Editorial (March 15, 2018) – Atlantic City FC are an NPSL expansion team due to start play in May 2018. Ownership is looking to change the mold of how a soccer club fits in with the local community. Normally considered a market for arcades and beaches, soccer is coming to ‘The World’s Famous Playground.’ Development Director Chris Ross spoke with Last Word on Soccer about his role and this vision with the club.
NPSL Expansion Team Atlantic City FC Looking to Make Positive Impact on Community and Atlantic County
First off, Ross’s interview was features on Last Word SC Radio. See the full episode embedded below:
Club origins and how Chris Ross chose Atlantic City:
“The club officially launched as an NPSL expansion side on December 21, [2017]. I got in touch with [the ownership group] beforehand to see how we could put a strategy in place to develop the club,” Ross told Last Word on Soccer.
From the beginning, ownership made it clear to Ross that they were going to be more than a soccer club that fielded a team on match day. They wanted to make an impact on the local community in ways no organization had before.
“One of the things that attracted me to Atlanta City as an expansion city is that Atlanta City is an area where a lot of regeneration work can take place and can be done to develop the area and have a real impact.”
Atlantic City is a beach resort town best known for its iconic boardwalk. Every year, thousands of tourists enter the city. Besides the sun, sea and sand, Atlantic City is also noted for its casinos. In fact, Atlantic City is often referred to as the entertainment capital of the Atlantic coastline. Casino gambling was legalized in New Jersey in 1974. However, in recent times Atlantic City’s casinos are struggling. This is due to the rising popularity of online gambling. Several famous casinos, including Trump’s Taj Mahal have since closed down.
A flailing economy has also hindered the prosperity of Atlantic City. In the city, the median household income is just $30,237 per year. With a city population around 40,000, 25.3% of Atlantic City residents live below the poverty line. This is according to the 2010 U.S. Census.
The market is clearly an area where there is good to be done.
The Development Director role and applying past experiences:
Ross comes to Atlantic City with a wealth of experience doing similar work for clubs at various levels in his homeland of Scotland:
“Coming up from the Scottish Premier League, I’ve been at Ross County. I’ve been at Kilmarnock. I’ve been responsible for coming up with community programs, initiatives, and working heavily on the social responsibility side of things.
A lot of the work that I’ve done in the Scottish Premier League have been having them engage with the community and be more than just a football club. Make them a focal point of the community: mental health initiatives, supporting poorer income families, make it about social responsibility.”
Like most staff members at a lower division club, he’ll be wearing multiple hats from week-to-week. But the core of his job will be in his competency from his time working in Scotland.
“My role as Development Director will be wide, it will involve developing the youth programs and initiatives, a lot of regeneration work in the area, and outreach work to some of the poorer surroundings areas of Atlantic City. It will also see me get my hands on day-to-day operations: player registration, logistics, making sure everyone at the club is happy, like a club operations director.”
The power of local partnerships:
In their inaugural season, Atlantic City FC will be playing their home matches on the campus of Stockton University, a local public university with an enrollment of around 9,000 total students. The Stockton Ospreys compete in Division III across all college athletics. Their football stadium, Gary L. James Stadium, will be home to ACFC in 2018.
“We’ve got a fantastic partnership set up with Stockton University and Tropicana, the hotel and casino resort in Atlantic City. [Stockton University] is letting us use their grounds, which is a grass pitch.
It’s a very good condition grass pitch with seating capacity for around 2,500 people. We want to be selling that to max capacity in our first year. Our plan in the future is to look to relocating to a stadium site in Atlantic City.”
Ross went on to say the club does have ambitions to move to their own home in the near future. There are several possible sites, one being Badger Field, a city-owned public-use airport close to the heart of the city and the beach.
On site is Surf Stadium, a minor league ballpark built in 1998 that seats 5,500 spectators. It is currently only used by Atlantic Cape Community College as the Atlantic City Surf disbanded in 2009. The entire site is now considered in prime need of redevelopment.
Atlantic City’s potential soccer-specific stadium could further their community development goals by rehabilitating a site such as Badger Field. The club’s partnerships with Stockton University and Tropicana have them in a great position with local partnerships to connect with the community already. This should help them on the community development side and will give them some good will upon leaving Stockton’s campus for their own home.
The 2018 NPSL season begins in May with the final taking place the first week of August. With college football not starting till Labor Day weekend, Atlantic City will have the venue all to themselves without American Football lines, a real get for an NPSL expansion side.
Last Word: Doing the little things right
As mentioned above, there is room for a lot of good to be done in the Atlantic City area. With the Surf leaving in 2009, there are no professional or minor league sports teams in that part of the state. In the entire southern half of New Jersey, there are only minor league baseball teams. The club sees this as a chance to fill a void.
“Another thing that makes Atlantic City quit unique in itself is that it’s the only minor league sports team in that area. At the level we’re playing at in the NPSL, there’s no other basketball team, football team, sports going on in that area. We’re hoping it’s something the community will really rally behind.”
As the only show in town, Atlantic City FC could become an aggregate for community pride. There’s room for Ross and the club to do community development where another sports team would. The organization is already doing the little things right. Open tryouts for the inaugural season were completely free.
With that, an eye on community development, and the right local partnerships already in place, Atlantic City FC are in position to do good on and off the pitch in 2018.
This article was written by Managing Editor Matt Pollard.
