When Armada FC Attacks, Jacksonville Will Be Back

By Jason S Rufner

Steve Livingstone's profession has always concerned the business of football -- first, with "real" football, when he covered the Scottish and English leagues on TV and in print...then, with the other kind of football, when he spent 17 years doing business development and marketing for NFL Europe and the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Now, the Glasgow native who grew up within crowd-noise distance of Celtic FC's stadium is pleased he's returning to "real" football, the game he grew up playing, watching and loving -- calling it "a kind of homecoming for me."  Last October, Livingstone was chosen to be club president of Jacksonville Armada FC, a North American Soccer League (NASL) team ready to kick off next year.

"We're keeping an eye on the 2014 season, and that makes us really excited for the 2015 season," Livingstone told me earlier this week, while he was driving himself from one Armada-focused meeting to another.  "We're so thrilled to be bringing professional soccer back to an area that has such a long tradition."

Livingstone isn't the only one making a return of sorts.  The city of Jacksonville will be re-introducing itself to the world of professional soccer.  The Jacksonville Tea Men entertained the sports fans of northeastern Florida for four seasons in the early 1980s, including as an NASL club in 1981 and 1982.

Thirty-three years since the Tea Men played on the pitch, America's First Coast will be back in the game.

Preparations have been ongoing since July 2013, when owner Mark Frisch and his Sunshine Soccer Group went for and got an NASL franchise.  Livingstone was hired away from the Jaguars to become the club's first employee, and it's been plenty of work ever since.

Armada FC's office now has over 20 employees.  There are a host of corporate partnerships set to be announced soon.  Season ticket sales have already gone over the 2,500 mark, and continue to grow.  Relationships with the area's youth soccer organizations are being developed, as Livingstone & Co. meet with them regularly to solicit advice and insight into the community, helping spread word of the Armada all around Jacksonville.

The club's Facebook page (www.facebook.com/jaxarmadafc) boasts nearly 12,500 fans, and its Twitter feed (www.twitter.com/jaxarmadafc) has almost 5,000 followers.  Bimonthly town hall meetings draw raucous crowds of knowledgeable and eager soccer fans, as did the club's World Cup watch parties.  The team's launch party was an overflowing affair held at iconic Jacksonville Landing -- an event that will always stick out in Livingstone's memory, he told me.

The citizens of a large Florida city, proud of its ancient history and Southern accent, is taking Livingstone up on his recruitment pitch:  Join The Fleet.

"The youth programs around here have been running for many years.  They've been really receptive and supportive of our development, and they've kept us right in a lot of our decision-making," the club president said.  "Overall the soccer fan base here has been perfect in terms of welcoming us.  There's a real hotbed of soccer here."

That fervor was noticeable when it came time to name the team and choose the colors.  Armada supporters don scarves of navy blue, royal blue and gold, a combination selected with input from several thousand fans.  Those same fans picked the moniker "Armada" -- an ideal label for a region now surrounded by Naval bases and once the primary port for Spanish galleons in the 16th century, making Juan Ponce de Leon famous.

"We felt that name was a great representation of the military roots and the history here," Livingstone told me.

Jacksonville Armada FC will take the field in April of 2015 at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville, an ornate and well-appointed venue directly in downtown Jacksonville.  Get your tickets right along the first base line, Livingstone says, and you'll be immediately on top of the soccer action.

"The way we're configuring the pitch on the baseball field, it will really lend itself to a great soccer atmosphere," he said.  "The fans will be able to be connected and engaged in the matches."

Livingstone, who himself has an active and popular Twitter account @JaxArmadaFCPrez , indicated that the club's front office is really getting ready to play in the NASL in 2015, because the club's supporters and partners are helping them get ready.

"We're really pleased with the way things are moving right now," boasted the Armada FC President.  "Personally, I'm really excited to be involved in the NASL.  I wouldn't have it any other way."