The largest city in Florida isn’t what you might think. It’s not Miami, Tampa, or Orlando. It’s Jacksonville – in both population and geographic size. As of 2020, nearly one million people live in the city, the eleventh-greatest population of any city in the USA. In fact, the city of Jacksonville has a greater population than most cities represented by MLS and NWSL teams. So it can handle multiple professional soccer clubs, right? In the coming years, we’ll find out. Sporting Club Jacksonville, aka Sporting JAX, <a href="https://www.sportingjax.com/news/2023/12/12/jaxusl-ownership-group-unveils-new-clubs-name-colors-crest-and-motto-reflecting-its-bold-inclusive-community/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">unveiled its branding</a> for both its upcoming USL Championship (men’s division two) and USL Super League (women’s division one) teams this week. But they’re not alone on Florida’s First Coast.



<h2>A fresh start – and a re-start</h2>



Sporting JAX is a brand new club – set to tentatively debut in 2025 on both the men’s and women’s sides pending the finalization of a stadium. They can count American football legends Tim Tebow and Fred Taylor among their owners. However another team has been around in Jacksonville since 2015, and they’re embarking on a rebirth of sorts.



Jacksonville Armada FC started play in the NASL in 2015 and played through the league’s final season in 2017.



Rather than moving to USL or NISA like other surviving NASL castaways, the Armada took a different path. Instead, they operated an amateur U-23 team in the NPSL from 2019 onwards. 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><figure class="image"><img loading="lazy" width="1280" height="715" src="https://ds-images.bolavip.com/news/image?src=https://images.worldsoccertalk.com/webp/full/WST_20231213_WST_476878_SportingJAX_2_7fc78d79.webp&amp;width=1280&amp;height=715" alt="Jacksonville Armada" class="wp-image-476894" srcset="https://worldsoccertalk.cms.futbolsitesnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2023/12/SportingJAX_2.jpg 1280w, https://worldsoccertalk.cms.futbolsitesnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2023/12/SportingJAX_2-300x168.jpg 300w, https://worldsoccertalk.cms.futbolsitesnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2023/12/SportingJAX_2-1200x670.jpg 1200w, https://worldsoccertalk.cms.futbolsitesnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2023/12/SportingJAX_2-768x429.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px"></figure></figure>



For a time, Armada owner Robert Palmer was a major voice in the reform movement in US pro soccer. He even floated the <a href="https://www.soctakes.com/2018/02/19/robert-palmer-compelling-vision/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">idea of a “Division Zero”</a> outside the scope of the professional league standards set by USSF.



But that tune changed earlier this fall, as the Armada announced they would be moving to the division-three MLS NEXT Pro league. This competition is almost entirely comprised of MLS reserve teams. The Armada will be one of a small number of independent sides not affiliated with an MLS parent team. The 2025 re-start in the pro ranks will come with a planned downtown 2,500-seat stadium.



This sets up yet another front in the seemingly everlasting modern era of <a href="https://amzn.to/3t5n6Nu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Soccer Warz</a>. 



As noted above, Jacksonville is the largest city by population in the entire country. But its combined Florida-Georgia metropolitan area is only the 38th-largest in the nation. It would rank near the very bottom by that metric amongst all division-one professional outfits in the US.



Does it really make sense to have two competing soccer teams in one market of that size? 



<h2>Only in America</h2>



Not only will these two organizations be fighting over a relatively small piece of the pie, but it comes with unique issues encountered almost nowhere else in the soccer world.



Sporting will play at the division two level, in USL Championship. The Armada meanwhile will be at division three, in MLS NEXT Pro.



For two teams located in the same city, they’ll rarely – if ever – play each other.



One of the great things about multiple clubs in one area is the local rivalry. Having a fierce derby can bolster support for both teams and improve the game and culture in the region. But if the clubs never really get the chance to play each other, that effect is stifled considerably.



Outside of getting drawn together in the U.S. Open Cup, or maybe a preseason scrimmage here and there, Sporting and the Armada will never meet. Of course, in other countries, teams at different levels on the pyramid don’t often meet either. But they do have the ability to end up at the same level via promotion and relegation. The USA, of course, does not have that mechanism in place.



So instead, these two clubs will be glaring at each other from across town and rarely meeting on the pitch, instead fighting over fans, sponsors, and media coverage.



But it doesn’t end there because this battle could bleed over into the women’s game, too.



<h2>Sporting JAX vs Armada: not just for the men</h2>



Only about an hour before Sporting Club Jacksonville unveiled its name and colors to the world, the Armada decided to make an announcement of their own.



Owner Robert Palmer is <a href="https://www.jacksonvillearmada.com/s/stories/nwsl" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">forming a new ownership group to pursue bringing an NWSL expansion team</a> to the city. 



The NWSL has been around since 2014 and is the only active first-division women’s professional league in the USA. In fact, it’s the only pro women’s league in the country at any level currently. But that’s about to change.



The USL Super League is planning to launch in August 2024, as a division one league – equal to the NWSL on the pyramid. It will have nine teams in its inaugural season, including Floridian clubs Tampa Bay Sun FC and a yet-to-be-named Fort Lauderdale side. 



Not only was the timing of the Armada’s announcement incredibly petty, but it continues to illustrate the silliness that permeates the entire professional soccer system in the United States.



Florida will have at least four, possibly five, professional women’s clubs in the coming years. Two could be in the same city. But three will be in the USL Super League (Tampa Bay, Fort Lauderdale, Jacksonville), and one (maybe two) in the NWSL (Orlando and theoretically Jacksonville).



