One of Tucson’s three professional sports franchises is being sold — though its name, logo and coach will remain.
FC Tucson owner Brett Johnson announced Tuesday morning that he is selling Tucson’s USL League One soccer franchise. Coach Jon Pearlman has acquired the rights to FC Tucson’s name and logo, and will reintroduce FC Tucson next season as a USL League Two expansion franchise.
Pearlman will lead the USL League Two club’s ownership group while serving as the team’s president and technical director. Tucson businessman Jeff Arnold will be the club’s chairman.
It’s a return to “pre-professional” soccer for FC Tucson, which played from 2012-19 in the USL Premier Development League, which then became League Two.
Pearlman said Tuesday afternoon that the club intends to return to the professional ranks in the near future — provided it can find a viable long-term stadium. Pearlman plans to meet with representatives from Pima County to negotiate a stadium deal for 2023. FC Tucson has long played at the 3,200-seat Kino North Stadium, which is run by the county.
“We’ll get a deal done very quickly, and make it sustainable for us for the short term,” he said. “Obviously, we’d like something more for the long term.”
Johnson’s ownership group was “excited about” new stadium opportunities that didn’t come to fruition, Pearlman said. Pearlman believes there are “different ways to attack” a stadium deal, saying that he wants to look at all public and private options, existing stadiums and new construction, all while “using local Tucson people who have done it and developed here.”
FC Tucson’s women’s team will remain; so will FC Tucson Youth, the largest kids’ soccer club in the region. Tucson will continue to host Major League Soccer’s spring training, as it has for years.
But the move down from professional to pre-professional is significant. The annual cost to run a USL League One team is “a couple million dollars (compared) to a couple hundred thousand dollars” for a League Two club, Pearlman said. “It’s an extra zero, easy.”
The new USL League Two franchise will employ just a handful of full-time employees. League Two’s season is much shorter, running from May through August, and rosters consist mostly of college players. FC Tucson’s 2022 USL League One roster, by comparison, featured professional players from Mexico, Italy, Jamaica, Colombia, Nigeria, England, Argentina and Ghana, as well as former Major League Soccer player Donny Toia. The 2022 USL League One season ran from April 2-Oct. 15.
It’s why Pearlman called Tuesday “a bittersweet day.” FC Tucson joined the professional ranks in 2019, serving as a feeder to Phoenix Rising FC of USL Championship before becoming independent. Tucson made the League One semifinals in 2021 after Pearlman was promoted from assistant coach to head coach at midseason.
This year’s club finished 8-14-8; its home season was marred by multiple lengthy weather delays, some of which forced fans from the stadium entirely.
“We didn’t want to spend any years out of professional (soccer),” Pearlman said. He called the move to USL League Two necessary if the club is going “to come back stronger and smarter and more successful.”
Jon Pearlman will move from coach of FC Tucson's USL League One club to co-owner of a new USL League Two team.
Johnson said Pearlman and his co-owners will be “excellent stewards of FC Tucson and everything we love about it.” He called selling the USL League One franchise a logical step so he can focus his “time, attention and capital” to his other holding, a USL Championship expansion team based in Rhode Island.
The USL League One team is the latest pro franchise to either move or fold, following hockey’s Gila Monsters and Scorch, softball’s Heat and baseball’s Sidewinders and Padres. And while Pearlman’s decision to buy FC Tucson’s name and logo may seem rare, it’s happened in Tucson before.
Former Sidewinders owner Jay Zucker bought the rights to the old Tucson Toros’ name and logo and reintroduced the club as part of the Golden Baseball League in 2009. The re-imagined team lasted two seasons.
Pearlman is confident that the new FC Tucson is built for a longer stay.
