Seattle Mariners Cricket Club, and the Expos de Montréal du cricket came into the league at 1976. The Minnesota Twins also joined in 1982. The history of these teams evolved exactly like the MLB counterparts of this universe, except the stadiums. Most teams stayed in their circular cookie cutters. The Expos moved to RFK Stadium and became the Nationals in 2005.

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I got into cricket during this Cricket World Cup. I realized how simple the rules were when I compared them to baseball. There's no major cricket league in this country, and thought that I could stir up the most interest by putting MLB logos on my template, which I made today. I thought that choosing the teams with big circular stadiums would be a good start. I'll tell you that this was not my most creative series concept wise, but I had fun doing it. Typically, cricket uniforms are a polo with pants. Each team in a league has a different color uniform, so no matter who you play, you wear your primary jersey. I kept that in mind, and tried my best to diferentiate.

Here is my new svg cricket template

A-League - Auckland City

So for the first of the expansion teams to the A-League, I chose a team that already exists. Auckland City is a powerhouse in the Oceania region. The issue is that since New Zealand is in Oceania confederation, and Australia is in the Asian, they aren't eligible for the same things. BUT, that isn't my problem because Auckland is huge, and Wellington has a team too.

Auckland's logo is a mess right now. There's stripes, initials, an anchor, a body of water, a mountain, an a landmark. I just dropped it all for an anchor. I used the logo as the basis for this, but ultimately made my own. I did a bevel effect, and a ribbon behind the crest because it felt like it needed something else.

The jerseys are pretty simple. I eliminated some colors and made them duel blues. I used some designs from my US Soccer 2030 project I liked, recolored to fit the Kiwis.

A-League - Western Sydney Wanderers

This team has the perfect brand. I love the logo, and I love the hoops. 

Both are the same, Mark from Expand the A-League is a WSW fan, and he suggested black shorts for the home kits, but I just couldn't do it. The clash is a white and grey version of the home. This was a lay up, and I promise it's a lot more creative the rest of the way.

A-League - Wellington Phoenix

This is one team I couldn't wait to get my hands on. The first New Zealand team has a decent name, but a bad logo. It has a lot of banners, a flame, a ball, a shield, and a poorly drawn bird. I wanted to streamline all of those. I made an abstract bird over a flame and striped shield. Then I ran Wellington over the crest. I felt like since the Phoenix was already part of the crest, then I didn't need to say it again.

The yellow and black stripes return because it's a really nice identity. The clash is very different from the home, but still carries the same idea. This time, white and yellow.

A-League - Sydney FC

Sydney FC's logo was a lost cause. Non-symmetrical with gradients, and a bad font. I decided to redo it completely, and go for a simplistic look that would stand out as the Premier team of the league. I went with the LA Galaxy as my main inspiration. The crest shape wasn't supposed to be as close as it was, but I wanted something that was representative without looking like a postcard. The Sky Blues are called that because they hold a light blue monopoly. On the crest, I only included navy to darken it a little. The 7 sided star moves up to the position of the focal point.

The kits were meant to fall into the brand. Head to toe light blue for the home uniforms with the classic Adidas stripes. The orange that got bumped off the identity shows up on the clash jersey.

A-League - Perth Glory

I made sure the Glory hold a monopoly on purple in this league. Their current logo is really a mess. There is gradient, and an off centered soccer ball with a burst. The idea is there, but it needs to be cleaned up. I wanted a logo with presence and color. I used the Fox Sports font that Conrad posted, paired with a banner crest, a cue from Toronto FC, and the soccer ball I made for my last series.

The home kit is really similar to the current look. Purple with sublimated darker stripes on the front and back. I never do Macron concepts, so I played with some cuts and made my own. I used the cut as the basis for my clash jersey, Sort of a Bomb Pop USA jersey with white and orange.

A-League - Newcastle United Jets

Finally! A concept with more changes than the last few! For Newcastle, I felt like they needed an update on their crest. This one is similar to the one form my last series, but I updated it slightly. I kept it true to the current logo, but squared off some corners, fixed the font, and changed the gold color.

The kits aren't much different. A typical blue and red Barcelona look they have now. The clash are an homage to the Premier League side they share a name with.

A-League - Melbourne Victory

The Victory have a pretty good brand, but their logo could use a clean up. That's what I tried to do here. I got rid of the grey that borders the word Victory, and the side white. I also mmade the blue darker. I actually didn't change the logo from my last series

The kits are pretty simple. I brought the chevron from the crest onto the chest with Adidas striping. The clash is supposed to be real bright and different, so I used a highlighter color.

A-League - Melbourne City

The newest brand in the current A-League! Manchester City bought the Melbourne Heart(which I would much rather do a concept for) before this season. I didn't know how much I could change. I kept the logo, with the biggest change being replacing navy with black(there's a lot of blue in this league, so this helps). Sydney FC said they didn't want the new team to wear light blue, so City settled on a jersey that looked like a clash jersey for their parent club, and I didn't change it. The clash is a throwback to the Heart's classic Southampton looking kits. Turns out, that's what the team uses now. This seemed like a real easy concept, and I liked the brand enough to see it not change.

