Reading franchise in National Premier Soccer League readingeagle.com From our news staff 2/7/2009 Gameface International, LLC of Wyomissing has acquired the rights for a franchise in the National Premier Soccer League for the 2009 season. FC Reading Revolution will play in the Northern Region's Keystone Conference in the league for national team, former and current college, foreign, amateur, former professional and youth players. Home games will be played at Albright College's Shirk Stadium, starting Saturday, May 16, against Buffalo City FC at 7 p.m. The regular season will end in July, with the playoffs scheduled the weekend of July 18-19. The head coach will be longtime Berks scholastic coach Mike Moyer, who spent four seasons in the USL pro ranks with the Philadelphia Freedom and Reading Rage. Moyer will be assisted by Eric Puls, the FC Revolution club founder who coached and played during the Rage's pro seasons. The NPSL is the successor of the Men's Premier Soccer League, which formed in 2002, and is sanctioned by the U.S. Adult Soccer Association. There are teams throughout the country. Pennsylvania teams include the Stoners in the Lehigh Valley, Pocono Snow and Lancaster Inferno. Information about the new team, including tryout dates, will be posted on the FC Revolution Web site www.fcrevolution.com.
An interesting addition to the league. I wonder how two similar level teams (the other being the PDL Rage) will do in attracting both fans and players. There are now several options for in the area for college players in the area. You have two teams in Reading, one in the Leigh Valley and one down in Lancaster. I wished I still lived in the area ,no lack of live soccer.
ButlerBob: I've come to find out that the NPSL Lancaster Inferno are actually on hiatus for one year.
This is really interesting, being that the Rage are already established there. Eric Puls, co owner of the Revs was involved with the Rage quite a few yrs ago. I saw on the FC Revs site they signed Pete Rowley, whom played for the Rage for the past couple of seasons. This is good though, the more soccer in PA, the better. I Love It!
The press release says they're gonna play at Albright College, but Reading United took over the venue last season, I wonder if they're relocating or if Shirk Stadium will host both teams? We already discussed this on the Reading United thread, but I think it's silly to have both a PDL and NPSL team in Reading, especially when United has been much more successful, the market doesn't need two teams.
while the market doesn't need 2 teams, somebody obviously thinks that the business plan works. I've just tweeted a question over to the Reading United...we'll see what they have to say (if anything) about possibly sharing the same pitch.
I can't imagine either side embracing a shared pitch, but I'm curious to see what the response is. If Reading is going to have two teams, it'd be nice to see them play a derby, although I know it's been shot down in the past thanks to the feud between NPSL and PDL.
from what I understand the USL PDL home office has relaxed their stance on not allowing their PDL teams to play NPSL clubs in exhibitions. So let's get started on that derby...