Is Paterson in line for soccer expansion franchise?

Hinchliffe operator needs $15M for launch

By: Joe Malinconico
Paterson Press

PATERSON - The developer who operates Hinchliffe Stadium is trying to raise money to get an expansion franchise for Paterson in the professional united Soccer League.
..... The developer, Baye Adofo-Wilson, recently asked the Paterson Restoration Corporation nonprofit organization to invest $2.5 million toward the $15 million needed to launch the project.
..... Adofo-Wilson said his goal is to have a men's team in the USL's top professional division and a women's team in the same league at a lower level of completion, with their debut season starting 2026 while the World Cup is taking place in New Jersey.
..... "We're trying to put together something special in Paterson, something that will highlight the history, the culture and the diversity of Paterson," Adofo-Wilson said.
..... Mayor Andre Sayegh said he strongly backs the soccer team plan, nothing that many of Paterson;s immigrants are fervent soccer fans. Sayegh already is trying to come up with a possible name for the team, kicking aorta ideas like Silk City Strikers and Great Falls Football Club. the mayor accompanied Adofo-Wilson at the PRC's December 4 [2024] meeting to give his endorsement.
..... "i already have people asking me how they can try out for the team," the mayor said, noting that the soccer teams would cerate new jobs in Paterson, especially on game days.

Lawyers must vet plan's financial

..... Orlando Cruz, chairman of the Paterson Restoration Corporation, said this organization has retained a law firm to review the financial projections provided by Adofo-Wilson. Cruz said one of the PRC board members expressed any opposition to the proposal at the recent meeting. But he said the financial aspect of the plan would need to be fully vetted by the group's lawyers before any decision is made.
..... The PRC is best known fir the low-interest business startup loan program that it has operated for more than 15 years. The organizational also owns multiple properties in Paterson, which it leases to generate revenue.
..... In some ways, the PRC functions as a quasi-pulbic entity, with some members appointed through municipal government and its major financial deals requiring approval from the Paterson City Council.
..... The soccer team funding would not be a loan, Cruz said. The PRC would become partners with Adofo-Wilson in the franchise ownership structure.
..... After being close for about 25 years, Hinchliffe was renovated and eroded in 2023, with the city's high school sports teams playing some of their home games there, sharing the historic stadium with the New Jersey Jackals minor league baseball squad.
..... The Jackals struggled with their league's lowest home attendance in 2023, when they drew 725 people per game. But those numbers surged in 2024, when the Frontier League reported that the Jackals had an average attendance of 1,896 for home games.

Ecuadorian team visit drew 7,000

..... Hinchliffe caught the attention of the soccer world in February, [2024] when more than 7,000 people attended a soccer game featuring a prominent Ecuadorian national team. That event prompted the USL to contact him about the possibility of putting an expansion team in Paterson, Adofo-Wilson said.
..... "They saw the huge crowd and they saw the stadium, said the developer.
..... Adofo-Wilson said he is aiming at putting together the final financial plan for the soccer team in the first three months of 2025. he said the USL seasons would start in the spring of 2026 and go on through the summer. The league's website said the USL's playoffs take place in October and early November.
..... The Jackals and soccer teams would be able to share Hinchliffe as their home stadium, the developer said.
..... Hinchliffe - a national historic landmark because of its status as one of few surviving stadiums where Negro League baseball was played in the mid-20th century - is owned by the Paterson school district. under the lease, school officials are supposed to get priority for using Hinchliffe for 180 days per year.
..... School board Vice President Kenneth Simmons said there's no requisition soccer is widely popular in Paterson and throughout North Jersey. But he said it's too soon to decide on the expansion team plan.
..... "We shave to figure out how this would work for us," Simmons said, "how this would benefit us."

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