United Soccer League maxim accessibility-venue control

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Dan Holman is in a top-notch role with the United Soccer League (US). He says that he has been in the business of sports for the last seven years “and in my previous life I was into investment banking. The business of sports is very different but it’s been a fantastic journey and I was in New York City and now based in Tampa, Florida, where the USL headquarters are.”

He added, “My role is 50 percent to scale the platform within the league office and the other 50 percent of the time requires me to go around the United States speaking with the cities, the Municipalities, the educational institutions, as well as the prospective investors.”

Dan Holman joined the United Soccer League (USL) seven years ago and currently serves as the Chief Operating Officer (COO). In this role he leads the expansion and the real estate team, forging the growth of community-driven, professional soccer clubs across the United States and establishing pathways to stadium development. He also oversees business growth and scalability initiatives to ensure financial sustainability and amplify the impact across the communities that these wonderful clubs touch.

In an exclusive chat with ‘Coliseum’, Dan Holman COO, USL, US, shares with Rob Hunden, President, Hunden Partners, US, that the “great thing about the United Soccer League (USL) is accessibility – accessibility from an ownership standpoint, from a fans’ standpoint, from a broadcast standpoint, as well as we can work with any size city. And I want to give tremendous kudos to our clubs and the ownership of our clubs who are spending the money, investing and have helped build the league over the last five-six years. They acknowledge and understand that staying in control of your stadium is key. Controlling your stadium is everything. Memories can lead to commercial success. The fan experience makes the people want to come back.”
 

United Soccer League

The United Soccer League (USL) is an organizer of various professional and amateur soccer leagues in the United States league system.

Dan Holman started by defining USL, “The United Soccer League (USL) are operational properties in soccer across North America. We have two different professional leagues on the Men’s side, Division II and Division III sanctioned and on the Women’s side we have Division I sanctioned property and in all we had 44 teams for the 2025 season. However, we have got 20 more lined up and already committed for the next three or four seasons but a lot of that is contingent on stadium development.”

Holman further shared with Rob Hunden that a couple of areas where there has been dramatic growth in the USL “has been on the expansion and the real estate side and then also in terms of what you would call the club performance group, the onboarding groups and really helping working hands in glove with our clubs to make sure they optimize their businesses on the sporting side.”
 

Hero-in-the-Halo Model

Hunden stated that the United Soccer League (USL) really pioneered the concept of the hero-in-the-halo model how brands translate a major, high-budget creative idea [the hero] into a scalable, personalized library of channel-specific content [the halo]. It has always been all about the stadium plus everything around it.

Holman couldn’t agree more and said that it is all about “the optimal stadium anchored mixed-use development involving the real estate. We have multiple leagues of 200 clubs in our pre-professional amateur league we will be focusing on now but it means we can right size the stadium opportunity or the stadium size for the opportunity at hand. So, whether that is the Rhode Island Tidewater Landing project which is the biggest capital investment in the State of Rhode Island ever I believe or a project like in Fort Wayne (city in Indiana) which has been launched where it is more focused on a modular stadium that is going to cater to our League One Division.”

The Fort Wayne USL project refers to the Fort Wayne Football Club (⁠Fort Wayne FC) joining professional ranks in USL League One.

“But the great thing about the Tidewater Landing project is it is an integrated project. I am a firm believer of you have to think big but you also have to kind of think holistically. I am not a fan of let’s just build the stadium and hope the development around it gets built.”
 

Tidewater Landing Project

The Tidewater Landing project is a massive $400 million-plus public-private development in downtown Pawtucket, Rhode Island (US) designed to transform a long-vacant riverfront property. The 10,500-seat ⁠Centreville Bank Stadium (the core of the Tidewater Landing project) is complete and serves as the home for the ⁠Rhode Island FC. However, the broader mixed-use development – which includes the apartments, the commercial spaces, a riverwalk, and a pedestrian bridge – is still in progress.
 

Central Florida Pro Soccer

Added Holman, “We need to be disruptors at the USL. Where we are in the pecking order we need to disrupt and where we are we are doing that on promotion/relegation, we are doing that on the Division I and also on the stadium front. If we can take the onus, if we can be proactive in trying to identify work with the city partners on this project we can do that. There has been publicity about Santa Rosa, Modesto, Springfield where we work with the cities and with the Municipalities to explore the stadium opportunities. We don’t have any investor yet for the USL franchise Central Florida Pro Soccer team but we know because of the growth of the league that’s the easiest part of the equation to get on. It’s the stadium development which is the hardest.”

The Central Florida Pro Soccer stadium project is an ambitious 72-acre mixed-use development proposed for the city of Winter Garden, Florida (US).
 

Wrap-up

Dan Holman wrapped up by stating, “I love the passion of the fan base and the USL ownership group has been tremendous. We like these transformational-revitalization projects and throughout the league we are working with the community partners in these transformational revitalization-regeneration projects.”

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