On Friday, the Dallas USL Championship expansion team revealed its name and identity (though no kits). The team is set to kickoff in 2027 and doesn’t yet have a stadium, so this feels a little early.
The frontier still sharpens.
And the beasts are still within us.
Return to your animal skin.
This is é .2027 | @USLChampionship #GloryFromDust#SomosDallas#AtléticoDallas pic.twitter.com/uJ6uj9L1gu
— Atlético Dallas (@atleticodallas) May 3, 2025
The name, Atlético Dallas, is inspired by La Liga giants Atlético Madrid, but the rest of the team’s identity is pretty far from the red-and-white of Los Colchoneros across the pond. For one, the team’s colors are black (“blackland crude,” according to the club), a shade of sky blue (“Texas topaz”) and silver (“silver ore”), and their crest depicts a wolf and rattlesnake fighting. The wolf is supposed to represent “cunning and teamwork” while the rattlesnake is meant to represent “speed and danger.”
This whole identity is metal as hell. I love it. There’s nothing else that really looks like it in American soccer. I’m also getting Ari Aster and Robert Eggers vibes — for whatever reason, in my mind their brand direction evokes the films of Aster and Eggers. Maybe it’s the use of light and dark, the sharp serif font, the balance of it all.
This is the USL Championship’s first real foray into a market that already has an MLS team,1 and if we were going based on aesthetic alone, Atlético Dallas has FC Dallas beaten by a mile. It also helps that Atlético Dallas is going to be in Garland, which is closer to downtown Dallas than Frisco, where FC Dallas plays.
Obviously, we want to see the kits (which probably won’t be revealed until 2027), but Atlético Dallas will likely make a lot of money off apparel in these colors with this logo.
More images are below.
What are your thoughts?
Miami FC existed before Inter Miami, North Carolina FC is hours away from Charlotte FC, and the Revs might as well not exist to the rest of New England.
I like the logo I think the recent trend of the taking the names from established clubs, i.e. real, fc, atlético, sporting is so corny though.
Just came here to say I cannot agree more. C’mon, you did your own thing with the logo, why not the name too?
OK, but its not as bad as Atlético Ottawa at least.
Yeah, name is so cringe.
The crest is pretty cool. But since this is soccer, it will be a tiny logo in the front left shoulder area.
Because we need the full chest to be an ADVERTISEMENT.
If USL ever makes good on standing up an MLS-level league with pro/rel, Atletico Dallas will be a strong contender for starting in the new league. This is definitely a top-level identity so far.
It’s really suprising in this day and age, with all the emphasis on what a logo looks like in digital format, to see a badge with so much detail in it, doubly so for an American team. No denying that it does look Metal AF, though not in the style of Pantera, the biggest Metal band from the Metroplex.
Not just how it looks digitally, but embroidery, silkscreen….this logo may be too detailed for its own good.
Not a fan of American clubs lifting names directly from Europe, but in this case it’s excusable as at least Dallas is known for having a high percentage of Spanish speakers. Can’t say the same about Real Salt Lake…
Holy moly I love this. And I’m not the biggest fan of American clubs using European naming conventions, but considering Texas’s Latino population it feels more appropriate than somewhere like, say, Kansas City.
link
Amazing. No notes.
Love the name, but I’m not sold on the crest.
Looks way too intricate for 12 year old me to doodle it incessantly during school, which is my benchmark for simple logo design.
A very good point. I love hockey logos. The best NHL logos can be reasonably replicated by an 8 year old with two markers. That’s why I’ve always liked Flyers, Bruins, Habs, etc more than the more elaborate crests.
Wordmark & logo feels like they want to sell me fancy cologne or designer clothing.
Fire absolute fire
Man, those crests are cool. I can understand the criticism of the European-style naming trend, but I’ve never been wild about the MLS’ old 90s-style branding.
Swell, yet another team with a primarily black color scheme.