‘Figure out how to realign’ – Why Texoma FC self-relegated and how their owners’ next step could define a multi-club project in USL

This is a complicated thing that requires balance. Texoma struggled in their first season of play. Their potential as a long-term investment - and that’s what soccer clubs are - is limited. But they can also be part of a multi-club system in North Texas, Watson argued. 

“It's two completely different identities, two different communities that really can latch on to that community club feel, but they still can feed to the same place,” Watson said. 

His solution, then, is to keep Texoma chugging along in its current market, and also establish a bigger club in a bigger area - with a more distinct identity - that can push for genuine relevance as promotion and relegation come into the fold. 

“I think it's safe to say all the clubs in the USL are thinking pro-rel route. All of us know it's coming. We're all making moves to figure out how we realign, or how we position ourselves long term to be successful,” Watson said. 

More broadly, the hope is that it can all be one ecosystem. Watson’s vision is that of shared academies, a talent pool that both teams can dip into, and, at its best, a fully fleshed-out system that can allow a duo of franchises to thrive.

It is worth, first, acknowledging that Texoma, in its inaugural season of existence, simply failed to hit the heights that the owners expected. On the pitch, the product wasn’t great. They finished 12th in the league, just six points off the bottom. 

And off the field, things were perhaps just a little miscalculated. Texoma is based in Sherman, Texas, a city with few sporting credentials and a population of just over 50,000 (it is admittedly rising). Attendance was poor. They had the third-lowest average in the league, with just over 1,200 routinely showing up to games. At one point, they had just 216 fans in the stands (although that was after a number of rain delays in mid-July). 

Even those in the stands knew that there was something wrong. 

“I actually felt that from pretty early on in the season that USL League One was too high of a league for us,” Richard McKibbin, a regular attendee at games, told GOAL. “I’m realistic. I saw the crowds that we were getting in Sherman and knew that the long-term viability of a professional team in Sherman was questionable at best.” 

More broadly, though, Texoma had one glaring problem: the market could not sustain a professional soccer team. Watson had to accept that. 

“I think we realigned to fit the community better. The Texoma community is a smaller market. It fits extremely well with the USL League Two,” Watson said. 

Texoma's owners had known that harsh reality for a few months before they announced anything. For six months, they were seriously looking at new markets for a fresh franchise, while admitting that their current team wouldn’t be in USL League One for long. 

“You look at a club like Portland Hearts of Pine. We were the same year as them, Year 1 to Year 1.. You're like, they're doing something right. So from our shoes, we look at it and go, 'Okay, well, what can we do to create something that people want to be a part of?'” Watson said.

Their solution has been a new brand in a new city. Watson studied the market extensively once he knew that Texoma wasn’t going to sustain a professional team long term. He found that the most successful USL clubs come in places with a distinct culture, a market looking for a sports team, and, long term, the potential to build a stadium. 

“We spent about six, seven months in season, working through ‘Does this make sense? Are the city leaders interested? Is there a long-term potential here to build a venue?’ All those conversations took place,” Watson said. 

Celina, Texas, is, mathematically, a better market. Right now, it’s roughly the same size as Sherman by population. But it’s also a 30-minute drive away, and part of the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. Eight years ago, 7,000 people lived there. City leaders are preparing for a boom that will leave the city with around 300,000 - such is the rapidly expanding population of the Dallas area. And in those numbers, Watson sees potential. 

“We know this community has grown. We know it's a great place. We really like the city leadership, and so all these things kind of allude to this can be a successful franchise,” Watson said. 

There’s also already a sporting culture in Celina (albeit with a different kind of football). They pack the stands for high school football games. And people just gather for pretty much anything. 

"They do a lot of downtown things where 15-25,000 people will show up in a day to one event. Their high school football games are sold out. We went to their homecoming game the other day, and they had to bring in extra bleachers to the stadium,” Watson said.

They are already calling themselves the “Rodeo Clowns.” Within 24 hours of announcing the brand, Rodeo SC had their first three supporters. 

“They're going to dress up in overalls and a cowboy hat, and they're gonna have the full thing. When you start to hear it, you're like, ‘that is the most Texan American thing you can ever think of’,” Watson said. 

