Pawtucket Soccer Stadium Developer’s Other Soccer Team Draws Few Fans

Pawtucket Soccer Stadium Developer’s Other Soccer Team Draws Few Fans

The developer of the proposed Pawtucket soccer stadium also has a controlling interest in another team on the west coast — and that team does not attract too many fans.

Brett Johnson, the CEO and Founder of Fortuitous Partners, the developer of the proposed Tidewater 10,000-seat stadium in Pawtucket, talks about a lot of different soccer teams that he says he has a financial interest in and their logos are splashed across his company's website.

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The State of Rhode Island and the City of Pawtucket have already promised the proposed stadium upwards of $70 million in subsidies, tax breaks, and infrastructure improvements. Now, Johnson is asking for another $30 million to finance the project.

With some of the teams, Johnson's financial ownership is often very small. In the case of the English team Ipswich Town FC — Johnson often discusses his ownership. He posted a video to Twitter about his love of the team on Thursday.

 

Happy Anniversary ⁦@IpswichTown⁩. Onward and upward! pic.twitter.com/9ivSKXzVMe

— Brett M. Johnson (@bmjcrew28) April 7, 2022

 

The investment group Gamechanger 20 owns around 90% of the Ipswich club. Of that, Johnson and two other individuals (Mark Detmer and Berke Bakay) own a combined 5% of the team between the three of them. The bulk of the funding (and the vast majority of the ownership) comes from the Arizona state pension fund. 

 

FC Tucson 

The one team Johnson has a controlling interest in is the FC Tucson team. It plays in the same league as the team Johnson is proposing for Pawtucket — the USL, but at a lower level. The team in Pawtucket and the team in Tucson are minor league teams.

Johnson took a controlling interest in the FC Tucson team 2021. Previously, he had an ownership and management interest in Tucson via another team he was a shareholder in — Phoenix Rising. According to press reports, Johnson still has a financial interest in the Phoenix team, but Johnson has repeatedly refused to respond to questions about his ownership interest.

 

Tucson v. Pawtucket or Tucson v. Rhode Island

Tucson, Arizona is a city with a population more than eight-times larger than Pawtucket.

The Tucson metro area has a population of 1.1 million — about the population of Rhode Island. Tucson's population is about 545,000 and Pawtucket's is about 72,000.

Johnson’s team F.C. Tucson plays in the Kino Sports Complex  — a county-owned facility that seats about 3,200.

There is an adjacent baseball facility in the sports complex. Think of a McCoy Stadium facility for baseball.

The Tucson Padres used to play in the baseball stadium — the former spring training home of the Chicago White Sox and Arizona Diamondbacks —but like the Paw Sox, the Tucson minor league moved away.

Johnson’s team plays in a separate stadium in the same sports complex. The soccer portion of the complex was developed for the FC Tucson team in 2014.

According to Tucson.com in 2014, "Soccer will soon have a permanent presence at Kino Sports Complex. Plans are moving forward on an agreement between Pima County and FC Tucson to use five fields and a clubhouse for soccer events."

The cost of the facility was only in the hundreds of thousands at the time, not in the tens of millions Johnson is calling for in Pawtucket. 

"The field conversion would cost $81,000, which FC Tucson would pay back over two or three years, said county administrator Chuck Huckelberry. The county would relocate fences, add bleacher seating for up to 2,000 fans and change the lighting to make it more affordable....FC Tucson also would pay about $64,000 to use the clubhouse, formerly occupied by minor league baseball, and also pay a field-use fee. 'We're not going to make any money, but we're not going to lose any money in the proposition,' Huckelberry said," reported Tucson.com.

"Tucson will be well positioned to be a major hub for 'an emerging sport that's going to be very popular,' Huckelberry said in 2014.

But, eight years later there is little fan base and small attendance.

 

 

FC Tucson — Attendance Questions

According to league data, Johnson's Tucson team in 2021 drew a near league-low 1,007 per game. 

For the 2022 season, GoLocal reviewed game films of the Tucson team's home games and hand-counted the number of fans. In reviewing three games, the attendance averaged closer to 600 fans or less per game.

This season Tucson is the last ranked team in the 11-team league.

Johnson did not respond to questions about the Tucson team's attendance.

 

Editor's note:  An earlier version of the article stated there were 12 teams in USL1. The article has been corrected -- there are 11 teams and two expansion teams.  Johnson has refused to answer questions about his financial interests in the Phoenix Rising team but one press report says he is still a member of the board.