For any business, the logo is their most identifiable feature, and MLS is no different. The number one soccer league in America is most certainly a business, so the MLS logo has a big job to do.
Since the league began, the MLS logo has gone through a number of variations, although really, we can separate the design into two periods: pre-2014 and post-2014. The 2014 rebrand was a calculated effort to update the league’s image and bring it into the modern day.
In 2024 the league had a record breaking season: almost 12 million people attended MLS games and the average regular season attendance was 23,234. Both are league records and plenty of others were broken the same year, so it’s safe to say the rebrand worked.
I’ll take you through everything to do with the new and old MLS logo here, explaining every aspect and its impact on the league.
The Original Logo
The original logo was launched in 1994, two years before the first season of MLS, and it didn’t even make it to the first game before being changed.
It had a traditional red, white and blue color scheme as most other sports leagues in America, so Major League Baseball and NBA fans would find it familiar. It showed a soccer boot or ‘cleat’ striking an old fashioned football. The letters ‘MLS’ were written underneath with the words ‘Major League Soccer’ underneath that.
MLS was launched as part of the bid to host the 1994 World Cup, so the original MLS logo was designed to directly associate the league with the traditional image of soccer, of football as it was known almost everywhere else in the world. However, they also needed to appeal to an American audience who were unfamiliar with soccer, so it had a dual purpose.
The imagery of the boot striking the football would remain until the 2014 rebrand, but the logo was changed many times before that.
By the time the inaugural MLS season got underway in 1996, the red, white and blue color scheme had been replaced with green, blue and black, showing the colour of the pitch below the cleat and the sky above it. No other changes were made, but this set MLS apart from other sports in America.
This logo lasted until 2000, when seemingly every brand on the planet was updating their logo due to the Y2K effect. The world was entering a new age of digital technology, and brands wanted to be seen as part of that.
MLS updated their original logo, wrapping it in a rectangular box with rounded edges, and making the image more three dimensional with the use of additional splashes of color and shading. The underside of the cleat was changed to grey and the colors themselves were brighter.
In 2008 the words, ‘Major League Soccer’ were removed from the logo to simplify it, plus, everyone knew what MLS stood for by now. By removing the wordmark, MLS was telling the world it was established.
This last incarnation of the old logo was turned monochrome on occasion too, but it is sometimes incorrectly claimed to have been another rebrand. This is not the case. The black and white version of the logo was used in situations where the official logo would be too difficult to print, for example. With digital technology changing, the three dimensional image was becoming problematic, as well as looking dated. This is one of the reasons the league rebranded in 2014.
The 2014 Rebrand
As I explained in my article about MLS club crests, there is often an awful lot of significance packed into a logo. They might seem unremarkable at first glance, but logos can be deceptively nuanced and include multiple meanings or messages.
The new MLS logo is a perfect example of this.
On the surface it seems like a simple badge, but what does it really mean? Well, let’s start with the colors: red at the top, white at the bottom, and a blue outline. It’s the colors of the American flag, of course. The red also reflects the flag of Canada, which has several teams in the league. The ‘shine’ effect on the blue outline gives it a polished, premium, classy, feel.
Then there’s the shape of the logo. A shield with a slash through the middle and three stars in the top left along with the letters ‘MLS’.
Working backwards:
- MLS Lettering – If you hadn’t already guessed, this stands for Major League Soccer.
- 3 Stars – The stars represent the three pillars of MLS brand strategy: Club, Country, and Community.
- The Slash – The slash cuts the shield in two showing that soccer is a game of two halves. It starts outside the perimeter of the shield to showcase the league’s speed and energy, and it rises at a 45 degree angle to show the league’s trajectory, which is upwards. MLS is an exciting league on the rise, and soccer is a sport that never stops.
- The Shield Shape – This helps root MLS to the history of soccer, since shields have been used in club badges forever. It also conveys the commitment to league and team unity, working together as one to promote MLS.
So there’s a lot in there you might not notice right away.
One of the key reasons MLS rebranded like this was to appeal to a modern day audience. The old logo was undeniably dated, and MLS needed to come across as fresh and vibrant if it was going to appeal more broadly.
This is why the logo was simplified, and many MLS clubs have since followed suit.
Adaptability: Individual Team Versions
Another key feature of the design was its adaptability. It’s what’s known as a container logo: it represents the league as a whole but each team can have their own version of it using color changes. This is why the logo has been club specific on every jersey since the 2015 season.
It speaks to the nature of the league’s structure as a single entity. The clubs all invest in the league when they join, so everyone has a vested interest in seeing it do well. Therefore, the MLS logo belongs to them just as much as it belongs to the league as a whole.
The main logo may be red, white and blue, but the Atlanta United version is black, red and gold, Colorado Rapids’ is maroon, light blue and white, etc.
The logo is also easy to
Fifa 15 Partnership
The new logo was launched in partnership with Electronic Arts, or EA Sports. It coincided with the launch of Fifa 15, the most popular soccer video game in the world, and that was no accident.
Indeed, on the cover of the game in North America was Clint Dempsey who played for the Seattle Sounders at the time. Curiously, he was featured next to only one other player, Lionel Messi, foreshadowing the Messiah’s MLS arrival 8 years later.
This was obviously a marketing initiative the increase the league’s visibility and align with a more modern audience, but it was also a way of showing the fans the logo belonged to them as well as to MLS. They could get their hands on it way before the new season started, and play as their favourite team sporting the new logo.
The partnership worked extremely well.
The Fifa 15 player base was the exact type of audience MLS was trying to attract. What’s more, the new logo was perfect for a video game. The clean, modern design translated well to digital platforms, particularly video games, which require adaptable and scalable branding. It really stood out.
Most importantly though, the simultaneous launch of the logo and the game changed how people thought about MLS. It’s reputation as a developing league was shed, and due to the reach of the game (over 14 million copies sold worldwide), it generated a wave of interest in Major League Soccer from around the world.
In the ten years after the new logo, the average MLS club valuation has gone from $150 million to $550 million, the MLS Cup Final went from 1.3 million viewers (2015) to 4.1 million (2020), and social media engagement has skyrocketed.
That’s the power of a successful rebrand, and the MLS logo was at the heart of it.