More news from the Sydney Rovers camp
By Ian Rowden, 12 Oct 2009 The Crowd is a Roar Pro
- Tagged:
- A-League, football, Sydney Rovers FC
So it’s been just over a week since we joined the conversation on our new club, the Sydney Rovers FC. What a fantastic week it’s been. We’ve heard the good, the bad and the ugly, which is exactly the way it should be.
We’ve been following the conversations but figured, given our own time constraints, we would weigh in from time to time, not every day.
There seem to be a couple of questions hanging out there that we think we can answer:
1) Our Name.
Anytime you create a name you invite multiple responses. We want to thank all of you who have given us your view. However, we have decided that we’re not going to be known as a club with a non-football related name.
So those of you who want us called The Octopuses, The Buffalos, The Rhinos, The Metros, The Kickers, The Strikers….. blah, blah, blah. Sorry to disappoint you, but we are going to stick to our strategy of remaining traditional.
Over the past few days, the name Sydney Rovers FC has begun to take hold. The media has been overwhelmingly positive, and while not everyone ever agrees totally with a name, initially we’ve had enough feedback to tell us we’re on the right track.
2) The Stars
The idea behind them is really simple. The star on the left represents the Southern sky, the star in the middle represents the Western sky, and the star on the right represents the Northern sky.
Nothing more, nothing less.
It’s not a hybrid version of the Southern Cross, nor is it a constellation of any sort. It’s just three stars representing the broader north, west and south of our city.
3) The Colours
Red, white and black. Yep as strange as it may seem, we think it’s nice to have a subtle link to the great clubs of the past, like Western Suburbs and Blacktown City, who also carried these colours in one combination or another.
We also know from a commercial point of view, these three colours are a very powerful palette combination.
We are moving forward to look at how we will commercialize our look. We want to thank all you guys who have suggested various strip options to us.
In the coming months, we’ll continue to refine our thinking and we’ll let you know where we end up.
So the journey has started, and we have many decisions to take in the coming months. From time to time, we’ll check back in and let you know the progress we are making.
We said from the outset we wanted to build a club that was inclusive, and by that, we mean we want it to be a club for every football fan in Sydney. To this point we know we have to be prepared to listen and learn as we go.
And we intend to live up to this fact.
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- A-League, football, Sydney Rovers FC

albe said | October 13th 2009 @ 7:35am | Report comment
good work Ian and your team… the name’s growing on me too, especially since u left ‘West’ off. Its too broad a name and most people in your part of the city identify with their own suburb. Or as being from Sydney for people outside the area.
Connect with people in their local associations and clubs not just as “Westies”
Pippinu said | October 13th 2009 @ 7:41am | Report comment
Nice name and shirt design.
But it still looks like a St KIlda rip off to me.
thinker said | October 13th 2009 @ 9:14am | Report comment
whats a st kilda?
Pippinu said | October 13th 2009 @ 9:25am | Report comment
This is the shirt design that the Rovers ripped off:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/31/St._kilda1.jpg
AndyRoo said | October 13th 2009 @ 9:28am | Report comment
I doubt Rovers shirts would look that simple/ugly
As to the badge apart from the colors and a shield shape (hardly surprising) I dont see any simmilarities.
No offence to St Kilda fans but their logo looks like a school badge.
The St Kilda brand is obviously very old and traditional so it seems quite differenet to what Rovers are presenting
Pippinu said | October 13th 2009 @ 9:40am | Report comment
It’s still a rip off.
Anyway, what are the pros and cons of the Rovers modelling themselves on St Kilda?
Pros
1. St Kilda has existed for 136 years, so that’s a positive of sorts.
2. Despite a complete lack of success, it still has a membership of 32,000, which is pretty good.
3. You can sing the Saints go marching in.
Cons
1. One premiership in 136 years is a pretty poor return.
2. the most wooden spoons of any club
AndyRoo said | October 13th 2009 @ 9:46am | Report comment
Under that remote guise what team created in the last 20 years isn’t a rip off of something. could even say the last 50 years with probably the first team to use the colors purple as stand outs.
Perhaps Nth QLD fury, but their kit does resemble Bohemians Prague’s badge a little.
I would expect their jersey to look nothing like St Kildas, and would be shocked if I saw any cross imagery.
Pippinu said | October 13th 2009 @ 9:58am | Report comment
I just had a vague recollection of seeing a shirt design somewhere that was pretty much identical to the logo.
danny said | October 13th 2009 @ 4:45pm | Report comment
no shirt design decided yet (best proposals i’ve seen are more ac milan-esque) and the badges look nothing alike. it’s just the same colours. no rip off from st kilda at all.
Brett McKay said | October 13th 2009 @ 8:01am | Report comment
well I don’t suppose it’s every day you get an update from the horse’s mouth, so to speak Ian.
Thanks for this explanation – when viewed in context, the logo and colours all kind of work now….
megatron said | October 13th 2009 @ 8:07am | Report comment
Thanks for sharing Ian. Keep up the good work.
whiskeymac said | October 13th 2009 @ 8:31am | Report comment
Ian, am glad you went for a traditional name and have consciously dragged some of the old football culture with you re:choice of colours (St Kilda similarities or not i like the idea of continuity in the game and representation of the region). Coming from the lower blue mountains am more than interested in how this club unfolds and how it plans to interact and develop a fan base in the region. nice idea to post here too.
