by DAVE MARTINEZ

As promised, the North American Soccer League will announce their next expansion franchise this week – “Rayo OKC.”

EoS has learned the once-abandoned NASL Oklahoma City market will be home to a new second division side with original partner Sold Out Strategies and new investor, Rayo Vallecano of La Liga fame leading the way.

The official announcement will come this Tuesday, with plans on debuting for the 2016 NASL season.

If the debut of the Oklahoma market to the NASL ranks seems a long time coming, it should. Originally, NASL awarded Sold Out manager Brad Lund and former partner Tim McLaughlin of OKC Pro Soccer LLC the expansion franchise distinction under the “Oklahoma City FC” banner in July of 2013.

McLaughlin left the NASL ownership group a year later to take a 50% stake in what is now the USL’s OKC Energy FC.

While Lund promised the project would continue without his partner, Oklahoma’s franchise distinction was all but dismissed by the NASL heading into 2015. In fact, NASL Commissioner Bill Peterson said the league had “moved on” from the original ownership group as early as this year.

That is where Rayo Vallecano comes into frame. While the NASL began to abandon the Oklahoma market, Lund continued to work under the league’s radar to secure a powerful new partner. Eventually, Rayo came aboard, taking a large investment in the club and rebranding the new side “Rayo OKC.”

The subject of branding has long been a sticking point with the new ownership side, with the name “Lightning OKC” offered as a potential monicker early on (“Rayo” means “lightning” in English). However, team ownership settled on Rayo OKC, abandoning their former OKCFC moniker for good.

Rayo is a Spanish club with 91 years of history. They have only recently reached promotion, placing in and around the top 15 in La Liga since 2011-12. Overall, they have spent 17 seasons in La Liga as opposed to 39 years in the second division level.

Rayo’s involvement with Lund in Oklahoma has been the subject of public record since August. La Liga President Javier Tebas memorably praised the clandestine move in an ESPN interview over the summer. However, their involvement wasn’t enough to immediately regain a place in NASL. Several stops and starts forced the league to dismiss the market and ownership group prior to Rayo’s involvement.

What Rayo did offer was another chance to pitch the Oklahoma market to the NASL board. Eventually, both club and league came to an accord, allowing for their immediate inclusion to the NASL.

The team is expected to announce a home stadium on Tuesday as well. While we could not confirm the definitive location of said stadium at the time of this report, expect the arena to be west of Downtown OKC.