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All Systems Go as Reno Nears 2017 Launch

By MICHAEL McCOLL - USLSoccer.com Contributor, 06/10/16, 1:31PM EDT

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1868 FC uniform to be unveiled Saturday as Monarchs, Republic FC square off


Photo courtesy Reno 1868 FC

RENO, Nev. – It’s been nine months since Reno, Nevada was announced as home to a new USL club to begin playing in the 2017 season.

The subsequent months have seen a whirlwind of activity. A fan vote gave the new club a name, Reno 1868 FC, staff has been hired and tickets have gone on sale for the club’s inaugural season. The team’s brand has been created, its new club crest was unveiled last month, and on Saturday it will unveil the first home kit.

1868 FC is now halfway through the 18-month window it had to ready itself for the 2017 inaugural season. It’s been challenging at times and perhaps the toughest half of its preparation period is yet to come, but everyone at the club is excited by what they are putting together, and what future lies in store.

"I think it’s been terrific," Reno 1868 President Eric Edelstein told USLSoccer.com about the progress the club has made so far. "We feel confident how well we’re going to do over the next nine months based on those first nine. The second nine are obviously going to have a lot more on field announcements and that’s what’s really exciting. We’re getting close to a General Manager and finding a head coach, then ultimately putting a team together and a club to represent Reno."

Setting a soccer club up from scratch is no easy feat, especially in a market not used to having one. Reno and the surrounding area has had three minor league soccer teams in the past, but none since the Carson City-based PDL side the Nevada Wonders in the mid-2000s.

What Reno does have is a very successful and well supported Triple-A baseball team, the Reno Aces, of whom Edelstein is also the President. Edelstein and his team have worked hard to build the Aces into a well-respected part of the community. The knowledge he’s learned from the sport of baseball has been a help, but he knows there’s still been a lot for him to learn on the soccer side.


Photo courtesy Reno 1868 FC

“There’s differences,” Edelstein said. “In minor baseball we don’t handle the player side, but things that I remember from that first instance that are happening again, is that when nothing has been created, then everything needs to have a decision made around it. Even the littlest things like what’s our phone number, you need to have some thought put in to it and a decision made and an action taken. Nothing happens unless you press go.

"There’s just a lot of details in setting up a business that you have to press go on. We’re fortunate that we’re running a baseball franchise, so we have a lot of infrastructure built, but it’s understanding the nuances and the differences and giving the sport the respect it deserves, and that it’s not baseball and we’re doing right by the sport and the USL and everything that we’re doing."

The baseball and the soccer teams will both play out of Greater Nevada Field, a 9,013-capacity stadium right in the heart of downtown Reno. As of now, the two teams are sharing front office personnel, knowledge and expertise. The long-term plan is to split certain key aspects of the team, but for things like facility operation and grounds keeping, it makes more sense to share those resources.

The biggest shared aspect of the two sides will be the stadium, and Edelstein is confident that Greater Nevada Field will produce an excellent environment to watch soccer, with the location a boon to attracting a strong fanbase.

Playing soccer in a baseball park can very much be a hit and miss affair, but Edelstein feels the "tight footprint" of Reno's stadium will afford some better sightlines and closer seating than other baseball parks, such as Yankee Stadium, provide for soccer.

"When the facility was built no-one obviously contemplated that a soccer team would be playing here," Edelstein said. "I’m very pleased in how it lays out. I know there are some people who question soccer in baseball stadiums. I really think our stadium, it works, and it’s a better-than-expected experience for a configured baseball stadium."

The club got the first test run of its new soccer configuration when Greater Nevada Field hosted the international exhibition between Sacramento Republic FC and Liverpool FC U21s last month. It was the first soccer match to be held at the stadium and went off pretty much without a glitch.

For Edelstein and his team, it was a great learning experience around everything from managing a different kind of people flow to baseball, sorting out soccer statistics, and streaming a soccer game for the first time.

"It was all the details of the sport itself that we learned," Edelstein said. "The field transition was the biggest learning experience. My groundskeeper and I have had lots of conversations about how we were going to lay the turf over the infield turf, how we were going to build the transition and how much time it would take, what type of resources we’d need. It’s a little nerve wracking the first time you do anything, but that was the biggest learning curve."

Reno will get its second test run this Saturday, when Sacramento comes to town again, this time to take on Real Monarchs SLC in the first USL regular-season game in the state of Nevada.

While it will give the Reno front office another opportunity to look at logistics, it will also mark another important milestone in the club's journey to the opening day of the 2017 season, with the unveiling of the first 1868 FC home kit at the match.

"Absolutely excited," Edelstein said about the occasion. "The crest is one part [of the club's] identity, that sort of is the fans identity, but the uniform is the players’ identity and that’s ultimately who you’ll be rooting for when you come to games. So there’s a lot of excitement. I know I’m personally excited and I can’t wait to get my own on the back.

"I’m as big a fan as I am the leader of the business and the club operations. There’s a lot of excitement about it. The strip is kind of the first on field announcement if you will, that helps to solidify that there’s going to be real professional athletes playing soccer and representing Reno here starting next year."

The club's spaced out announcements and unveilings act as a great build up of excitement in the community for the new team.

There's always dangers in any market when launching a new team, soccer or otherwise, but the initial enthusiastic reaction of the Reno public to the new side has gone beyond what the ownership group had hoped for when the team was launched.

The buy-in has been extremely positive, with more than 700 season tickets already sold for their inaugural season. More than 3,000 fan submissions were received in the vote for the new team's name and the 6,287 fans in attendance for the game between Sacramento and Liverpool has shown the demand is clearly there to watch high level soccer in the city.


Photo courtesy Reno 1868 FC

1868 FC is targeting both soccer fans and those of other sports, and its existing relationship with its baseball fan base has been winning some of those traditional fans over to the new team in town.

"I think at this point, it’s exceeded what we had hoped for," Edelstein said. "We still have a long way to go. I’ve always said if you ever believe you’re a success, that’s the first step to not being one any more. I’m always focused on how do we keep getting bigger, how do we keep growing. Soccer can still be a somewhat polarizing topic in American sport, even as it grows leaps and bounds.

"We have a real opportunity here, not just to capture what is the traditional base, the millennials and the multicultural demographic, but I do think we have the opportunity to convert some people into soccer fans that have just never experienced it before and the venue’s a great place to watch a match."

Saturday's match will feature the two teams that will be Reno's closest rivals in the USL next season. Sacramento in particular will be the big derby game for the new club, and with the cities being around a two-hour drive apart, that's a rivalry that is sure to grow pretty quickly, with fans travelling in both directions to take in the matches.

It may seem strange to be helping to promote a team this year that will be a rival next year, but that's next season. For now, it's about learning from one of the best new teams, not just in the league but in American soccer.

"I think there will be [a rivalry] and I think both sides are kind of relishing that," Edelstein said. "There’s a mutual respect for each other, but when your teams get between the lines, you want to kick their butts. I think we’re developing that exactly.

"We’re building a great relationship and there’s no better club to learn from than Sacramento in terms of how to structure your club and how to build a terrific fan base. So we’re learning a lot from them as we go. They’re all tremendous people and I hope we beat the snot out of them when we play them next year."

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