A-League - Central Coast Mariners

I did Central Coast in my last attempt, but wanted to change a lot. I did a circular logo with an anchor. It was okay, but maybe a little boring. I ended up just breaking up the current crest. Right now, it's the New York Cosmos esque wave with the words above it. It doesn't look like one, if you know what I mean. I wanted to enclose it. I put a new ball in the middle of the wave, and ran the words around it.

I kept it Kappa for this one, unlike Adelaide. Currently they just have blue side panels, so I made it more of an Ajax look. Yellow is pretty rare in the A-League system I've done, so this would stand out. The clash is a white top with a band across the chest, and the addition of light blue pants for some color.

A-League - Brisbane Roar

I decided to go in alphabetical order, but do the existing teams first. I never did the Roar on my last attempt. They had a logo that looked like it belong to a lacrosse team, and not a soccer club. Going into this year, they intoduced a new logo and a kick ass clean look. I piggy-backed off this idea because I love clean looks. I kept the logo because there's nothing I could do to make it any better.  Paired with Umbro, this should bethe classiest look I do. They have a orange set and a white set. I mixed both. I did the same variation of colors that I used on my Houston Dynamo concept from the 2030 series. The black really pops with the white and the limited orange. 

A-League - Adelaide United

This was the first concept I did, and the first one I posted. Even though I'll claim that it was alphabetical. Originally in the last A-League series, I just somewhat updated their current logo,and made the kits have red/yellow/blue hoops just like the Adelaide Crows Aussie Rules team. The folks over on the Expand the A-League facebook page let me know that this team was known as "The Reds". The crest is simple with a diagonal slant of the colors from the current logo. I wanted simple and classic looking. One that could last for a while, or that Adelaide could pay me for.

The kits are all red with a sash that matches the crest. I put it on an Adidas kit and cleaned it up. The clash is a simple white jersey with blue trim. The red pants carried over to give The Reds some color.

A-League

The 2015 Creamer Awards were announced last week. I went oh-fer but I know that I didn't do my best. I was too confident and lazy about the concept series. I want to come out swinging because I have great ideas, but need to commit myself. Also, ultimately, keep it simple. Less long back story for people to read through. I waited to finish my part of the WIHF project to finally unwrap this! 

A few years ago, I did a few A-League concepts. They were okay. I used my soccer template at the time, but was confined by the template cuts. I was too reliant on them, so I decided to tear up my yakball template to make a new easy to change soccer template. Since I made it, I've done probably 200 concepts on it. I love it. That is why I'm releasing my soccer template. So many people have messaged me wanting it that I got annoyed sending out individual emails. Included is 6 different jersey cuts, across all brands. Have fun mixing and matching.

Download my svg soccer template here

So I felt like I left a lot on the table with my A-League concepts. I had my folder looking at me every time I went to my 2030, CONCACAF, or Tumblr Premier League folder. I felt like I needed to redeem myself. I forget how exactly I stumbled upon the league itself again. They follow me on twitter, but that's not it. It may be because the Cricket World Cup is going on down under, but all that happened was me learning cricket and watching highlights non-stop before they deleted the YouTube channel I did that on.

But I reached out to a group called Expand the A-League. Their goal is to try and push the soccer officials of Australia to expand the top domestic league to more than 10 teams, due to the handful of cities that could support a team. They got to me during the last round of concepts, and really liked my work. I tweeted at them saying that I may do A-League concepts down the line to redeem myself. I began talking to Mark, the author, and next thing I knew I was 3 or 4 concepts in. My idea was a smaller, Australian version of my US Soccer 2030. But much simpler. Just have like, 2 leagues of 14 teams. Hypothetical promotion/relegation mixing A-League teams, existing teams, former teams, and new teams made from scratch. Mark outlined me teams that would be great and where they could go in terms of the league landscape.

My brand is a simple shield with the Southern Cross on it with shades of yellow and green to match the Socceroos. Other brands include the Westfield FFA Cup, the domestic cup between both leagues. The State Cup which I'll explain later as the Australian-only domestic competition. Then the Kiwi Cup, which is the tournament between the 3 teams from New Zealand.

So let me say, thank you for hanging in there through the fluff that normally comes with this stuff. I'm really proud of everything so far, and getting pretty warm reviews on the concepts posted to Expand the A-League.

One last thing, I would really really REALLY love for someone to make a Football Manager mod of this league. Preferably 2014, but I just want to share this series with people because the guy who made the US Soccer 2030 mod really did great, and it's so fun. I would help whoever wants to do help me out immensely. Logos, colors, spreadsheets. Just let me know.

Super 10 - Slovan Bratislava

For my last concept of the Super 10, it's Slovan Bratislava. I wanted to spread out the teams I did, and this one was chosen due to them moving from the KHL back to the Slovakian league. I wanted a modern look with the cut I had. I did angled stripes, that somewhat carried over to the torso. I cleaned up the penguin looking logo a lot to a more eagle looking eagle. 

Super 10 - CSKA Moscow

For the Russian champs, I wanted to go classic. The team was formed by the army of the USSR back in the communist days, so the red jersey for the red army was an easy choice. I used some former jerseys as the basis for this, and wanted to give them a look that could easily mingle with the likes of the Habs and Bruins.

