Two decades ago, Kevin Payne pondered what to call the Washington team that he would lead as one of the 10 founding teams in Major League Soccer.
Sitting in the lunchroom of his soccer promotions company, he and members of his staff tossed out different names. One employee sarcastically intoned, “Why don’t you call it United, like every other soccer team?”
“D.C. United,” Payne said aloud. The other faces in the room lit up.
Today, the naming process is far more extensive for M.L.S. expansion clubs. Atlanta, the next team that will enter the league, in 2017, spent months on market research, surveys, focus groups and brand audits — all to end up in the same place: Atlanta United.