Buffalo Pro Soccer President Talks USL Club

BUFFALO, N.Y. — A 10,000-seat stadium, a soccer club looking to future fans for previews and potentially an MLS-level women’s team are headed to Western New York.

“We’re currently on the field at Nichols, where I played in high school. I won a few state championships playing for Nichols,” said Peter Marlette, a former student and now president of Bufalo Pro Soccer. “I actually tore my Achilles tendon on the other court as well.”

Marlette has a history in Western New York that has taken him through various stages of professional soccer, and now he’s bringing home a top team in the United Soccer League.

“MLS can only support, you know, a limited number of communities,” he noted. “There are only a limited number of cities where you can support a professional team at that level. And as a result, young people in those communities don’t have that top of the pyramid to aspire to and move towards. make a path in their yard.”

Buffalo already has a USL League Two, or amateur level team, in FC Buffalo, something Marlette is very aware of.

“I played for FC Buffalo many years ago, I scored one of my all-time favorite goals for FC Buffalo at All-High Stadium,” Marlette said. “I have a huge affinity with FC Buffalo and everything they’ve done and the community they’ve built around soccer. And now I think it’s time to add professional gaming.”

The main thing the new club will be looking for on the pitch is local promotion.

“If you work hard, if you continue to excel, if you continue to show what you can do, you will potentially have the opportunity to play professionally and start your career in your hometown,” Marlette said. “That’s what the USL gives you. The other leagues in this ecosystem aren’t capable of that.”

A USLW team already exists in blue and gold that plays at All-High Stadium in North Buffalo, but this pro-am team also has something to move toward.

“The USL Super League, which is a new professional women’s league, which will begin next August, is sanctioned by Division I,” he noted. “So this will be the highest level of professional women’s soccer in the United States and we have the rights in Buffalo to a USL expansion, a USL Super League expansion franchise.”

Thursday, it was time for a first public town hall.

“I would like to hear from fans what they are looking for in a stadium, what they are looking for in their club – colors, name ideas, whatever it may be,” Marlette said.

Banshee, one of 716’s premier soccer bars, was a natural fit, as co-owner Connor Hawkins has been a strong advocate for fans looking to watch their teams away, as well as playing at home.

“The tracking rate here in Buffalo is extremely, extremely high,” Hawkins said. “It could live up to being a big sport with football, hockey, lacrosse and baseball. Football is coming. It’s coming too. I’m so proud of it. “And I think the work that Peter Marlette and Buffalo Pro Soccer – we’re going to be around for a long, long time. “

A quick presentation then questions about stadium location, USL’s previous mistakes in Western New York, to community partnerships…

“What it’s going to do is create idols and people to look up to in their backyard and also at the USL level. MLS is similar, USL is different. We can get players to have clinics, camps, team training if they wish,” Marlette announced to a crowded corner of the pub.

Even though no name has been chosen and things like Buffalo or Nickel City United have been mentioned, there is one word that stands out.

“If we’re going to make this a true community club representative of Buffalo in Western New York, it’s going to be nights like this that make that happen,” he said.

Lots of meetings and decisions for Marlette and the Western New York soccer scene to come together on.

“Football is the world’s sport and Buffalo is an increasingly young and diverse city,” he added. “We’re going to provide a stadium, a game and a team where everyone, no matter where they’re from, no matter where they live or how long they’ve been in Buffalo, can come together and cheer on a team that is the representative. ”

The club is working to finalize a master ownership group, community outreach and stadium location.

There are only four finalists left on this last front, because it is important to the club that people from the suburbs and even southern Ontario can go to the games. The final four venue options are all in Buffalo, including two in downtown, which caused a bit of a stir when the Bills opted to stay in Orchard Park.