Super 10 - Geneve Servette

For this Swiss team, I took some libertywith the design. Right now, they have a dark red and yellow look. I love Mississippi State's color scheme, and I thought this would be a cool scheme to change to. I wanted somewhat modern with classic striping. I don't like hem striping sometimes because it makes the torso seem longer, just something I picked upin my designing travels. The logo is cleaned up a little with the color scheme in mind.

Super 10 - Benzina Litinov

Believe it or not, I'm not big on Czech hockey. We were looking at teams, and I saw this logo for Litinov, and thought it was the cleanest/most salvagable. I began creating this concept and it ended up looking like the Bruins. Dylan pointed this out, so I changed the road uniform to more of a throwback Penguins jersey. I thought these colors carried this concept a lot.

Super 10 - Vaxjo Lakers

I chose this team because I loved thier logo, and colors. I took the words off the crest and moved everything up. I wanted to limit the navy on the jersey, but offset it by making all the safety gear navy. I went really simple on the jersey because I wanted classy with cool colors.

WIHF - Super 10

The Olympic break was well needed for some, and upped the levels of others. This would be the last time the international teams played until the end of June. Until then, the players main focus was getting to the Super 10. But first, they had to win their leagues. In the leagues with under 16 teams, the best 4 teams qualify for the playoffs. In leagues with more than that, the best 8 qualified. This assured only teams that deserve it advanced. The playoffs started the first week of April, and ran through the 2nd week of May. The series are best of 7. Here is how each team qualified.

Super 10 bid - Chicago Blackhawks

The cities that were considered to host the first Super 10 were chosen from the previous year's champions. Since the NHL was the highest of the league coefficients, the Hawks were chosen to host the first tournament. They were eliminated in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs by the Colorado Avalanche.

KHL bid - CSKA Moscow

The Red Army team is the the most storied hockey team in Russia. It was fitting that they were the first team to represent Russia in the original world tournament. Moscow ran to the finals beating Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod, Sochi, and Salavat Yulaev Ufa.

NHL bid - Seattle Sea Lions

The expansion team from 2018 mesmerized the Cascadia crowd. Known for their great atmosphere, the team went 3 rounds in the playoffs without losing a home game, beating Minnesota, Colorado, and Tampa Bay in the Stanley Cup finals in 6 games. This was the club's first Stanley Cup.

SHL bid - Vaxjo Lakers

The Lakers finished 4th in the Swedish league after qualifying on the last day of the regular season. They beat Modo that won the league by 16 points in the first round, and then swept HV71 in the championship

Slovak Extraliga bid - HC Slovan Bratislava

The former KHL team was moved back to thier home league, and impressed the Slovak crowd with a new Russian style of play. After a 6 game series against HKm Zvolen, and 5 game series against HK Dukla Trencin, the Eagles get a chance to play in the Super 10.

Canadian Dominion Cup bid - Toronto Maple Leafs

The Leafs lifted their first title since 1967, 73 seasons later. Many Habs fans were quick to note that it still wasn't a Stanley Cup. The Leafs beat the St. John's Ice Caps in 4, then the Winnipeg Jets in 7 to win the Dominion Cup.

DEL bid - Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg

The German club has started a dynasty of German hockey. Grizzly Adams won their 3rd straight title after beating the Hamburg Freezers in 5 games.

Finnish Liiga bid - Jokerit

Another team that graduated from the KHL school, the Helsinki club finished 3rd in the regular season, then had a great run to finals after series wins over Assat and Espoo.

Czech Extraliga bid - HC Benzina Litinov

The Czech club benefited from a bad call in the 7th game of the Czech championship. A Kometa Brno goal was waved off for goalie interference, but the following replays showed that the goalie dove. This inspired Litinov to score 2 in 4 minutes late in the 3rd to lift the trophy, and advance to Chicago.

Alpen Liga bid - Geneva Servette HC

The Alpen league was split into 2 conferences, the Swiss, and Austrian conference(Slovenia and Croatian teams were also in this league). Geneva beat Bern to play another former KHL club in Zagreb, winning in 6 games and moving on to Chicago.

The groups were drawn for the Super 10. The two groups of 5 had round robin play starting around May 20th. The best 2 teams in each group advance to a knockout round against the teams in the other group. Group A was Chicago, Geneva, Vaxjo, CSKA, and Litinov. Group B were Jokerit, Toronto, Wolfsburg, Bratislava, and Seattle. CSKA and Chicago advanced to the knockout round from Group A. Toronto and Bratislava advanced from group B. Toronto faced off against Original 6 rival Chicago, winning 3-2 in 2OT. CSKA beat Bratislava 3-0 to match Toronto in the finals. Toronto went on to win 4-3 after a deflection of  Russian skate. Toronto wins the first Super 10!

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We chose teams that we wanted to make jerseys on, Toronto won the title based on flipping a coin. Please comment on the logos and not the teams.

Chicago

CSKA

Seattle

Vaxjo

Bratislava

Toronto

Grizzly Adams

Jokerit

Litinov

Geneva