SPORTS

Pro soccer team Louisville City FC looking for support

Jonathan Lintner
@JonathanLintner
Soccer team dignitaries posed with the template of a logo following a press conference to announce that Louisville City Football Club will start play in 2015.

A boisterous crowd of local soccer junkies long insisted they would support an outdoor professional team in Louisville, and while packed into Louisville Slugger Field on Wednesday afternoon, they were asked to prove it.

The Louisville City Football Club, under an agreement with the Triple-A Bats baseball team and city officials, has a home in Louisville Slugger Field. What it needs now is fans.

"The hard work has happened behind the scenes," said Phil RawlinsR, owner and president of the Orlando City Soccer Club that will hold a stake in Louisville City FC. "The investors, the league, the mayor, the Bats — everything that's come together to make this happen. Now it's your turn. Now it's your job.

"Your job is to support the sponsors that the team brings to this stadium. Your job is to tell at least two friends or colleagues at work what a great sport this is ... because that's the way this game is growing. It's growing organically."

As for everything else? Leave it to a proven organization.

Orlando City has claimed two of the last three USL Pro titles and attracted more than 20,000 fans to its championship match last year. The Lions completed just three seasons in Orlando before getting a Major League Soccer franchise.

Needing an affiliate to develop players, Rawlins turned to an old friend.

Local architect Wayne Estopinal, a part-owner in Rawlins' Orlando City SC, headed the USL-to-Louisville movement. And he got a start from a soccer support group called The Coopers, named after bourbon barrel-makers.

"You guys have been telling me for months, like, 'We've got 1,200 season ticket pledges,' " Estopinal told The Coopers.

That number jumped to 1,500, then 1,800 and finally to more than 2,000 before Wednesday afternoon's official launch of Louisville City FC. By that time, Estopinal had received in 24 hours just 278 deposits of $50 for season tickets from The Coopers.

"Saying the team is here, it's coming, and it's time to get excited is what we'll be doing," said Coopers member Andrew Evans, who already applied for tickets.

Fellow Cooper Daniel Benjamin said, "I know people who didn't believe in this at first. Well, they definitely do now."

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer allotted $581,000 from next year's city budget toward a permanent facility and office for Louisville City FC at Louisville Slugger Field. The soccer franchise will rent the field from the Bats and play about 15 home games from March through September 2015.

USL Pro has 14 teams this year, including franchises in Pittsburgh and Dayton. Louisville joins St. Louis, Tulsa and Colorado Springs with new franchises beginning play in 2015.

James O'Connor, a former Orlando City SC player-assistant, will coach Louisville City. The roster will comprise players from the Lions as well as Louisville City acquisitions.

Calling it "the worst-kept secret in the history of Louisville sports," Fischer said that "throughout the whole thing, we knew we'd get (it) done."

Jonathan Lintner can be reached at (502) 582-4199; follow him on Twitter @JonathanLintner.