With new owner, expanded staff, FC Tucson reinvents itself as an independent professional soccer club

With a new owner, beefed up staff and plans for fans to return to Kino North Stadium, FC Tucson is ready to kick off the 2021 season with renewed vigor.

The club announced Thursday its transfer of ownership from Phoenix Rising FC to Benevolent Sports Tucson, an LLC launched by Los Angeles-based businessman Brett Johnson.

The new ownership means FC Tucson is no longer under control of Phoenix Rising FC.

“We have our own style of play, our own coaching philosophies, ethos, values, our own recruiting and scouting networks,” FC Tucson President Amanda Powers said. “We certainly don’t need to send up players or receive players down from Phoenix anymore. That’s one of the most major components there about being fully independent.”

It also allows FC Tucson to play in the single-elimination Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. While under Phoenix Rising’s technical control, FC Tucson was restricted from participating in the tournament.

Johnson is a founding member of Phoenix Rising who used to own Arizona United. A graduate of Brown University, Johnson is working on the $400 million USL Pawtucket project, which is focusing on bringing soccer to blighted areas in order to assist in revitalization.

Johnson has been talking to Powers about buying the club since late 2019, before Powers was hired. He was familiar with the team, having been part of Rising’s ownership group when the Phoenix club acquired FC Tucson in October 2017.

Johnson “has always seen a bigger vision for Tucson, which is sort of why he came into the picture years ago when FC Tucson needed management and investors to take over its operations, which is what Rising did,” Powers said. “They kept the club alive.”

Powers said the pandemic-shortened 2020 season allowed her to focus on what really matters, how the global markets are shaping up and where sports and soccer fall into that picture.

“I see us as an economic development engine here,” Powers said. “We want to be Tucson’s team. We’re not the same as the UA, we’re not the Wildcats. We’re a very different product. And that product is only going to get better with input and participation.”

With the World Cup coming to North America in 2026, Powers says there’s no time to waste. She wants Southern Arizona to be on the radar of soccer officials by 2022.

“There’s so much potential in Southern Arizona and in Tucson,” Powers said. “What we looked at was if we wanted to be in a good position by 2026, we have to be in a good position by 2022.”

That means 2021 needs to be the season FC Tucson rebuilds its fan base.

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“Last season was a tough year. We were a new product from the old PDL days,” Power said. “That requires a lot of attention and some additional investment. Brett has decided that he’s going to take this on, so here we go.”

Powers will have some help heading into the new season, which is scheduled to run from May through October. She has hired a vice president of sales, director of community engagement and game day operations, director of finance and administration and a community development advisor. The club plans to announce a new apparel provider soon.

“We’re professionalizing the organization,” Powers said, adding that she’s grateful for the help. “For a while there, I had to do social media, bookkeeping, whatever it took. That’s what you do when you’re trying to keep a business afloat.”

With Johnson backing the club and new staffers already hard at work, FC Tucson is thinking big.

Like this: “We want a kid from Southern Arizona on the U.S. Men’s National Team in 2026,” Powers said. “If (Johnson) has a hand in producing top talent from the two clubs in Arizona, why not?”

It’s a big vision, Powers admits, but not impossible. Former FC Tucson players Aaron Long and Aaron Herrera both played for the U.S. Men’s National Team in their last game. Long played three seasons (2011-13) with the Men in Black, appearing in 24 games and scoring six goals. In 2013, he played in eight games, scoring three times. Herrera, a defender, started 16 matches for Tucson from 2016-17.

“Two kids that have worn the FC Tucson crest are now on the men’s national team,” Powers said. “We work in sports, and if the World Cup is the biggest event on the planet. We want FC Tucson to be a part of that.”

The club expects to roll out socially distant activities to get fans ready for the season. A“barrio to barrio” campaign will try to get neighborhoods behind the club. Powers said FC Tucson also plans to offer mobile or drive-thru “inspirational events” for the community.

The game-day experience will also look different when the season returns in May. Powers is working on getting the club’s medical protocols approved, although their are significant restrictions at Kino North Stadium.

“We’re going to try to push to change this experience as much as possible. If we’re in competition with Netflix and everything else going on when the city and county re-opens, we have to deliver,” Powers said. “We want to be able to deliver a world class or as close to a world class experience as we can at Kino in a very safe way.”

FC Tucson games averaged 9,300 viewers per game on ESPN+ last season, but attendance at the club’s drive-in watch parties showed Powers and others that people were still unwilling to leave their homes during the pandemic. However, the club managed to retain 100% of its sponsorships and only issued five season ticket refunds, Powers said.

Powers said she’s ready to get back to the game with renewed energy.

“Let’s step back from what happened at the end of last season. We were exhausted,” she said. “I have pretty high stamina, but not everybody has the same.”