I recently sat down with Greenville Pro Soccer Vice Chairman and Chief Branding Officer Doug Erwin to talk about the new team, the new league and much more for my podcast, Yeah, THAT Soccer Show.

Doug provided some great insight into what the team has been up to as it prepares to begin play in USL Division III in 2019. If you want hear more from Doug in the full audio version of our interview, the episode is embedded at the end of this article.

Let’s start with an easy one. What does the title vice chairman and chief branding officer even mean?

It’s a little wordy, isn’t it? It’s a dual role. The vice chairman side comes from being a minority owner and representing ownership in the day-to-day decision making process. The main role of chief branding officer encompasses the marketing side of the team. This is an evolution of the chief marketing officer role that is popping up in companies across the country. It is about helping position the brand in the best way. Right now it is really about preparing for the brand unveil. Day to day it will be more about overseeing marketing efforts with the team and overseeing people’s interaction with the brand at any touch point. It is all about making sure we are listening to fans and their voice and making sure we are putting our best foot forward in every facet.

Tell us about you, your background, and your history with the city.

I was born and raised here in Greenville. I went to Clemson University, so I am very local to Greenville and the Upstate. I moved to Washington, D.C., for a few years after graduating from Clemson and worked in commercial real estate and property management up there. I moved back to Greenville in 2012 and worked in advertising for a bit before leaving to start Endeavor, our coworking space downtown.

I have recently made the transition into this role with Greenville Pro Soccer. This whole process started about a year or so ago when the league (USL Division 3) reached out to Greenville as they began to identify cities they wanted to be a part of this new league. The league was referred to Erwin Creates, our umbrella company, to discuss marketing efforts which ultimately led to an opportunity for ownership. It came about by us just asking questions on a call with the league one day when we inquired if they had found an ownership group for the team yet. They had not at that time and we informed them that was something that we may be interested in and it just evolved from there.

What was it in that process that drew you to owning a soccer team? Do you have a background or interest in soccer? Was it more about owning a pro sports franchise in general?

I have a background interest in anything involving sports for the most part. My dad played soccer growing up and was really on the forefront of being involved with the sport in the Upstate as it was just starting to emerge as a thing. He was on the inaugural Eastside High School (Taylors, S.C.) soccer team. He tells a great story about his intentions to walk on to the team at Clemson and when he first showed up to start practicing with the team, they announced they were signing nine international players and he knew his soccer career was over.

My background with the sport really took off in 2010. Two of the guys I lived with in college were big soccer fans. I had graduated and my two roommates had another year left of school. I was living out my lease in Clemson over the summer and the World Cup was that summer. I was job hunting and a broke, recent college graduate with a lot of time on my hands, so we watched a lot of soccer that summer together. At the same time, we also played a lot of FIFA in the midst of the tournament as well. Soccer was all I did for an entire month and after that I was hooked. So when I moved to D.C., I went to several D.C. United games and got to experience the game in person for the first time.

Why do you think Greenville is the right place for this team and this league?

Just look around at the city and the momentum that exists here as the city continues to grow. We continue to be on lists of best places for all sorts of things. This city strives for excellence in everything and it is one of the best places to be in the country right now. It is one of the fastest growing cities in the country and soccer is the fastest growing sport in the country. We have heard for years that soccer is the next big thing, and I think we are finally starting to get there. We are always willing to bet on Greenville.

One of the things the league told us, and we believe whole-heartedly, is that Greenville has a chance to be the crown jewel city in this league. If you look at a lot of the cities they have, and continue to look at across the country, we would be one of the bigger markets. Just look at a city like Charleston, which is very similar to Greenville in terms of size, and they have been incredibly successful in the USL for a long time. We view ourselves as being able to be on par, and possibly better, than Charleston in that respect. We think it is the right time for this. Just look at the youth participation in the sport across the city and the entire upstate. Look at the collegiate programs in the area and the success they have had. This region is a hotbed for talent.

Our objective is to say, “How do we take that path to the pros to the next level?” It is not an ego thing for us in regards to owning a sports team. It is not as sexy as it sounds and it is a lot of work. For us, it is about making this a community asset. We view this as a gift to Greenville and the Upstate in many respects. This is something that will help the city continue to grow.

You have been traveling across the country and visiting teams at different levels to glean some knowledge. What have you learned in those trips that you would hope to implement with GPS? Are there any other places and teams you want to visit as you continue to prepare for the first season?

The first thing we learned is how helpful the soccer community is as a whole. We were just talking earlier about a conversation we had with St. Louis FC and how helpful they were having been in our position before. It is truly amazing. Having (club president) Chris Lewis as a part of our team has been a blessing in this respect because he has over 25 years experience working in professional sports and he has connections all over the place. Those relationships have opened a lot of doors for us.

We have met with the Philadelphia Union and their USL affiliate Bethlehem Steel. We met with Atlanta United and I could gush about them all day. You go there and realize why they have been so successful. It was great to learn things from teams that can do things that we maybe even could not do financially, not as a means of saying, “We need to do this just like they did,” but more from learning from their pitfalls. Learning from some of their mistakes will help us avoid those setbacks as we launch our team.

Where else are we going to go? We have talked to DC United and will do something with them at some point. We have a trip to Nashville on the books. We have an open invitation in Charlotte. We will go to Charleston at some point. We will probably try to make it to Raleigh. We would like to visit Atlanta United 2 down in Gwinnett, just to see what a gameday looks like.

