Rayo OKC Aims To Be Local Club With International Flair

Passion.

That’s what Rayo OKC’s co-owner Raúl Martin Presa is hoping to bring to Oklahoma City. Martin Presa grew up in the soccer-driven country of Spain – now owning Rayo Vallecano – and hopes to bring his and the nation’s love of the sport to the heart of the Sooner State.

“In Spain, life is soccer and we would like to transmit this passion for this incredible sport to the United States,” he told NASL.com. “This is important.”

The La Liga outfit will imprint its philosophies and playing style to the U.S. through Rayo OKC.

“We have a very good knowledge of development and we’d like to give this knowledge to the people of Oklahoma in order to help develop the sport to a top level in the NASL,” Martin Presa said.

Despite the international flair, the backbone of the club is ostensibly Oklahoma. Co-owner Sean Jones, along with managing partners Brad Lund and DeBray Ayala, have extensive experience in sports in the OKC metro area.

“We have the best of both worlds,” Jones said. “We know the Oklahoma City market. With Brad and DeBray – and Eric [Newendrop, the team’s general manager] as well – we have 40 years of sports experience here. We understand the market, we were all born and raised here.”

In fact, the seeds of bringing a soccer team to the city started back when Jones was a teenager.

“When we first started looking at the difference in the leagues, we were drawn to the NASL because of the history – I grew up watching the NASL,” he said. “My coach, when I was 13 years old, got us in the car and we drove to Tulsa to watch the Roughnecks and the Cosmos, the Roughnecks play the Rowdies. There was Rodney Marsh, [Johan] Cruyff, and [Franz] Beckenbauer, so there was always that interest for me because that’s who I watched when I was a kid.”

The growth of the league, heading into its sixth season in 2016 – which will also see Miami FC and Puerto Rico FC debut – piqued his interest further.

“When we started looking at the quality of the ownership and the level of commitment in the ownership groups and the vetting process, that’s what really drew us to the league,” Jones said. “We felt it was run very professionally. Also the idea that the owners own the league. We’re part of the decision-making process and that’s what drew us to the NASL.”

Martin Presa added: “In my opinion, in the coming years, the NASL will grow. I prefer the philosophy of the NASL because teams have more autonomy and we need this autonomy to develop our philosophy.”

Now, Rayo OKC needs to connect to the community and the idea of a La Liga side investing in a club in North America may draw interest from the outset.

“It’s exciting because Rayo is one of the teams that play in the best league in the world, in Spain, with some of the best players – Cristiano Ronaldo, Leo Messi, Antoine Griezmann,” Martin Presa said.

But, as Lund said during the club’s announcement, “This is the fans’ team,” will be at the center of Rayo OKC’s principles.

“Soccer should be for the whole city,” Jones said. “We want the Hispanic community involved, we want the folks that live on the south side of the city, the people who live on the west side and the middle of the city. There’s a lot of people that haven’t been reached who we feel can be fans of this team.

“If you look at Rayo’s history – from Vallecas, a working-class neighborhood – they are a hard-working team and they want to express that on the field. That’s what we want to do. We want the blue-collar, hard-working folks to have a team that they can back.”

Jones added: “We’ve got to do our best so that they feel like this is their team and that they have a voice. There’s a lot of ways we can do that. By reaching out and being very accessible and working with the community, we can do things in return for the people of Oklahoma City. We think there’s a great opportunity.”

In the end, for Rayo OKC, it all comes down to passion.

“It’s the first sport in the world, but not in the U.S.,” Martin Presa said. “I think that changes in the future and it is possible that it’s the main sport in the U.S. We want to help the American people develop soccer.”