ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – As the club’s longest serving player, Tampa Bay Rowdies veteran Georgi Hristov knew better than most what life at the club was like before the Rowdies were purchased in December 2013 by local businessman Bill Edwards.

And, after five seasons that have seen Hristov make history on the field and Edwards turn the Rowdies into a dynamic, successful business off the field, the Bulgarian forward has nothing but gratitude for the changes he had seen that made the club what it is today.

“He made so many changes and put so much money into something that no-one was sure it was going to work,” said Hristov recently. “The Rowdies were in trouble before he got in charge, so he invested in us and put us where we are and we’re very recognizable in the Tampa Bay area.”

The sale of the Rowdies to the Tampa Bay Rays was a move that reverberated around the USL, bringing in another world-class ownership group to the league’s already-impressive collection across the United States and Canada. That the Rays leadership had interest in purchasing the club, though, was principally due to the investment and time that Edwards put into the club.

The investment in particular to the club’s home at Al Lang Stadium – which included the addition of a new sideline stand in 2014 and a major $2 million overhaul for the rest of the venue in 2015 – and the club’s offices within the same facility made the venue one of the most unique and scenic in North American soccer. While Edwards drove the investment, he paid tribute to the people who made the vision come to life when he visited the pregame show at the Rowdies’ final home game of the 2018 USL regular season.

“I’m proud of it all,” Edwards told host Heather Donnelly. “I’m proud of the people. The people in this town, the people that work in this team and all the rest of the gang, all the people who work here who have done just a phenomenal job, I’m just very proud of them and what they’ve done because without them we couldn’t have ever done this.”