The Colorado Rapids are a soccer club based in Commerce City, Colorado that participates in Major League Soccer. The club was founded in 1995. The team colors are burgundy and sky blue with the home jerseys being burgundy. The away jerseys are sky blue with burgundy trim. They played their home matches at Mile High Stadium from 1996–2001 and moved into INVESCO Field at Mile High in 2002. They moved to Dick's Sporting Goods Park in the Denver suburb of Commerce City for the 2007 season. The Rapids have made two finals in their history: the 1997 MLS Cup and the 1999 US Open Cup—losing both times.


The Colorado Rapids were one of the ten founding clubs of Major League Soccer. The inaugural 1996 season was a forgettable one for Colorado. Despite fielding experienced players like Shaun Bartlett, Chris Woods, and Marcelo Balboa, the team finished dead last in the Western Conference with the worst record in the league.

The complexion of the team changed dramatically for the following season with new head coach Glenn Myernick. Myernick brought new faces to the squad including Paul Bravo, Wolde Harris, Ross Paule, and keeper Marcus Hahnemann. The team struggled early on, but rallied to grab a postseason spot. The Rapids pulled off two major upsets and advanced to the MLS Cup final. Chris Henderson scored a mid-air volley past Dallas keeper Mark Dodd in the 87th minute in the Western Conference final, ensuring Colorado's place in the MLS Cup final. They lost the final to DC United.

Logo

Colorado has had three logos in their history. They originally first used the "river" logo as their primary crest with the "circular" logo as a secondary one. Later these two logos would switch with the "circular" one becoming the primary. For the 2007 re-branding, the Rapids made use of a new shield style logo which is the one that is currently used today.


Uniform

The original look of the Rapids sported a predominantly white kit with green trim. Other minor colors such as gold and blue were occasionally incorporated. Eventually black became more heavily used and eventually overtook white as the more dominant color that accompanied the green. The Rapids underwent a more dramatic image change prior to the 2003 season. The kit colors switched to black and blue vertical stripes, similar to the uniforms worn by Italian Serie A club Inter Milan. The uniforms underwent one last dramatic change for the 2007 season. The Rapids now sport burgundy and sky blue as their primary colors.