by JAKE NUTTING

NEW YORK CITY – It’s safe to say that the NASL’s announcement that Rayo OKC would join the league for the 2016 Spring Season was met with heavy skepticism. Foreign ownership and branding usually does.

NASL Commissioner Bill Peterson, though, believes that the dogged nature of this ownership group could set them up for success in the short run up to their inaugural year.

“People [in the market] seem to be much more receptive of it than maybe others,” Peterson began. “I think you have to recognize Rayo’s involvement in this because it’s going to be important. That’s a club that could be a top club in this country very quickly with their resources, and I’m talking about the expertise that they have coming into this. It’s going to be an interesting club to follow.”

The group, which includes Rayo Vallecano de Madrid from La Liga as well as local entrepreneur Sean Jones as minority owner, has been steadily working towards building their franchise — even after the NASL cooled off on the market earlier this year.

“They never gave up,” said Peterson. “Even though we’ve had some ups and downs there, Sean Jones and his crew never stopped working on getting ready to launch a team. They never stopped working on organizing it.

“So they are not an expansion team, per se,” he continued. “They are far down the road on all their plans. They did an incredible job Tuesday at the press conference. There was like 300 people there, every media person was there.

“We sort of let it go dark for a little while and let them get organized, but they never stopped working for one day.”

While their desire is clear, the Rayo name being attached to the branding of an expansion club in a market with little connection to Madrid or Spain has left many wondering if the project was doomed to fail. Peterson is aware of the criticism, but it’s not something that the commissioner is overly concerned with at the moment.

“I’ve got a little saying that ‘clubs stay, owners can come and go.’ We’re trying to build stuff that’s going to last for centuries,” he said. “It’s interesting, though, it’s just part of the name, not the full name. And if they ever did leave, it would leave with them.”