SACRAMENTO-
With the owners of the San Francisco 49ers joining the Sacramento Kings as investors in the Sacramento Republic FC’s quest to join Major League Soccer, the ownership group now may just be the strongest in all of sports.
“But the fact that we had the Kings, and now the 49ers organization,” said Republic FC lead investor Kevin Nagle. “I want to call the commissioner and say, how can you not say no, or just say yes.”
“It just makes our effort much stronger,” noted Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson. “It’s united. It’s unified.”
Everything is in place according to the Mayor. A blossoming soccer community, a clear path to a new 20,000 seat downtown stadium, and now an all star ownership group.
“They bring such a level of expertise,” said Johnson. “The bring success. They bring a proven track-record. They’re winners.”
Kings President, Chris Granger put it like this: “Our fans are second-to-none and they deserve the very best, and I think with this team in place, that’s absolutely what they are going to get.”
With both the Kings and 49ers now on board as minority owners in the team, executives from both franchises will no doubt lend their stadium-building knowledge to the Republic FC.
“Being able to be a part of this from the ground floor,” said Paraag Marathe, President of the 49ers. “Developing the stadium. Building it to be the most fan-friendly, technology-driven stadium is exciting.”
And to think, it was this time last year that the Republic FC were making arraignments to play their first-ever game, as only a minor-league franchise, and barely on Major League Soccer’s radar.
“Sacramento was 28th of their list at that time,” noted Republic FC President Warren Smith. “Then you go out and have a great first year, win a championship, sell out every game. We started building momentum, started climbing their ladder.”
And now, Sacramento is seen as a top-3 city when it comes to MLS expansion.
“I don’t honestly think there is anything else we can do,” said Johnson.
“We’ve given them our closing argument and they’ll have to make a final decision. We think the time is now.”
A final decision from MLS is expected by the end of June.
