The sun is setting on the York 9 Football Club identity.

Last week, the Canadian Premier League and York 9 FC sent a cryptic “Save the Date” for December 12th, 2020 at noon, with a design evoking the original branding with a slight variance in the tone of green.

Since then, the York 9 FC twitter account as posted a couple of subtle hints towards the name change and branding change, with some misdirection also I believe!

I will be looking at the three teases and extrapolate what I think it means for the re-branding exercise.

Tease #1 The new profile picture of York 9 FC.

This new stylized Y, has a new tone of green, darker and a more mature looking, that could be interpreted as a stylized Trilium. it also has nine points which could be a nod to the original name of the club. The green matches the “Save the Date”.

Will this be the new color of the club?

Is this a misdirection to throw you off?

What do you think?

Tease #2 Royal York Station picture

Now, this is where it gets interesting.

Let’s go with the obvious, this picture was taken at the TTC Royal York subway station in Etobicoke. It is pretty obvious, but here is proof regardless.

The links between the term Royal and the term York do not end here. Let’s now zoom in to the embroidered logo on the hat, which is the biggest hint that will see a major re-branding exercise unveiled tomorrow.

Gold?

Are those eyes?

Is this a collar?

Could it be an animal, like a dog? A YORKshire terrier?

What else has gold, dots (gems), decorative lines, and gold?

Could this be a stylized crown?

Like a ROYAL crown?

Which brings me to this. The terms Royal and York have been associated for centuries abroad, and for decades here in this country.

There is the obvious Royal York Hotel located downtown Toronto.

But more specifically in the sports world, a former Junior “A” hockey team in the region used to be called the Royal York Royals. There is a history of calling the area the York 9 Football Club plays in as Royal York.

A campus of the Royal Military College of Canada is located at York University, where York 9 FC is playing, and might be playing for a while. The “royal” connections are just to numerous to be a coincidence.

There is also this small royal connection: the House of York!

The cadet branch of the House of Plantagenet saw three of its descendants become King of England in the late 15th century, and inspired a writer you might have heard of, a certain William Shakespeare.

With all of this being said, here are my final thoughts.

The term “Royal” is coming up to often to just be a coincidence. I am anticipating to see the term in the new branding, maybe as a new location designation like Royal York, or even in the name of the club itself.

Even though the color green as been teased, the combination of green and gold would be very surprising to me. Blue and gold are colors usually associated with royalty, and gold has been teased by the club on a couple of different occasion. I predict a total change of color for the branding. No more green, the teased green is a misdirection in my opinion, and I would not be surprised to see some dark blue, royal blue, black and gold being part of the new identity.

I could also be totally wrong.

What do you think the new identity will be?