Worcester Hydra FC is one of three new USL Premier Development League (PDL) teams set to enter the Northeast Division in 2012. President and majority investor Phong Le is confident of soccer's future in United States. He plans to advance Worcester Hydra to third division USL PRO within five years, perhaps in conjunction with a Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) team, and has MLS aspirations further down the road. In 2012, the team will play in Worcester’s Foley Stadium, but Le is also interested in the possibility of building their own facility.
PDL is a division of the United Soccer Leagues and rosters predominantly college-eligible players in a professional summer league that runs from May to August. In 2011, PDL fielded 64 teams in nine divisions in four conferences in the USA. USL also took over league operations of MISL in 2011.
Le is a young computer engineer who worked with Nokia Siemens after earning his Masters at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and left to launch his own start-up, Kculshare. Le’s Kculshare develops software for Verizon Wireless, Android and Windows and soon for Kinect.
For the past two years, Le has been researching the PDL, higher division affiliations in the United States and abroad, and attracting investors. Above all, he wants Worcester Hydra to be about the local community, local players and local businesses. Down the road, he plans to implement a voting process where the fans can vote on candidates for players, coaches, and executive members. Le’s plans are big, his strategies methodical and the growth of this new team will be interesting to watch.
Interview with Phong Le
LE: When are you going to start looking at players for Worcester Hydra FC?
Phong Le: We’ve been looking already and have applications coming in for the tryout on January 12. The applications are from Canada, New England and a couple from overseas.
The plan is to give the locals the opportunities, but we’ll look out-of-state also, plus at internationals. We want to support the locals. We want the local kids to grow up here, play for the team and feel proud about it. Anything we do in terms of business, we want to do it with the locals first. We want to reach out to local businesses and do business with them. If they can deal with us, we want to deal with them.
We’re going to implement a voting process, democratic one way or another, for the fans to vote on some of the key decisions. If we select three candidates for the head coach position, we want the fans to voice their own choice and pick the head coach for the team, for example. The motto is - the club will be run by the fans for the fans.
The fans can voice their choice in terms of players, coaches, executive members, but it will take us a bit of time to implement this system. We want it to be fair and transparent. That’s a couple years from now to implement that and get a fan base to vote on it, democratically, to make sure that it’s fair and good for the club. That’s really the bottom line.
LE: With three new New England PDL teams, four existing New England teams plus the Ottawa Fury, will there be eight teams in the PDL Northeast Division in 2012 or will there be a regional shift?
Phong Le: From a USL perspective, they’re looking for one more team to make it nine because nine is a perfect number for 16 games, home and away. So they’re looking for one more, but I don’t think there will be any changes for the demographic for that division.
LE: PDL MPS Portland Phoenix has become a feeder and reserve team for NASL’s FC Tampa Bay. Are you in talks with a USL PRO or NASL team for a similar arrangement?
Phong Le: Yes, we’re in talks. There’s a sports consultant company, Beswicks Sports, that I met with in Florida last week at the AGM and there are about five Premier League clubs in England that want to have an affiliation of some kind with USL and PDL clubs in the United States. We have expressed our interest to have some kind of affiliation with a Premier League club if that’s possible and we’re open to opportunities to become a feeder for an MLS club here as well.
We’re also trying to start a simple affiliation with Valencia of Spain to send our players there and their players here. The opportunities for financial investment will come later.
LE: I understand that you’re looking to advance your team to USL PRO in five years and beyond that to MLS?
Phong Le: That is true. We’ve got big ambitions. Going to the MLS, that’s a tough nut to crack, so that’s a long time in the future, maybe 10-plus years. But that’s really the ultimate goal. We want to compete in the U.S. Soccer hierarchy. Within 10-20 years from now, MLS will be, if not one of the best leagues in the world, one of the ones to watch. MLS is becoming huge, not only in the U.S. but around the world as well. I want to get there and that’s the ultimate goal for the club.
The next step is to go to USL PRO. We signed a contract with USL to stay in PDL for three years. After those three years, dependent upon the investments we attract, as well as the interest within the community and the city itself, maybe we’ll make up our minds and say, let’s go to USL PRO.
Also, other opportunities are still open. Major Indoor Soccer League plays in the winter and it’s a perfect combination, not only for the players, but also for the fans. For PDL, you only play three months in the summer and USL plays in the summer, but what do you do in the winter, especially in the New England area? If we can have the opportunity to expand, have a franchise, to expand into major league indoor soccer within five to seven years, I think that’s a perfect addition to the team. Players can play year round, winter and summer.
LE: Your Worcester Hydra website has a rendering of a beautiful stadium. What is that?
Phong Le: It’s from Qatar. It’s one of the stadiums they will build for Qatar World Cup in 2022. I love the idea of having our own stadium. If there’s a group that wants us to be alongside with them in terms of getting a stadium right around Worcester, I wouldn’t mind bringing our club to that group and having our own stadium.
We’re thinking of building a club house, still very much on paper, and maybe we’ll re-open the discussion again now that we have a PDL team and within a couple years we might have a plan.
LE: What teams in the MLS and overseas do you follow?
Phong Le: I follow the best teams in the world. Personally, I follow Barcelona, Real Madrid and Manchester United, but for the past three years I’ve followed heavily on that rivalry between Real Madrid and Barcelona.
In MLS, I’ve watched a couple of games with Beckham and when Henry came over I watched one or two with the Red Bulls. The U.S. quality will need time in order to catch up with the rest of the world.
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