AndyRoo said | October 13th 2009 @ 8:53am | Report comment
The sharing of information and engaging football fans is definitely appreciated
KB said | October 13th 2009 @ 9:06am | Report comment
Ian,
I think a good starting point would be to have a look at the FC Barcelona logo http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/96/FCB.svg and see where and how that can be adapted to suit the new WS franchise… Given that West Sydney is steeped in history with Anglo Celtic associations, however, there is also a rich diverse ethnic culture as well… Some recognition of the long time ethnic residents should be embraced to form a true multi cultural club identity…
The playing strip colours and name are fine, but the logo can be so much more with symbols and colours to identity with the rich multi cultural football traditions that have come to settle in the greater Western Sydney Area… Why not also embrace the colours of green and blue into the logo, to have the Italian and Croatian communities feel part of it as well….
~~~~~~~
KB
Pippinu said | October 13th 2009 @ 9:59am | Report comment
Red, white, black, green and blue?
How about throwing in yellow, purple and magenta!!
KB said | October 13th 2009 @ 11:52am | Report comment
Pippi boy,
FC Barcelona has 7 colours in their logo and some nice symbols incorporated within the design … very classy look…. So why not have four colours in the WS logo design Red, Black, Blue, and Green representing the diversity on West Sydney… I agree with you at present the WS logo looks like the crappy St Kilda logo at best, encompassed within a boring clip art shield…
Heaven forbid, you don’t want that crappy look on your inaugural season… That crappy Grooky St Kilda look … you are right there … so amateurish… The only thing I could imagine that would be worse is to look like that crappy Grooky Bullies logo … now there is a real crap logo…
Now look at the FC Barcelona logo so much more classier isn’t it…? and with 7 colours in a beautifully designed shield…
~~~~~~~
KB
Pippinu said | October 13th 2009 @ 12:04pm | Report comment
The Barca logo contain symbols of Catalan independence and the colours of the Aragonese monarchs – I’m not really sure what the point is of putting it up here on a thread on a second Sydney team.
The explanation of the colours from Ian Rowden is fair enough (and I agree with him that they are a strong combination of colour, not present amongst existing A-League teams).
But for the moment – the actual design (the red, white and black strip of thirds), looks like a rip off of the St Kilda design – I don’t say that to cause offence – I’m just saying that’s what it looks like to me.
But I’ve liked the name from day one.
Did someone really suggest “octopus” as a nick name????
KB said | October 13th 2009 @ 1:53pm | Report comment
Geez do I have to spell it out for you… the Barca logo was just a reference point that I stated in my first post of what looks great and classy to what looks so damn ordinary…
The Greater Western Sydney has an enormous amount of history with symbols to draw from… For instance the first sheep stations were founded in the west of Sydney and they had the first wheat farms out there, convict settlements etc … symbols galore …
The present logo is as what you stated, it looks like a daggy St Kilda, rip off, logo … I agree with you on that point and as for the stars … no one cotton on to what they meant it just looked like an after thought … tacked on to a daggy St Kilda shield, a piece of clip art … As for the ribbon there was no imagination that went into that…
I also agree with you on the choice of football, it is the over exposed design that every new football club introduces to a football design …. I would much prefer the new state-of-the-art FIFA WC football…
~~~~~~~
KB
Redb said | October 13th 2009 @ 2:00pm | Report comment
KB,
If they wanted to evoke some history of the convicts – they should copied Collingwood with the black and white vertical stripes (bars).
The ARC rugby team was called the West Sydney Rams due to the rich pastoral heritage of the area and even the NSW/ACT Under 16 & 18s AFL team is called the Rams to reflect the pastoral districts of greater Western Sydney as well as further south. (RAMS also an acronym for Riverina, ACT, Monaro, Sydney)
Redb
KB said | October 13th 2009 @ 3:27pm | Report comment
Actually I had that in mind the RAMS as their mascot it has that historical symbol back in the early settlement days … It was the only Rugby mascot I could remember during the now defunct national Rugby club championship league … Pity
What about the little convict v symbol randomly place all over the jersey and shorts that would be great… They could be known as the defendants….
~~~~~~~
KB
cab711 said | October 13th 2009 @ 4:50pm | Report comment
Very close to the gay pride flag, I see your angle. Dipping into the untapped gay market, brilliant!
The Link said | October 13th 2009 @ 10:01am | Report comment
still not sold on the name, why copy something from an existing club? it has a certain quality for lower league teams (happens in all codes) but for a club with international aspirations why not give it something unique?
cab711 said | October 13th 2009 @ 4:48pm | Report comment
I dont know, I think it will get respect. ACL final of Urawa Reds vs Sydney Rovers sounds nice.
Maybe Wild West FC.
whiskeymac said | October 13th 2009 @ 10:17am | Report comment
colourful language Pippinu.
as an aside i wonder if the Sydney -Melbourne rivalrieswill extend to the same extent to the “new” teams (Rovers and Heart). Wld be good if MV (and Heart)fans turned out in large numbers for the Rover’s and SFC’s teams.
Pippinu said | October 13th 2009 @ 10:22am | Report comment
Good question about the rivlaries whiskemac.
The Sydney v Melbourne thing emerged because:
1. they both started as one city teams (and are the two biggest cities)
2. other than cricket, there has never really been a sport where both cities could act out some sort of rivalry; and
3. MV smashed SFC 5-0 in the first season.
All of a sudden, there will be two teams in each city – very, very hard to predict what that will mean for rivalries.
Sydney Rovers vs Melbourne Heart?
Where we sit at the moment – doesn’t have a ring to it to be honest.
Tifosi said | October 13th 2009 @ 10:26am | Report comment
Pip I think the Rovers Logo looks a bit more like this one.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/de/thumb/7/73/Urawa_Red_Diamonds.svg/319px-Urawa_Red_Diamonds.svg.png
Pippinu said | October 13th 2009 @ 10:36am | Report comment
Good point!
It’s interesting that they use the old leather ball as part of the logo, rather than the more common polka dot picture.