Wilmington Hammerheads Back in Business with USL PRO
The team with one of the best logos in minor league soccer is back in business. The Wilmington Hammerheads will play in the 2011 season as a USL Pro team.
The announcement was made today at a press conference in Wilmington, NC. The team will be led by majority owner Bill Rudisill and Head Coach David Irving.
Rudisill was part of the group that owned the Hammerheads and purchased the team from founder Al Pastore after he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. The group of Dr. Dale Boyd, Bruce Cavenaugh, Rudisill, and Dave Schroeder led the franchise to the National Title in 2003. Eventually they sold the team to Chuck Sullivan. His franchise was terminated in 2009 after Sullivan failed to make good on certain financial obligations to the USL.
The Hammerheads have a long, successful history. They started in the USISL in 1996 and moved to the USL 3rd division the following year where they remained until 2009. The organization was: the USL Second Division Regular Season Champions in 2009, USL Pro Select League Champions 2003, USL D-3 Pro League Southern Division Champions 2002 and USL D-3 Pro League Southern Division Champions 2001.
The Hammerheads have averaged over 2,000 fans per game and expect to continue to draw those numbers when they return to play in Legion Stadium.
David Irving, who played for Everton as well as the Fort Lauderdale Strikers in the old NASL, will be head coach of the Hammerheads and will resume his old duties after managing the team from 1998–2009. He will also act as Director of Soccer for the club.
So far, the USL have announced 12 teams and are expected to continue to announce more between now and the USL AGM which will be held this year on November 18-21. The teams announced so far are the Barracuda FC, Charleston Battery, Charlotte Eagles, Dayton Dutch Lions, Harrisburg City Islanders, Orlando City SC, Pittsburgh Riverhounds, Richmond Kickers, River Plate Puerto Rico, Rochester Rhinos, Sevilla FC Puerto Rico, Wilmington Hammerheads.
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So Brian, any news from the NASL’s AGM?
congrats to the Wilmington. Im looking foward to a trip up to legion field in 2011!
Cool!
Wish it were NASL, of course, but it’s great to have them back in action.
I am missing some NASL announcements or is the USL really way ahead of the NASL in terms of adding teams for next season? It seems that way.
What exactly is the NASL’s business model? I understand that the USL pro league is about regional play, lower spending, and (apparently now) the team owners making the key decisions. It is less clear exactly what the NASL’s model is other than that they want to be a “Division 2″ league. That doesn’t really explain anything specific to me.
What happens if NASL doesn’t get enough teams for next year? Will USSF run a league again?
The NASL was started as being about team owners making decisions. Now that that’s part of the USL model too, well, as far as I’m concerned TOA won its real objective even if every team rejoins the old organization.
It’s very nice to see a team with an established tradition return to the pitch.
I am a little surprised that the NASL has gone really silent lately, but that doesn’t mean they won’t have some very good news in the near future. I hope they will.
The USL PRO is at this point an Eastern League, were it not for Rochester, Dayton, and Pittsburgh they could be called an East Coast league.
I remember some announcement about a possible “Western Soccer Conference”….what’s happened with that?
As I’ve told a number of people either by email or in the comments, there just isn’t a lot to write about on the NASL front at this point and time. But hold on to your hats because I think everything will break within a weak. Remember, the USSF Board meets at MLS Cup Weekend and my guess is everything needs to be submitted before than and it will be one of the items on the agenda. I’ve been working my sources and just don’t have anything verifiably concrete that I can publish yet. I’d rather be right than be early just so people can know. It doesn’t do much good to know bogus information does it?
Stay tuned.
As an ex-Aztex fan, I’d rather you’d've been early and wrong, just once.;)
Nevertheless, I really appreciate your track record and all the work you do. Looking forward to more off-season news.
Thanks for the good work man! Reporter of some 20 years, nice to see someone still doignit properly. Also based in Edmonton, and keeping looking at that franchise map and wondering how mental their travel costs would be for either league.
Lots of issues with NASL.
Well I know that their is a rumor about an Austin investor at the NASL meetings and is planning on joining NASL for the 2012 season along side San Antonio and Possible Atlanta.
This from The website of Ralphs Mob:
***NASL Annual General Meeting in Miami
No real information on the AGM that took place this weekend. We hope to have some information soon. We can confirm the following teams attended Puerto Rico Islanders, Carolina RailHawks, Montreal Impact, Miami FC Blues, FC Tampa Bay, Crystal Palace Baltimore, FC Edmonton, AC St. Louis, NSC Minnesota Stars and San Antonio. The amount of teams or groups attending is a positive sign of things to come.
Our sources out of Austin tells us a minority owner of the now defunct Aztex was at the meeting and is looking at bringing a new team back to Austin by 2012.
This would awesome if Austin gets a team back, and if they call them ‘the Aztex’ (if that is what the supporters want, of course!)
Wait, CPB still has the money to fly somebody to Miami?
@Dan: I know that you are just passing along what you have heard and it is appreciated.
Please just don’t mention Atlanta because then it becomes difficult to take the rest of the rumor seriously.
So in other words Grant, your information, one way or another, came from the minority owner who was at the meeting. Welcome to the game of revealing information without revealing sources. From what I understand, it was a very small group and most likely meant to be that way so there wouldn’t be any leaks.
So thatmight be a good sign.
Yeah, I shouldve added the ‘take this with a grain of salt’ disclaimer. I just read it online, Im not too sure of its source, although it would be awesome if Ralphs Mob has taken to breaking pertinent news! I certainly dont know who was behind it, just that it was there. I was starved for info (apparently, Im not the only one) and this was about all I could find.
*Swim at your own risk!*