They were sold on the vision immediately. The name is a slightly dorky thing, but also an homage to the West. This is a place of cattle and rodeos and cowboys. The Jerry Jones-owned NFL team nearby - the clue is in their name - became one of the biggest brands on earth by leaning into where they’re from. Rodeo SC are doing the same. 

“Texas has a lot of rodeo heritage, and Celina is known for the Longhorn cattle. It's got a whole identity around that side. We're like, man, we could lean into this. We could create this concept where it's fun, almost gimmicky, but, like, obviously, it's still football,” Watson said. 

It works on multiple levels. The first, of course, is the uniqueness. But the second is the idea of entertainment associated with the name. Soccer franchises can no longer be only about the game on the field - or what happens in 90 minutes. Rodeo SC, then, are about the matchday experience. While some have backed away from their roots and just put out a team, Watson wants to lean into theirs - to a fault. 

“The cool part is, if you come in town from Maine, or you come in from Washington, Florida - wherever you're coming from, even internationally - you're gonna come and go, ‘I want to experience Texas.’ We want you to leave and go, 'yes, that was Texas', and that's Rodeo Soccer Club,” Watson said.

Ownership wanted to get Rodeo SC off the ground by 2026. It turned out, perhaps unsurprisingly, that four months was too tight a turnaround. 

“We were hoping to play 2026, but unfortunately, you need more time than four months to launch a club,” Watson said. 

A 2027 date has been set, then. They will release branding and a badge in the new year. Everything in the standard world-building of a new sports franchise feels intact. The USL itself, meanwhile, has voiced its support. 

“Rodeo SC represents an exciting new chapter for the future of soccer in North Texas,” said Justin Papadakis, USL Deputy CEO and Chief Real Estate Officer. “Celina is undergoing significant growth, with the infrastructure, corporate presence, and population needed to support a professional club for years to come.” 

Yet there are some issues here. First, it cannot be ignored that there is a human cost to demoting a club. Most of Texoma’s players were on 1+1 contracts. But a few were on multi-year deals. Under USL Collective Bargaining Agreement rules, their full contracts don’t have to be paid out. 

The USL Players Association made their feelings clear on the decision. 

"When a club self-relegates or folds, the ripple effect is immediate. In League One, players with multi-year contracts are guaranteed only three months of pay when a club ceases operations,” Connor Tobin, USLPA Executive Director, said in an email. “This does not go very far when these players are now facing unpredictable housing situations and potential relocation costs. What may look like a business decision for the club translates to lost jobs, lost income, and, for some, the loss of a career.” 

Watson admitted that those conversations were immensely difficult to have - especially given the connection between the players and the club. 

“It's never a fun conversation, and it was hard for us as well. We got pretty attached to the players in our first season. You get to know a lot of the guys. We had some really good players who we wanted to retain for the next two, three years, and we're unable to do so,” Watson said.

And then there are the natural problems of owning multiple teams. Who will get the best players? What resources are allocated where? Sure, one is amateur and the other could be playing, someday, in USL Division 1, but how do both operate concurrently - and fairly? 

“We don’t anticipate any major struggles with the League Two being a shorter season, but also completing the player pathway for us,” Watson argued. “We will upstaff in the appropriate areas to help operate both at a high capacity and continue to evaluate annually to improve our operations.” 

McKibbin fears, too, that Texoma could be sacrificed for the benefit of Rodeo’s SC’s success. 

“I do worry that Texoma could become the red-herring stepchild in a sense, that there will be no effort into fan engagement or developing the Texoma side of it - that all of the effort will go to Rodeo,” he said. 

There is also the mathematically unlikely yet technically possible reality that one team faces the other in the US Open Cup. Watson admitted that he simply won’t know who to root for. McKibbin insists that his loyalty will always lie with Texoma. 

“I will go to Texoma first. That’s my team, and that’s who I support. I call the new club a part of the Texoma extended universe. In that spirit, I will support them, and I will get to a few games. But I won’t be a season ticket holder,” McKibbin said. 

Yet more broadly, this is more about the mobility of the American game in general. Texoma didn’t work in the way its owners wanted. Rodeo SC just might. And by having control of both, they could flesh out a whole network of amateur to professional soccer. That would certainly make the so-called “self-relegation” worth it.

“Ultimately, it creates the full ecosystem, from youth to semi-pro to pro. Now, we have each step of the journey,” Watson said.