Do you anticipate having a local rivalry with a team close by, like say, in the Carolinas?

Yes. We have let the league know many times that we want that. They obviously want that as well. They have identified several cities as potential market for expansion beyond year one of the league. With the lower division soccer landscape being so fluid at times, I think there is a little bit of “prove it to me first,” so a lot of the markets that are interested want to wait to see the viability of this league.

The fun thing will be in a few years when we have more teams close by to look back and know we will always have this special bond and rivalry with Statesboro as founding members. Whether or not they are our closest rival down the road, there is potential that since we are starting in this thing together we could be big time rivals for years to come. It is also going to be fun as we get to bring some of these “brand name” cities, such as Toronto FC II, to Greenville. That’s pretty cool to us. The rumor mill says that even more MLS 2 teams are moving down and that’s great for the league. It brings some notoriety to the league and D3 is also a seemingly better fit for some of those teams in terms of age and roster makeup. It is going to be great for visibility.

Any interest in participating in the Carolina Challenge Cup in Charleston if invited or even hosting a similar type tournament here in Greenville?

If we get an invite to Charleston we are in. It would be like a mini U.S. Open Cup where we could play USL and MLS teams. One of our main focuses is building a stadium here in Greenville. We are passionate about that and will not accept less. It will be state of the art, within reason. I think to host something like that would be amazing.

We have talked to some local college coaches about doing some sort of college invitational. We would love to follow in the footsteps of Chattanooga and Cary and be able to host the USMNT or USWNT. It would be great to host a friendly with some of the USL teams in our area (Atlanta United 2, Charlotte, Charleston). We had some interest, pretty soon after the announcement, from some EFL Championship teams in England about coming to play this summer. Obviously, we would have jumped on that immediately, but we did not have a team for this summer. I told them to call me back in a year. We are open to anything like that. We would love to bring some teams here to continue to grow the sport in our area.

How do you feel that your first few meetups have gone and how have you seen the fan community begin to develop around this team?

We think they have both gone very well. The biggest feedback we have received is that fans are excited to finally be able to come out and interact with us. To most people, the perception was that we announced and then disappeared for a bit. Obviously we have been hard at work building out a staff, and traveling around doing our homework as we continue to put this franchise together. We have been excited to finally get out and have some gatherings and watch parties.

We had about 125–130 people at our first event and were treated to a fantastic (World Cup) game between Germany and Sweden. When that was over people were already asking us about hosting something for the final. That was not something we were initially planning because of the quick turnaround and being short staffed, but we could not say no. So we reached out to the local American Outlaws chapter about co-hosting an event and they were excited to partner with us. I think there were around 225 at that one.

One of the tough things about the Upstate is we do not currently have a go-to place to watch soccer. There are certainly places we can go in pockets, but I get envious when I look at places like Charlotte, Atlanta and Charleston, they have dedicated spaces for this kind of thing. So anything we can do to bring people in the community together in mass to watch soccer is huge.

What can folks expect going forward as you continue to build community involvement and grow the fan base for this team?

We are working on a lot of different initiatives and it is about to get busy. We are very close to announcing the branding. That should be announced sometime in August hopefully. Additionally, we are hosting clinics as a way of engaging the community and getting our name out there by providing some skills training for the large youth soccer community in our area. The coaching hire should happen sometime over the next month and a half or so. As far as where we will be playing for our first season, fingers crossed we will be able to announce that by early October. The long-term stadium planning takes a little longer logistically, it does not just happen overnight. However, our goal is still to start season two in 2020 in our permanent home.

[Related: Here’s my best guess at GPS’ branding.]

While we are on the topic of that stadium, what kind of environment and culture are you looking to create with this venue?

Our thought is that this will be the home for Upstate soccer. What does that entail? Is it just a stadium or something more like what Charleston has with the pub? We do not have all those answers at this point. Is it a place for more than just soccer? Will it be a place capable of hosting lacrosse and football and anything else? It is not financially feasible to build a stadium for 16 nights a year. So, we are going to be listening with open ears about how to best utilize this project for the community.

So much of it depends on where it ends up within the area. We are not in the restaurant business. I love what Charlotte has done with putting the pub that they have put near (Memorial Stadium, the Independence’s likely future home). One of the things we are talking about with the location is being a part of a larger development especially since we will not be right on Main Street. We have a couple of downtown options on the table and we have some suburban options on the table. We want to be a part of a development that will bring people in, not just for soccer, but for entertainment. I do not know exactly what that looks like, but we know how important it is that beer and soccer be closely linked.

We absolutely want a restaurant or brewery in close proximity to the stadium. Hopefully one that will open early on Saturdays and Sundays to show some soccer.

What does a priority deposit get me if I pay my money?

It gets you a place in line to choose your seats both at our temporary and permanent stadiums. There are going to be some additional gifts that go with it as well. We promise we are going to take care of our priority deposit folks.

Any closing thoughts you would like to share as we move into August?

Stay tuned and connect with us on social media and at our website. We should have announcements soon regarding the date of the brand launch once that is ready. We intend to sell merchandise at that event. We will move on from there and hopefully have our coach hired soon.

Stay tuned because things are about to get busy.

Listen to the full audio version of my conversation with Doug below.