Wilmington Hammerheads ending affiliation with USL at conclusion of season

Professional soccer in Wilmington is no more.

Sources told the StarNews on Thursday that the Wilmington Hammerheads are leaving the USL at the conclusion of this season and will play in the Premier Development League starting next summer. The PDL is made up of elite college players looking for higher level competition during the summer.

Sources spoke under condition of anonymity because the situation is still ongoing. An official announcement from the club and the league is expected sometime next week.

The Hammerheads will play their final USL game in the Port City this Saturday when they host the Richmond Kickers. The match starts at 7 p.m.

This transition comes amid growing rumors that the Hammerheads were leaving Wilmington.

Scratching the Pitch, a website dedicated to covering professional soccer, reported on Aug. 1 that the team was not planning to compete in the USL in 2017. The sources also said George Altirs will remain as owner of the Hammerheads in the PDL, as well as a new team in the USL.

On Sept. 13, the Washington Post reported the USL was hoping to place a team in Baltimore. The Post outlined that moving the Hammerheads franchise rights to Baltimore was the most promising scenario, and the club would likely be “taking a year off for marketing and logistical purposes and beginning play under a new name in 2018 at Towson University, 10 miles north of downtown Baltimore.”

In that report, The Post mentioned that the Hammerheads name would live on in the PDL.

It is unclear whether the Hammerheads’ professional rights would transfer with the new club or if Altirs would start an expansion franchise. All the players on Wilmington’s current roster are under non-guaranteed contracts, meaning their deals expire at the end of the season but could have been renewed or extended. The organization will continue to operate its youth program which fields a variety of teams at different ages and levels.

According to its website, the PDL is a soccer league that “has proven to be an important stepping-stone for professionals throughout the world.” The league operates 67 teams in four conferences throughout the United States and Canada. The Hammerheads would be the third PDL team in North Carolina. The Carolina Dynamo have operated out of Greensboro since 1993, and the Charlotte Eagles have existed since 1991.

The team in Wilmington will operate much as the Wilmington Sharks baseball team does. Players aren't paid, so they keep their amateur status. The season runs runs from mid-May to mid-July.

The PDL is considered the fourth-division of soccer in the United States, behind Major League Soccer, the North American Soccer League and the USL. According to the league website, 106 former PDL players are now on professional rosters within those higher leagues.

This ends a 20-year run with the Hammerheads playing professional soccer in Wilmington, with a one-year hiatus in 2010. Altirs, who owns Capelli New York, bought the club in 2013.

But since that time, the league has expanded from 13 clubs to 29, with three more already scheduled to begin play by 2018. Wilmington is the smallest market throughout the USL.

-- Reporter Jackson Fuller can be reached at Jackson.Fuller@StarNewsOnline.com.