Will Wilmington ever get another professional soccer team? | MyReporter

Sports fans in Wilmington will have to wait for the return of professional soccer to the Port City.

Plans to bring Wilmington its first pro soccer team since the Hammerheads played their final professional game in 2016 have been halted, and its unclear when they might resume.

In 2022, a group called USL to Wilmington sparked excitement with a proposal to bring a professional soccer team to Wilmington once again.

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"Wilmington has the reputation of being a soccer community that features strong youth clubs, competitive college teams and supportive soccer fans. However, over the past few years, there's been something missing," Dewan Bader, then sporting director of USL to Wilmington, said in a 2022 press release.

Founded in 1996, the Wilmington Hammerheads were the city's first and only professional soccer team. They spent years playing at Legion Stadium to sizable crowds before self-relegating at the end of the 2016 season to the amateur Premiere Development League, which disbanded the following year.

Fast-forward to 2022, and plans to bring a USL League One team to Wilmington were presented. USL League One is the third tier of professional soccer in the United States. It sits below the USL Championship, just under Major League Soccer, the nation's top professional league.

USL to Wilmington laid out a two-year timetable in 2022, hoping to have a team created and ready for action in 2024. Proposed plans included leasing Legion Stadium for two to three years until the organization could establish its own facilities.

The group's managing partner, Chris Mumford, a former investment banker and professor at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School, went before the Wilmington City Council on March 20, 2023, asking permission to lease Legion Stadium.

However, on May 31, 2023, USL to Wilmington posted to its social media platforms that it would not have a team ready to play in 2024.

"After careful consideration, the USL to Wilmington Project has decided additional time is needed to finalize a temporary playing venue as well as complete local investor financing," the post reads.

Funding for the group received a major setback as a primary investor pulled out, according to Bader.

"There was a massive setback in what we were trying to do (With USL to Wilmington)," he said.

Bader remains optimistic that a new group of investors will bring professional soccer to Wilmington, but it's unclear what that will look like. For starters, new leagues are now on the table.

"We are hoping to announce in the next month or so a core group of investors.," he said. "With all of this going on, with new investors, we're going to have to decide what league is most appropriate."

USL League one still remains a possible landing spot, but so does MLS Next Pro (Third tier) and the USL championship (Second tier). If or when a new group emerges, the same plans of creating a food hall and likely spending at least a few years at Legion Stadium are in place.

For now, the future of professional soccer in Wilmington remains murky, but fans shouldn't give up hope.

"We have a group that is invested and very much wants to see a pro soccer team in Wilmington, North Carolina, but we're still looking for more investments and we still need to navigate which league would be appropriate," Bader said.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: When will Wilmington, NC, get a USL soccer team?