You Want Answers – August 16th 2019
You Want Answers (August 16th, 2019)
By: NISA Nation Staff
Every week NISA Nation will select a question posed to the twitter handle @TheNISANation and answer a question you may have. This week’s question comes from American Pyramid Blog and is a question on Expansion.
This week’s question: Any word on particular markets or areas of the country that are interested in joining for the Fall 2020 season?
In the spirit of full transparency, NISA and potential investors have standard mutual confidentiality agreements so transparency and what information is available to share is limited when it comes to discussing specific markets or clubs or groups.
What is fair to say is that it has been pretty exciting to see the level of interest in being part of NISA’s September 2020 kickoff.
Some of the highlights from the two months between the launch of www.nisasoccer.com in mid-June to this week’s news about Chattanooga FC, Detroit City FC and Oakland Roots officially becoming NISA members include:
+ Over 40 groups that either meet USSF’s Professional League Standards or represent existing clubs interested in joining (and need a little help to meet those standards). Most are targeting a Fall 2020 launch but even those that are still in fact-finding mode have really connected to a vision of what NISA can look like in a couple of seasons.
+ The smallest market inquiring has a population well under 50,000 people
+ More than 20 states are represented in the 40+ groups
+ Expect a new local derby… or two
+ Multiple parties have expressed interest from some markets that would definitely surprise people.
It is still in the early stages for new clubs looking at Fall 2020 so don’t want to get too many hopes up (but guessing this news is getting lots of hopes up). The challenge is the deadline to apply for expansion in Fall 2020 is just under six weeks away on October 1st, which is a tight timeline for any group. NISA does have an expansion team in place to help with the application process which interested groups who want to get started can reach out to here.
Hopefully that answer is worth at least partial credit as that is probably the best NISA Nation can do to answer the question with the confidentiality agreements that are in place.
