Last autumn, Milwaukee Pro Soccer launched a campaign for the public to suggest names for the new United Soccer League (USL) team that will play in the new Iron District stadium beginning in 2025.
That call drew more than 4,000 entries.
Now, voting is set to begin Monday on a slimmed down list of 64 potential names that were selected from the submissions by team officials.
The names will be announced this spring and summer in a pair of daily matchups at MilwaukeeProSoccer.com, where fans can vote. When 10 (or fewer) finalists remain, team officials will select the winning team name from that list.
The first matchups are: the Milwaukee Tall Boys
vs. Milwaukee Confluence; and Milwaukee Barons vs.
Milwaukee Cheese.
Because of the format, it is unclear for now whether or not Kicky McFootball Face/Kicky McSoccer Face has made the list of 64.
“As an ownership group, we want this club to be an authentic reflection of our great city – past, present, and future,”Jim Kacmarcik, Chairman and CEO of Kacmarcik Enterprises, and owner of Milwaukee Pro Soccer said.
“We also want it to represent a community that is diverse, optimistic, progressive, hardworking, creative and inclusive.”
The team and its stadium – and the entire $160 million Iron District development – was announced a year ago. The plan calls for a 203-room hotel, an 8,000-seat soccer arena and affordable residential units.
In addition to serving as home pitch for the new USL team, the Iron District stadium will be home field for the Marquette University men's and women's soccer and lacrosse teams.
The 27-team USL Championship is sanctioned as the Division II professional soccer league in the U.S. by the U.S. Soccer Federation. It has teams in, among other places, Indianapolis, Detroit, Miami, San Diego, Las Vegas, New York City, Los Angeles and Phoenix.
Demolition has begun on the east end of the 11-acre district at 6th Street and construction has begun on the 99-unit residential component on the west end, at 9th/10th Streets.
Plans for a newly constructed concert venue have been scaled back and an office building at 803 W. Michigan St. that was expected to be demolished will now instead be renovated as part of the hotel construction and used as event space. A four-story addition built above it is expected to contain another 76 residential apartments.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
