Republic FC team captain Lee Desmond, new president Tim Holt and head coach Neill Collins speak during a news conference about the team’s immediate future on Tuesday in Sacramento.
Chris Biderman
cbiderman@sacbee.com
There’s a new executive in charge of leading Sacramento Republic FC into its next era.
The club introduced recently hired president and general manager Tim Holt during a Tuesday news conference, where Holt outlined his vision for Republic FC as it presses forward toward its opening of a new stadium in the downtown Railyards in 2027 and the beginning of its 2026 season with this Saturday’s home opener.
Holt — a former USL league president who helped Sacramento join as an expansion team in 2014 — is replacing Todd Dunivant, who was hired to be the sporting director for Major League Soccer club New York City FC in December.
Dunivant leaves big shoes to fill for Holt. He was in charge of the roster and was also instrumental in getting the stadium project started with government officials and the ownership group led by the Wilton Rancheria Native American tribe that bought a controlling stake in 2024.
“That opened an amazing opportunity,” Holt said of Dunivant’s departure. “Not just in our league, but in our sport, to come be a part and help lead Sacramento Republic at this incredible time in its history with so many exciting things going forward.”
Holt served as USL president from 2009 to 2015 and worked with Republic FC managing partner Kevin Nagle to bring Sacramento into the league as an expansion team in 2014, when it won a league championship in its first season.
Holt later served as the managing director of USL’s San Antonio FC and presided over the 2022 club that earned the most points during the regular season and won a league title in the playoffs.
Republic FC Managing Partner Kevin Nagle speaks during a groundbreaking for Republic FC’s new stadium in the Railyards in Sacramento on Monday, Aug. 18. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com Republic FC has big hopes and dreams
The same question has loomed for the better part of a decade when it comes to Republic FC and its long-term future: Is MLS on the table?
To be sure, the club’s ownership group is pushing for it and the new stadium is being built to be expanded from 12,000 seats to more than 20,000, whether that’s for MLS action or something else. Holt will integrate into a leadership role in developing the stadium that broke ground last summer.
The USL announced it’s creating a new league they hope to launch later this decade that will compete with the MLS directly in size and scope. They’re calling it the USL Premier, and it will include a promotion-relegation model similar to those in Europe that will pair with USL’s other two levels, USL Championship (Division II) and USL League One (Division III).
Sacramento is expected to weigh the option of that league vs. paying a lucrative expansion fee to join MLS (San Diego FC paid $500 million to do so in 2023, and Charlotte FC paid $325 million in 2019). Holt will be key in helping ownership make that decision when the time comes.
“This club wants, and fans deserve, for it to compete at the highest levels available to it,” Holt said Tuesday. “ … But the biggest piece of that, beyond the ownership’s aptitude to do it, is the stadium project. So I’m still in the process of familiarizing myself with where all that is. But a downtown, purpose built soccer stadium is a necessity for us to be able to achieve those ambitions over time.”
Foundation work is continuing on the $175 million stadium in the Railyards that’s part of a larger $321 million development. The club has filed plans for the expanded version of the stadium with the city that would coincide with elevating to MLS or USL Premier.
Holt said one of his early jobs is to get up to speed on everything stadium-related.
“There’s a team of people working on that,” Holt said, “which include very directly and actively our ownership. And I will be a member of the team, supporting that however I need to support.
“I think I still have a lot of catching up to do in terms of getting up to speed on all that, and also getting up to speed on where we are from current in season commercial and business operations, and understanding everything we’re doing on the technical side.”
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Chris Biderman covers sports and local news for the Sacramento Bee since joining in August 2018 to cover the San Francisco 49ers. He previously spent time with the Associated Press and USA Today Sports Media Group, and has been published in the San Francisco Chronicle, The Athletic and on MLB.com. He is a current member of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America and former member of the Pro Football Writers of America. The Santa Rosa native graduated with a degree in journalism from the Ohio State University.