The news for Premiership soccer fans living in America just keeps on getting better and better. This afternoon, at 3pm ET, the Colorado Rapids will be launching a press conference to announce the new name of their team: Arsenal Colorado. a new logo and new kit for the Colorado Rapids team (sigh).

Yep, that’s right. Arsenal Colorado, not Colorado Arsenal. The announcement will go into detail about how both Arsenal Colorado and Arsenal FC will be able to work together for the betterment of both clubs. For Arsenal, this will be a perfect opportunity to expand their brand into America to catch up with Chelsea and Manchester United who have already established a foothold in the country due to previous deals with sports clubs and pre-season tours.

For Arsenal Colorado, this will be an opportunity to take advantage of Arsenal’s training facilities in England, play some friendlies against English opposition this summer and presumably to give their youngsters the opportunity to train with Arsenal’s elite youth system in England.

For soccer fans in America, there’ll be a greater likelihood of seeing Arsenal play in friendlies especially in the Colorado area.

Now that Manchester United, Aston Villa and Liverpool are owned by Americans, this definitely increases the likelihood that Kroenke may in the future attempt to acquire Arsenal FC. Read the article from The Independent for more coverage.

The question is: Will this be a trend that will happen in Major League Soccer where other MLS teams follow suit and make similar deals with Premiership sides?

Breaking news: In a surprising turn of events, Colorado Rapids didn’t announce their expected new name: Arsenal Colorado. They announced a sharing of best practices with Arsenal FC, but not a name change. Arsenal will host Colorado in March for a trip.

Presumably the name change may still happen in the near future. According to Arsenal executive Keith Edelman, he hopes that Arsenal “will be there” for the opening of the new Rapids stadium (presumably to play a friendly).

The announcement was quite an anti-climax. The new team colors and logo now resemble Arsenal, but the name remains the same (at least for now).