Given his Southern California roots, and the era he grew up in, it’s fair to say new Orange County Blues FC owner James Keston is a product of the rebirth of soccer in the United States.

“I’m lucky to have been born into and grown up in a time where U.S. soccer regained its World Cup focus and became a world-class organization again,” Keston said. “I was in my teens when we first qualified for the World Cup [in 1990] and growing up in Los Angeles right around when I graduated from high school, going to all of the World Cup games in ’94 at the Rose Bowl – 115,000 people that you never knew were soccer fans all gathered in one place at one time – there truly is nothing else like it.”

Keston is now set to bring his passion for the game and his extensive experience in real estate and the business world to the Blues. After completing his purchase of the team from founder and now-minority owner Ali Mansouri, Keston is aiming to take the Blues to a higher level of operation off the field to mirror the improvement the side has seen over the past 18 months under the leadership of General Manager Oliver Wyss and Technical Director Barry Venison.

That means greater levels of staffing in the front office, greater outreach in the local community, the potential to build a proper home stadium for the Blues in Orange County, and the desire to build strong relationships with local clubs across the area.