{"id":204139,"date":"2026-03-24T17:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T17:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/204139\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T17:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T17:02:08","slug":"sporting-jax-names-new-team-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/204139\/","title":{"rendered":"Sporting Jax names new team president"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sporting Jax<\/a> has fielded women\u2019s and men\u2019s professional soccer in Jacksonville. That is a testament to the work of former team President Steve Livingstone, whose departure was announced Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

The club announced that Mark Warburton<\/a> has been promoted from director of soccer to president. He will lead the club\u2019s player development, recruitment and international partnerships as well as its on-field operations.<\/p>\n

In a previous life, Warburton has served as academy director for Brentford and on the technical staff for West Ham United. He also managed 55-time Scottish champions Rangers F.C. when the Glasgow-club was promoted to the Scottish Premier League in 2016. Sporting Jax is his first club in the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a pivotal moment for Sporting JAX,\u201d \u00a0Warburton said in a statement. \u201cWe are building something truly special in Jacksonville \u2014 a club with ambition, community at its core and a clear pathway to success. I\u2019m honored to step into this role and continue driving our vision forward, both on the pitch and through meaningful global partnerships.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Sporting Club Jacksonville majority owner Ricky Caplan, left, shakes hands with Mark Warburton during an announcement March 20, 2025. Sporting Jax hired Warburton to be its inaugural director of soccer. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today<\/p>\n

Warburton replaces Livingstone, a longtime soccer evangelist who has helped both the Jacksonville Armada and Sporting Jax field men\u2019s professional clubs. Livingstone was an investor from the outset in Sporting Jax<\/a>. Livingstone told Jacksonville Today he wishes Sporting Jax the best and will be a fan for life.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter nine years building the club, it was time for me to look in another direction,\u201d Livingstone said. \u201cI\u2019m very proud of everything we\u2019ve accomplished as a team. I\u2019ll continue to be involved in the club as a founding partner and investor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Sporting Jax captain Sophie Jones speaks with the team moments before they took the pitch against Dallas Trinity. Sporting Jax lost to league-leading Dallas Trinity FC 1-0 at Hodges Stadium on Sept. 6, 2025. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today<\/p>\n

Sporting Jax\u2019s women\u2019s side leads the Gainbridge Super League in its inaugural season<\/a> with 40 points from 20 matches. Jacksonville\u2019s first fully professional women\u2019s sports team is a blend of international quality players, college standouts and academy products.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Sporting Jax men\u2019s team will look for its first USL Championship win on Wednesday night when it hosts Miami FC at Hodges Stadium.<\/p>\n

When the Sporting Jax lost 3-0 to Hartford Athletic<\/a> on March 7 in front of 10,357 people, it marked the first time in nine years that Jacksonville had fielded a men\u2019s pro soccer team.<\/p>\n

\"\"Kieran Sadlier captained Sporting Jax for its inaugural USL Championship match. Hartford Athletic defeated Sporting Jax 3-0 in a USL Championship contest at Hodges Stadium on March 7, 2026. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s wonderful for the city, and it\u2019s wonderful for the opportunities it will create. I\u2019m proud of everything kicking off well,\u201d Livingstone said. \u201cWe\u2019ve spent a long time working on this. We did it the right way. We did it in a meaningful and focused way. The foundation has been put in place for great success.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sporting Jax has fielded women\u2019s and men\u2019s professional soccer in Jacksonville. That is a testament to the work…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-204139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}