Bennett Awards recently completed the development of a new custom awards project for Major League Soccer’s (MLS) Heritage Cup. The Heritage Cup is an annual rivalry competition between MLS teams that have taken on the names of the North American Soccer League (NASL) predecessors. 2009 was the inaugural competition for this award. This year’s competition was held between the San Jose Earthquakes and the Seattle Sounders FC soccer clubs. In 2011, the competition is expected to expand to four teams when the Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps join the MSL.
This unique custom awards design was commissioned by the Soccer Silicon Valley Community Foundation, a charitable non-profit to was formed to help create a permanent home for soccer in the Bay Area. The idea for these custom awards was developed by a fan, Rob Stevenson, who also developed the initial idea for the design. Bennett Awards worked closely with Mr. Stevenson to produce this unique awards design, which features a bronze cup designed to look like an old NASL soccer ball sitting atop a large, multi-tiered wood base. The upper base of the award includes an engraved plate with the competition’s name and logo, and the lower base features the names of the cup winners, which will be added each year of the competition. This unique award stands 2’ tall.