Lexington Pro Soccer will soon reveal its colors, logo and name. Here’s what to expect.
Soccer fans in Central Kentucky had to wait nearly two decades for pro soccer to return to Lexington.
Now, they’ll only have to wait a few more weeks to learn the true identity of the region’s newest sports franchise.
The October announcement that Lexington was awarded a USL League One franchise marked the return of pro soccer to Kentucky’s second-largest city. The expansion team — which will begin play in 2023 — has been using the placeholder name Lexington Pro Soccer in the months since.
Franchise president Vince Gabbert told the Herald-Leader on Jan. 25 that while a firm date has not been set, the team is hoping to reveal its official identity and accompanying team merchandise in the next six to eight weeks (which is sometime in March).
Gabbert previously told the Herald-Leader the franchise hoped to have the team name and identity finalized in the winter.
The team’s official identity — things like team colors, logo and official name — will be the result of a branding process that took place over the last three months and included significant input from Central Kentucky residents.
“Between the (proposed stadium) feasibility study and our branding process, we’ve had over 30 listening sessions with various groups in the community,” Gabbert said. “It’s run the gamut from civic leaders and business leaders to the youth club operators and kids that are in the youth club and trying to make sure that we’re talking to everybody.”
In the past months, the franchise’s social media accounts have posted survey links for fans to share their thoughts as part of the branding process.
While nothing official has been announced in terms of franchise branding, it appears likely the horse will play some part in it.
The expansion franchise is majority-owned by Tower Hill Sports, which was founded by William J. Shively, who also owns the historic Dixiana Thoroughbred horse farm.
In addition to serving as president of the new soccer franchise, Gabbert also currently works as Keeneland’s vice president of strategic initiative and legislative affairs.
“One of the great things about this community is it is such an international community because of the horse and because of what that means for us locally,” Gabbert told the Herald-Leader in the fall. “There’s so many folks that are from Latin America and South America and from England and from Ireland, that are here because of the horse that are huge, huge fans of soccer, grew up playing it wherever they grew up.”
On Jan. 21, Lexington Pro Soccer released renderings of a proposed 6,000-seat soccer stadium, 160-room hotel and 250-unit apartment complex to be located on the High Street parking lot of Central Bank Center, across from Rupp Arena.
That announcement included a fly-through video of the proposed stadium, and visible in the video is a horse statue near one of the stadium entrances.
When asked by the Herald-Leader if this indicated a horse logo or horse involvement in the team’s official branding, Gabbert said the franchise is participating in this year’s Horse Mania overseen by the civic arts group LexArts ahead of November’s Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland.
Gabbert said the statue was the best attempt by Gensler (the architecture and design firm for the proposed stadium) to fit the statue into the rendering.
“One of our tenets is truly inclusivity and making sure that this is the city’s team,” Gabbert said of the overall branding process. “We’re very fortunate that this area is very proud of what we have here, as they should be, and we want to continue that winning tradition and have them have a brand and a team that they can be proud of.”
How does Gabbert think the team brand will resonate with the people who participated in the listening sessions to help create it?
“I think in some ways the measure of everything is people being proud to wear the crest on their jerseys and T-shirts and hats and stuff,” Gabbert said. “I think this will be a brand that everybody will be very proud to wear.”
