The North American Soccer League will take over ownership and operation of the Jacksonville Armada FC, one of its teams, as the league tries to maintain a presence in the second tier of professional soccer.

Armada FC owner Mark Frisch said the owners of the other teams in the league will buy the franchise from him, while looking for a new owner for Jacksonville. He did not reveal the price.

His announcement came Saturday, a day after a crucial, long-awaited decision by the U.S. Soccer Federation that allowed the NASL to remain a second-division league for 2017, slotted under Major League Soccer. The current third-division league, the United Soccer League, had been pushing hard to move up to the higher-profile second division.

The federation decided to give both leagues second-division status on a provisional basis, giving them each a year to meet standards set by U.S. Soccer such as stadium size (5,000 seats) and a minimum number of teams (12).

It’s in the interest of the NASL to keep the financially struggling Armada going as the league hopes to stay alive and continue expanding to meet those standards. Without the Armada, it would be down to just seven franchises.

Such an arrangement is not unprecedented: The league took over its Atlanta franchise for the 2015 season, then folded it when a buyer could not be found.

Frisch said he was optimistic a buyer would emerge for the Armada, adding that he has been in talks with several groups. "I think it happens before the end of the season," he said. "That’s what everybody wants."

The soccer federation’s decision Friday gives the league a little breathing room. If the NASL had been demoted to the third division, it’s not likely it would have survived to play in 2017.

In an interview Friday, Frisch said he lost money trying to get a soccer team established in Jacksonville. "I did. More than I ever thought," he said. "You have all the business plans and the budgets and all that stuff, and then it gets away from you."

Frisch is a Jacksonville native and executive vice president at his family-owned Beaver Street Fisheries, a seafood and meat supplier. Splitting his time between that business and the Armada has been tough, he said.

"I’ve lost a lot of sleep. And that affects everything. It touches family, it touches business," he said. "It’s just time for me to get back to my regular routine. I can still fill my life with plenty of excitement selling seafood."

The NASL, which was sanctioned as a division two league for six years, had a shaky 2016. Since the end of the fall season, its Minnesota franchise moved up to MLS, Tampa Bay and Ottawa jumped ship for the rival USL, Oklahoma City ceased operations and Fort Lauderdale has been up for sale and is not likely to play this spring.

The league got some good news this past week as word came that its most well-known team, the New York Cosmos, which seemed on the edge of extinction, would be bought by a cable TV entrepreneur who vowed to keep them going — contingent on the NASL staying a second-division league.

The spring season will feature the debut of an expansion team from San Francisco. News reports have named six more potential expansion teams, from a new group in Atlanta to two groups in Southern California.

Frisch said he’s been frank sharing the Armada’s financial details to prospective buyers: "It’s a big financial commitment. It’s tough."

For now, teams rely largely on local ticket sales and local sponsorships to defray costs. That makes it hard to remain financially viable, said Frisch. But if the NASL survives and expands as planned, travel costs should drop as teams get grouped into regional divisions. League-wide sponsorship deals and perhaps a TV package would help.

Frisch said he did not know if the future Armada would continue playing at the Baseball Grounds, where the bulk of the team’s home games have been held. That venue had strengths but also some problems, as do other possibilities such as the Jacksonville University or University of North Florida stadiums.

"(The Baseball Grounds) was part of the problem, frankly when we think about the attendance. You don’t really get the atmosphere playing in a baseball stadium. You don’t. It’s a great venue, it’s amazing, first-class, but you’re away from the field and you have the concourse and people are just kind of roaming, they’re not into it," he said. "A soccer field is just different."

The formation of the Armada was announced in 2013 with some high expectations that Jacksonville had become a soccer city. The city got kudos after more than 44,000 people went to a U.S. men’s national team match against Scotland at EverBank Field in 2012, shattering the regional record for a U.S. exhibition game. That helped Jacksonville land the team’s final warm-up match, against Nigeria, before the 2014 World Cup.

The Armada’s debut, in April 2015, was a smash. The team drew an NASL record of more than 16,000 fans and its first goal came just 12 seconds after the opening kickoff, leading to a 3-1 victory.

It got rockier after that.

Through much of its existence, the team had trouble scoring and winning games. Average attendance at Armada matches dropped from an average of 7,927 in the first year to 3,499 the next. The team slashed staff through 2016 and has released some of its top players since season’s end. Frisch said that was to allow them, amid the uncertainty, to find a new place to play, though it’s possible some would return.

Coach Mark Lowry, who remains with the team, began to turn the Armada around after Frisch in August fired U.S. national team legend Tony Meola, who began the 2016 spring season as coach. The fall season ended on a high note, with a couple of come-from-behind victories in the last home games.

Frisch said he heard many times from fans who told him how much they enjoyed the experience at Armada matches. But he also met many who said they kept meaning to get out to a game but hadn’t yet.

"I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s OK.’ Maybe I should not have said that’s OK. Maybe I should have said, ‘Get to the game, would you? It’s a lot of fun.’"

Matt Soergel: (904) 359-4082