The beautiful thing about non-top tier soccer leagues is in the compensation. And the compensation is beautiful.

Not monetary compensation, mind you, but figurative makeup ground. MLS, for instance, has the money, the sponsorships, the big-name Designated Players. It is nowhere near globally elite, but it is the crowned prince of the U.S. and Canada, which for our purposes is all that matters. Scarcity in anything tends to drive innovation in an attempt to equalize out the deficiencies it creates. And in lower tier soccer terminology, that means leagues and clubs… try stuff, to use gentler language.

In the case of the U.S., that means the NASL and the USL, the latter of which has been trying more things at a higher clip than anyone underneath MLS over the past five years. I’ve suggested they, ahem, test dummy an internal form of pro-rel contained within a predetermined number of teams as a sort of American lab experiment (with the side effect of ginning up tons of press). The jury’s out on that, although USL president Jake Edwards told me earlier this year to “never say never.” So. There you go.

On a more molecular club level, though, USL is open to experimentation perhaps in a way MLS clubs are not. And holy hell does Phoenix Rising FC look like an enormously entertaining Petri dish of fun times.

Phoenix Rising FC first snagged eyebrows and forcefully lifted them upwards when they officially rebranded themselves to… Phoenix Rising. After spending three seasons with the endlessly bland cognomen Arizona United SC, local advertising exec and team founder Kyle Eng sold his pet franchise to a new ownership group headed up by Berke Bakay, the president and CEO of restaurant chain Kona Grill. Soon thereafter, Bakay’s group shifted the name off AUSC and onto… Phoenix Rising FC. Unorthodox, to say the least, but it got us talking anyway. In the meantime, newly appointed club president David Farca resigned his post on Nov. 22 just three months after initially taking the job. At the time, Farca was dealing with a lawsuit over consumer fraud, and several weeks later he also resigned as president of the Arizona-Mexico Commission.

While all this was happening, another undercurrent was already sweeping beneath Phoenix Rising FC’s collective feet. About a year ago, famed DJ Diplo, whose most well-known project ‘Major Lazer’ is an enormous global moneymaker, bought into the franchise as a minority owner. The news was a brief blip on the radar screen before disappearing under the chop, but the partnership paid off in the offseason in tandem with the rebrand.

Diplo’s record label, Mad Decent, is the shirt sponsor. Yes to this. Yes to all of this.

So that was all fun enough. Phoenix Rising plays in a rising league (sorry), has a flashy name, plays in a part of the country that features year-round soccer and an academy in Grande that attracts top class players. All good; 2017 looked promising.

And then they signed Omar Bravo, who’s old enough to have been a regular starter when N’Sync was still a band. And then they signed Shaun Wright-Phillips, who’s old enough to have played at Man City before it was Rich Man City. Average age: 36. Average awesome: priceless.

These are prestige signings, in essence. Both will help on the field, however marginally, but in lower tier leagues you’re looking to turn heads outside the organization far more than placating a relatively small fan base. Bravo’s knees might fall off by June, but at least they have World Cup goal-scorer Omar Bravo. The billboards practically write themselves.

Whatever happens on the field this season, Phoenix Rising FC is owned by a guy whose business sells smoked gouda fondue, a guy who’s shot a music video with Justin Bieber, is sponsored by a record label and will start Omar Bravo. In the Arizona desert. What a world we live in.