New England Revolution Officially Launch USL League One Team, Named Revolution II will play at Gillette Stadium in 2020
The worst kept secret in New England soccer has been the USL League One expansion side that the New England Revolution are launching for the 2020 season. Since Bruce Arena came onboard as the Sporting Director and Head Coach for New England the potential for a USL team was a certain.
New England made the announcement official on Wednesday morning confirming the widely circulated rumor. Per the Revolution the team’s name is Revolution II and will practice on the new training fields in back of Gillette Stadium and also play there home games in the football stadium.
Overall the goal of the team is to create a clear path from the youth academy program to the first team. Just this past season New England was forced to loan a number of players to a handful of USL sides across the country. With the bottom half of the roster and developing players needing minutes to improve it was clear the current structure wasn’t sustainable long-term.
Arena will of course oversee the efforts but the project is expected to be spearheaded by Technical Director Curt Onalfo.
”Player development continues to be a top priority as we build for the future success of the club,” said New England Revolution President Brian Bilello. “Given the growth of our academy in recent years, at the end of last season we began discussions with the USL about adding a second professional team. We’re pleased those discussions have resulted in the launch of Revolution II for the 2020 season.”
USL League One is technically the third division in U.S. Soccer and the Revolution are one of three 2020 expansion sides for the league that was founded in 2017. The 28-game season runs from March to October. For New England the home selection of Gillette is a no-brainer, it will look a tad odd with a few thousand in the stands but the press release did mention the possibility of other venues in New England also being used on occasion.
More to come on this subject for sure, ultimately it is another major step forward for the New England Revolution and the sport of soccer in New England.
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