KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Let's be honest here. Most professional soccer team logos are, well, fine.
One Knoxville Sporting Club doesn't settle for just fine.
The owners and organizers put in a lot of work and consulted with the experts to come up with a logo, color scheme and overall branding plan that people in Knoxville could get behind.
They did hundreds of surveys, a couple meetings and focus groups, looked around the city itself for inspiration, and then took it all to a guy known for soccer branding.
Matthew Wolff designed the crests and overall branding for professional soccer teams in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and over two dozen other cities.
For Knoxville, this is what he came up with.
"Certainly we're not afraid to lean into kind of the civic pride aspect," said club partner Drew McKenna.
This is the new logo you'll start seeing around town, representing the soccer team but also just Knoxville in general.
"So I actually asked my wife yesterday, you know, if you didn't know anything about soccer, would you buy this hat just because you like Knoxville? And she luckily said yes," said McKenna.
He said the simpler, colorful design was made with a lot of attention to local detail.
Yellow for the Sunsphere, orange for the Vols, a reddish-orange for the bricks of the Old City, and a pearly type of white meant to encompass nature.
"The first blue is the First Horizon Building downtown and then obviously the rivers and mountains are represented by the other blues," said McKenna.
Director of Growth Sam Weisbrod worked for MLS team Chicago Fire for eight years before moving to Knoxville to launch the new minor league team and said the branding and feel of One Knoxville are different in a good way.
"We really want to be at the front of the pack when it comes to being community lead and social impact," he said.
They also hope to look pretty stylish in the process.
"Part of it is just offering folks who are proud of Knoxville an opportunity to support their city," said Mckenna. "Along the way we hope they learn that there's a soccer club that put that logo together and come out for a game and get hooked that way."
The team will play next year, starting with a short May through July season in 2022.
We'll confirm where they're playing soon. The plan in 2023 is to play in the multi-sport stadium proposed for the Old City.
The next task is to hire a coach.
You can check out their website for updates as they're announced.