‘We’re starting in the street’ - Atletico Dallas is giving USL a distinct lane in the city’s soccer scene, and they're not here to compete with MLS

Martino is not from Dallas. He was born in Atlanta, spent his youth in Connecticut and played college soccer at Virginia. His all-too-brief MLS career was carried out first in Columbus, and then Los Angeles. He retired at 27, just as he was entering his prime, due to persistent hip injuries. 

His response? Make soccer a business. There was a stint as an analyst with NBC Sports’s Premier League coverage, and now as a commentator for TNT Sports. He is a voice in the United States men’s national team sphere. He is also a savvy businessman.

Chief among his empire of events spaces and soccer ventures is Street FC. It’s a simple premise: Urban America has a lot of blacktops - mainly old basketball courts - and not many open fields. Those surfaces could be the platform for five-a-side soccer, at all levels. Give people a space, a ball, and make it very cheap - and the results could form naturally over time. 

His involvement was a no-brainer for Valentine as he shaped the Atletico Dallas brand. The two were introduced, and Valentine flew to New York three days later.

“I thought it would be a few weeks later, maybe a month later, and we’d consider it,” Martino said. “Matt was like, 'Sorry for my language, F*ck it, what are you doing this week?’”

That visit sealed everything. Martino showed Valentine a few Street FC courts. They grabbed a few beers. Martino agreed to become a partner in his business. After that, it was just a question of logistics.

“I was like, ‘OK, we got a partner. We got to figure out how to make this work,'" Valentine said.

But going about this all wasn’t particularly easy. It is one thing to have a blacktop and a dream. It is another entirely to be able to put that into place, build a brand, and inform a community about a professional soccer team. 

There are some guiding principles here. Soccer in the United States is becoming more accessible, but there are still massive financial barriers to playing in many areas. That leaves droves of would-be professionals, mostly from minority communities, phased out of the game from a young age. 

Atletico Dallas believe they can target those talents, give them a voice. 

“I think that we can be a massive, massive agent for change around the Dallas community,” Valentine said. “The vehicle happens to be a sport that Kyle and I love and are incredibly passionate about. And there's nothing better to galvanize the community and people than sport.” 

Dallas already has a soccer community. The city itself, the footprint Atletico’s ownership want to claim, is invested in the sport. It is Atletico Dallas’ job, then, to provide an outlet to actually play. 

That can take a number of forms. It’s about working with influencers in the local area and amplifying their impact. It’s about going to community events and hiring local staff. It’s also about borrowing from other success stories - LAFC, Seattle Sounders, and Louisville City, for example - and following their models. 

“We're not going to be the explorers that map our own path here,” Martino said. “A lot of people have figured out how to do it right from the start. So we're going to cherry-pick some of those great ideas from the people that have led the way ahead of us and did a groundswell, a community movement before they took the field.”

Martino can’t lie. He had no involvement in the brand, the badge or the colorway. That is not his doing. But he might be a pretty good case study as to why others might subscribe to the Atletico Dallas movement. 

So much of soccer culture worldwide, these days, is visual. Sure, there will always be the old heads who get into a team because of proximity or convenience. But bringing on new people? That requires compelling visuals, a coherent brand. What, exactly, a club looks like has to mean something. 

Valentine knew he needed something compelling. So, he scoured the Dallas area for local designers - those who could get what it means to piece together the visual messaging for a Dallas club. 

He settled on Robert Milam of Dallas-based ModestWorks. 

“I wanted a club that's serious, that takes the game seriously, but that's like, rooted in the things that I love about the sport, the kind of romance of the game, the history, the passion,” Valentine said. 

Milam obliged. He created something sleek and interesting. Nowhere on the badge do the words “Atletico Dallas” appear - something that initially led to a few questions among casual onlookers. 

Instead, it’s a black shield, with a silver outline. A wolf and snake are shown dueling in the middle. While some observers have disregarded it, Martino fell in love. 

“My jaw dropped,” he said. “I just thought, ‘You guys nailed this.’ I like the rules that it breaks because it leaves room and time for us to earn the right to mean to them what they already mean to us.”

And perhaps that’s the broader challenge. Atletico Dallas won’t kick a soccer ball officially until 2027. They still have 18 months to figure out the specifics. But they have a badge, they have a brand, and they have a vision. And everything starts there. 

Martino, of course, is a key operative. But there are other promising signs at play. They have acquired one of the biggest youth soccer clubs in Dallas. Right now, they have 2,500 players in their academy. Their hope is to have 4,000 within two years. There are plans in place for a state of the art training facility. They will play in the Cotton Bowl for now, but the future is wide open. 

And so we return to Martino’s vision: the winning team, the pretty soccer, the packed stadium, including the local kids who learn how to play in the city in which they were born. 

This is a football club that is going to be built from the streets. The early pieces are in place for it to last.