<h4>More issues</h4>



Oh and by the way, the two leagues won’t play on the same calendar, either. Super League clubs will enjoy playing over the more pleasant Florida fall and winter months, while NWSL sides will be suffering through the brutal Sunshine State summer.



As of this moment, there are no plans for any meaningful cross-league play. NWSL recently <a href="https://www.nwslsoccer.com/news/national-womens-soccer-league-announces-2024-schedule-footprint-competition-calendar" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">unveiled its 2024 season structure plans</a>. Included is a new, unnamed, tournament featuring every NWSL team and “international participants” during the break for the 2024 Olympic Games. 



That would have been a perfect opportunity for US Soccer to introduce some sort of women’s U.S. Open Cup competition. A window when neither league is playing league games. A chance for all these Florida teams (and nearby sides from both leagues in Texas, North Carolina, Washington state, and Washington, D.C.) to play against each other.



But nope. It’s every man (or woman, as it were) for themselves. 



More clubs, men’s and women’s, is a good thing. It means more opportunities for players and coaches. More jobs in the sport. That’s all fantastic.



But you can’t help but bang your head against the table when it comes along with all the frustrating caveats of the US professional soccer system.



Photo: Imago.

Soccerwarz in Jacksonville: Sporting JAX joins the fight

The latest soccer team in the USA is coming soon - Sporting JAX. But they won't be alone in their own town.

Soccerwarz in Jacksonville: Sporting JAX joins the fight - World Soccer Talk

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The Jacksonville Armada FC completed the club’s inaugural season this past Sunday sporting an announced record crowd of over 9,000 at the Baseball Grounds. This final match of the Armada’s first season culminated what has been an off-the-field model of how to launch an expansion team in NASL. From superior marketing to outstanding market-wide branding, the Armada have been a hit. However, on-the-field the squad has lagged behind in-state NASL rivals Tampa Bay and Fort Lauderdale both of whom entered the final weekend of the season with an opportunity to qualify for the NASL’s unique four club postseason “The Championship.” Fort Lauderdale’s late goal clinched this match 1-0 and a spot in the postseason, leaving Jacksonville bottom of the table in the 11-team NASL.
The difficult on-field struggles for the Armada had a lot to do with a fundamental misunderstanding of the types of players and coaches that succeed in American lower division soccer. Overloading the side with technically gifted foreign players and well-respected international coaches looked good on paper before the season started. However, since only a handful of the signed had been through the wars of leagues like NASL, issues such as the length of travel, physical play, uneven and quick turnaround of matches sunk the Armada’s hopes of making a playing splash in year one. By early September, the club had dismissed its entire soccer hierarchy and began planning for year two in terms of a new playing style and technical staff.
What the team may have gotten wrong in building an on-the-field product, the Armada got it spot on with marketing and promoting the club. Led by local owner Mark Frisch, who is himself a soccer fan, the club has bonded with supporters and courted all elements of the existing soccer infrastructure in the area. The success of several local amateur teams and multiple United States Men’s National Team friendlies built a base of fans that had eroded following the demise of the Jacksonville Cyclones of the A-League in the late 1990’s. Frisch smartly hired soccer people and others with professional sports experience to cultivate this existing supporters’ base and enhanced it by creating strong partnerships with the youth soccer community. Memories of Jacksonville Tea Men of the original NASL have faded among many locals, but those who have continued to be involved in the sport since those heady days of the early 1980’s were instantly courted by the Armada.
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The Armada began ramping up operations in the summer of 2013, almost a full two years before kicking a ball in NASL play. All of the early legwork paid off as the team smartly connected with millennials in its marketing – many of these individuals were not previously soccer fans and had little interest in other local sports, but the international appeal of this sport and the marketing efforts of the Armada proved attractive. One of the reasons this worked was the accessibility to players the club provides. The community oriented approach of Frisch and his team president Steve Livingstone allowed the club to build relationships between fans and players that is largely absent in American pro sports today.
This season the Armada, per my sources, sold more sponsorships than any other NASL club. While selling sponsorship is one thing, treating sponsors well and maintaining relationships is sometimes even more difficult. The Armada’s matchday experience at Community First Ballpark is among the best I have experienced in US lower division soccer. The park is properly branded for soccer yet utilizes the superior concessions and concourse space that baseball stadiums provide to create a degree of a carnival atmosphere combined with a nice day out at the park.
SEE MORE: <a href="https:\/\/worldsoccertalk.cms.futbolsitesnetwork.com/2015/04/05/appetite-for-pro-soccer-in-florida-proving-critics-dead-wrong/">Appetite for pro soccer in Florida proving critics are dead wrong</a>.
Second season syndrome is often a real one in the lower tiers of American soccer. Owners who deal with unexpected financial loses or disappointment on the field scale back operations and regress to the mean in an arena where the fail rate among clubs has been massive over the course of the last 15 years. But the Armada, who averaged more fans per game this season than Orlando City SC ever did in the four years they competed in the lower tiers of American soccer before moving to MLS and averaging over 32,000 fans a game, have no plans to scale back. This is a remarkable statistic especially considering the Jacksonville media market has less than half the people than the Orlando market.
Instead of falling into offseason mode, this week the Armada staff is rolling up their sleeves and working the community like any other week. Successful organizations use the offseason strategically and keep working – and the Armada is in the process of transitioning from model startup to model long-term club in the state of Florida. 
Next season, the club hopes to have a more successful on-the-field product while continuing the same effective marketing success of year one.

Soccerwarz in Jacksonville: Sporting JAX joins the fight

Jacksonville Armada

Soccerwarz in Jacksonville: Sporting JAX joins the fight

Jacksonville Armada

Jacksonville Armada FC looking to build on successful inaugural season