Community-based amateur soccer is in many ways the lifeblood of the growth of American soccer on the grassroots level. The remarkable recent growth of local supporters culture taking the best of European traditions and marrying them with small and medium-sized town America is one of the great untold stories of the past few years in US soccer.

While much of the oxygen in the American soccer media is taken up by covering MLS expansion and the hobbies of billionaires, organic and community-based soccer has grown to unprecedented levels in this country, largely under the radar. Certainly, organically created Detroit City FC stands out as a rare example of how to create a culture second to none in a large American city. Clubs such as Chattanooga FC and others have shown the way in smaller towns and medium-sized cities, the types of locales MLS with its business metrics and the U.S. Soccer Federation with its pro league standards (PLS) — which mandate certain-sized metropolitan areas for Division I and II teams — don’t fancy.

The allure of a local community-based sporting events and the easy availability of European football on American television has led directly to the rapid interest in the sport outside of large elite metropolitan areas over the past several years. But with U.S. Soccer’s pro league standards in place and MLS’ lack of interest in markets that don’t either have an owner worth billions ready to sink money into a loss-leader or improve the league’s television profile to national rights holders, moving small community-based clubs upward to the pro ranks has proven to be difficult.

Enter Jacksonville Armada FC owner Robert Palmer. In less than a year since entering the world of American soccer, Palmer has left his mark. Talking over an NASL club that came close to folding at the end of the 2016 campaign, only to be revived by the league thanks to the sale of the Fort Lauderdale Strikers falling through days before the USSF re-sanctioned the league as Division II. Jacksonville had to be operated by the league in order ensure the NASL continued to comply with the USSF PLS minimum of 8 teams for a Division II league. But soon after the NASL assumed control of the club, it was already talking to Palmer.

The Armada FC owner needs little introduction to Floridians as his commercials air regularly on local channels and his companies are well known. Palmer is the founder and CEO of the Robert Palmer Companies which includes RP Funding, HomeValue.com, Listing Power Tools, RP Title and several other business ventures.

Bringing an owner of Palmer’s stature into NASL at a time when the league was struggling to survive was a strong signal to those, particularly in Florida, that the league still had a pulse and could still attract investors with a certain degree of stature.

As we enter the 2018 soccer season in the United States, the NASL is on life-support but unlike other owners that owned teams in the league, folding or shifting to the rival USL isn’t an option currently for Palmer. Therefore, Palmer has taken a step toward forming his own league, one that would — if it comes to fruition — allow supporters and community-oriented clubs to move forward in a professional setting without having to abide by the PLS, something which Palmer feels disenfranchise communities and lovers of the sport.

Without sanctioning correct – my goal is *not* to play unsanctioned my goal is to make sure that if we *have* to play unsanctioned in order to have community based teams that it’s feasible There are options for sanctioning outside of the PLS that we are exploring — Robert Palmer (@rp_robertpalmer) February 18, 2018

The concept of Division Zero is a work in progress with a single task force meeting in the book. But Palmer has a clear sense of why he is going down this route.

“I look at the landscape and I am frustrated,” he said. “I bought the Armada because I believe in the Jacksonville market. But here we find ourselves without sanctioning because we can’t find enough owners with the right net worth, in the right-sized market, in the right time zones and all these (artificial) barriers put in place by the PLS. But I want to play soccer and want to see the Armada FC play soccer. Division Zero is a chance for Americans to embrace community-based soccer.”

Community-based soccer might be a buzzword to describe the way the sport is embraced around the rest of the world. It might also be seen as a negative connotation, something that can work in a place like England, where urbanization and the sprawling nature of suburbs didn’t emerge in quite the same way it did in the United States. With few exceptions, people in England identify with their towns and neighborhoods, even if part of a larger urbanized community.

This hasn’t been the case in United States sporting culture, where single franchised teams represent large urban areas and help to unite far-flung suburbs and urban cores in support of a single team. But clear signs of that changing are underway as millennials flock to soccer and are inspired by the European and Latin American experience, more than that of American sports. For example, in my home metropolitan area, Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, despite the loss of two professional teams in recent years, we will have 12 teams this season playing in the PDL, NPSL or UPSL alone in addition to other independent semi-professional clubs that play in local leagues, including supporter-owned Himmarshee FC.

While those adherents to the franchise-based model of MLS have adopted American sporting concepts, thus having a sprawling closed league in large markets across a continent of different cultures, Division Zero promises to be different. Palmer believes in regional play and allowing fans to travel to away matches both thanks to the idea of incentivized ticket packages as well more localized play.

“Right now in the U.S. system, successful supporter-driven teams cannot take the next step to pro without selling 35 percent to someone with a $20 million net worth,” Palmer pointed out, meaning clubs often lose their soul as they move up the ladder of the U.S. system. Palmer can see this on full display in his own home area, as Orlando City SC has gone from a community-oriented local club in its USL days, to a foreign-owned MLS franchise whose understanding of the local market has waned in the past few years. Countless other examples spring to mind to reinforce this point in the U.S. soccer ecosystem.

“If you look at the current dynamic, a rich guy arbitrarily picks a city or area that self-identifies because they have a fan base and have sponsors who want to step up,” Palmer added. “When we look at the failures of soccer in places like Columbus, Rochester, the Breakers in NWSL, communities are suffering because of the current ecosystem of soccer in this country, but where the ecosystem is thriving is at the amateur level. The goal is to try to take successes from the amateur level and take them to pro.”

Palmer has a clear vision for his goals in a potential new league. His ability to understand the U.S. Soccer landscape has impressed those around him. “He’s a bit of a genius,” one NASL insider told me last week in reference to Palmer.

Whether Palmer gets his league off the ground remains to be seen, but he’s already contributing to the important discussions around the future of the men‘s amateur and professional games in the United States.

Follow Kartik on Twitter: @kkfla737.

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