{"id":656549,"date":"2026-05-08T18:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T18:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/656549\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T18:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T18:51:08","slug":"hometown-soccer-holdings-sees-next-pro-team-moves-as-chance-to-expand-mls-fanbases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/656549\/","title":{"rendered":"Hometown Soccer Holdings sees Next Pro team moves as chance to expand MLS fanbases"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-leagues-and-governing-bodies \">Hometown Soccer Holdings CEO Tom Glick said by moving MLS Next Pro teams to nearby mid-sized markets, it enables affiliated MLS clubs to \u201cexpand its fan base,\u201d according to Erik Spanberg of the CHARLOTTE BUSINESS JOURNAL. Hometown Soccer Holdings, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2026\/04\/30\/mls-kkr-form-joint-venture-to-commercialize-next-pro\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2026\/04\/30\/mls-kkr-form-joint-venture-to-commercialize-next-pro\/\">created by KKR and MLS to revamp MLS Next Pro<\/a>, is consolidating ownership of the development league\u2019s 30 existing clubs, 27 of which are owned by parent MLS clubs and moving them to mid-sized regional cities. Glick said the move of Next Pro teams to nearby regional cities will \u201cdraw more fans not only of that local club but knowing it\u2019s closely linked and the players have a pathway into that Major League Soccer club.\u201d Glick said that moving to the new structure of having Hometown Soccer running \u201cmost or all of the teams will take several years.\u201d At the same time, \u201cnew clubs will be added annually over the next five to seven years.\u201d He noted, \u201cThe key will be having the right markets, the right facilities &#8212; we\u2019ll be partnering with municipalities to do great facilities that become the beating heart of their downtowns.\u201d The shift in strategy and ownership to Hometown Soccer \u201cwill introduce many more independent clubs, with expansion planned on an annual basis.\u201d While the initial focus is on men\u2019s teams in MLS\u2019 developmental league, Glick \u201cleft open the possibility of moving into women\u2019s pro soccer at some point in the future\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bizjournals.com\/charlotte\/news\/2026\/05\/06\/hometown-soccer-holdings-tepper-sports-mls-glick.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CHARLOTTE BUSINESS JOURNAL, 5\/6<\/a>). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hometown Soccer Holdings CEO Tom Glick said by moving MLS Next Pro teams to nearby mid-sized markets, it&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656550,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,139,561,82],"class_list":["post-656549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-leadership","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}