Former Liverpool CEO Peter Moore has made the transition into team ownership after becoming the founding investor in a US expansion team.
Moore, who served as Liverpool's chief executive between 2017 and 2020 and was credited for playing a significant role in growing club revenues during that period, has launched the Santa Barbara Sky, an expansion team that will play in League One of the USL (United Soccer League) from 2024.
The former Reebok, Microsoft and EA Sports executive, who played a key role in the growth of the FIFA video game series, lives in Montecito, California, a small town in Santa Barbara County, and has decided to create and own a local football team.
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"Santa Barbara is a massive soccer community," said Moore, founder of Santa Barbara Sky FC and the Santa Barbara Professional Soccer Foundation, in an interview with US sports business website Sportico.
"We felt that the time was right with the World Cup coming to North America in 2026. You look at where soccer is today, from when I first arrived here in the mid-70s to coach as a kid out of college, and it’s amazing."
The USL League One has 11 teams and plans to expand to 25-30 over the next five years. It recently signed a 10-year strategic partnership with sport experiences firm Legends to help grow the league’s national sponsorship sales and fan engagement and help member clubs with ticketing, naming rights and digital operations.
Moore also has plans to launch a Santa Barbara Blue Sky women's team in the near future, the goal being to begin competing in 2024.
The Blue Sky will play their home matches at the 10,000-capacity La Playa Stadium on the campus of Santa Barbara City College in California, currently home to the Santa Barbara City College Vaqueros football, soccer and track and field teams.
In November 2020, having left Liverpool that summer, Moore became an advisor to Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney following their successful purchase of National League side Wrexham. Earlier that same year he was named honorary vice-president of Gresford Athletic, the amateur Wrexham team that he played for during the 1960s and 1970s.
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