Division II pro soccer team to call New Mexico home
Santa Fe man helps bring United Soccer League franchise to Albuquerque
Peter Trevisani can see it now. Under the glow of stadium lights, a black and white ball falls to the ground, a whistle blows, and a pack of muscular legs and fast-paced feet rush across a grassy field.
A breeze pulses through the bleachers, where crowds with face paint and handmade posters cheer. Young and old, wealthy and poor, women and men, families and couples, soccer enthusiasts and sport illiterates — a group of strangers are joined together as friends to share a passion, even if it’s just for a couple of hours.
This is the dream of New Mexico’s United Soccer League team — and Trevisani, the leader of its ownership group and a Santa Fe resident.
Chief Operating Officer Justin Papadakis awarded the newest USL franchise to New Mexico on Wednesday night, giving the state a pro soccer team that will begin its inaugural season in March 2019.
During the announcement at Albuquerque’s Fusion Theatre, Trevisani — who also is the team’s president — joked that the news is “New Mexico’s worst-kept secret,” since he said so many people knew about it already.
Founded in 2011, the United Soccer League is just one step below the Major Soccer League and currently has 33 teams, spanning from Las Vegas, Nev., to New York. Until 2017, the league was considered third-tier, but in the U.S. Soccer Federation named the league Division II.
Although the Albuquerque franchise doesn’t yet have a coach or even a nickname, Trevisani introduced the team’s first player, bringing Devon Sandoval — a former Albuquerque Eldorado and University of New Mexico star — to the stage.
“It’s something the whole community can rally around and get together for,” Sandoval said. “The only thing here that people can get behind like that is UNM and NMSU, and those are two rival schools. But this is something that the whole state can support.”
Organizers emphasized that creating a pro-level team isn’t solely about winning games — it’s about community.
Still, there is plenty of work to do before the team energizes soccer fans in the area. The team secured Isotopes Park as its home for the first two years, Trevisani said, and organizers are interviewing coaches, scouting players and brainstorming crest logos, team names and uniforms. Trevisani said the roster should be filled by the end of this year with up to seven international players — as well as “probably several other born-andraised New Mexico players” — and that a coach likely will be selected by August.
“June 6 is what sets everything in motion,” Trevisani said.
He said he has been conceptualizing the team for nearly a year and has been working with his full-time staff since January to make things happen.
But success won’t come easy for the New Mexican team, and it cer-
tainly will take time.
Trevisani said the team already has financial backing, but in order for this to work, he’d like to see 7,000 to 8,000 people attend each game. He expects that the opening game will be sold out.
“We have the financial backing,” he said. “What we really need is the support of New Mexico.”
The USL claims a following of about 75 million people, and since 2014, the league has doubled its number of teams nationwide. In 2016, the league said $100 million was invested into stadium infrastructure and another $10 million went to create original media content with national partners and local affiliates via USL Productions.
But for the team to appeal to the masses — both in New Mexico and beyond — Trevisani said it’s crucial to be community-oriented and think wisely about cost.
“It’s critical to us that we have an affordable option. We want our team to be accessible to everyone,” he said, pointing to the Albuquerque Isotopes, the Triple-A minor league baseball team, as an example. “We’ve been trying to learn from them, and we want to partner with them.”
Trevisani said he didn’t grow up watching or playing soccer. It wasn’t until 1998, while working in finance for Lehman Brothers in London, that he came face-to-face with the soccer culture. It was in The Prince Bonaparte pub, during the World Cup, that Trevisani — a former Division I football player at Boston College — discovered his passion for a sport nicknamed “the beautiful game.”
“I got to see this amazing power soccer has — this power to unify people,” he said.
Just a couple of years ago, Trevisani returned to the European soccer scene, living in Barcelona for nine months with his family. When he returned to the U.S., he brought with him a dream of creating that same spirited culture in New Mexico.
Because Trevisani is relatively new to soccer, he believes he can bring fresh ideas to the team’s development process.
“I’m not just following what everyone else has done,” he said, adding that some of his new ideas include collaborating with art outlets — specifically, Santa Fe’s Meow Wolf, where he was an early investor and now operates as a strategic advisor; participating in split sponsorships — meaning the team would have a vareity of sponsors for away matches as well as home contests; and playing internationally in tournaments — and holding home and away matches with international clubs.
“We’re dreaming big,” Trevisani said, adding that having players such as Sandoval as building blocks for the future will help make those goals become reality.
“I have a lot of responsibility, I feel, to the people,” said Sandoval, who has played for teams like the North American Soccer League’s San Francisco Deltas and the USL’s Atlanta United. “I want us to do well and be something that the people can get behind and celebrate.”
Trevisani said the team’s mission to make an impact is what will set it apart.
“This is our state and our team. We have the opportunity to create something that will last for generations,” he said. “This is just the beginning.”