USL News Release
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
TAMPA, Fla. – United Soccer Leagues is pleased to announce that Worcester Hydra FC will join the PDL for the 2012 season. The club, based in Worcester, Massachusetts, will play its home games at the state-of-the-art Foley Stadium in downtown Worcester.
The club intends to develop a top-level PDL team while providing youth players from the Worcester communities, as well as all of Central Massachusetts, with the opportunity to develop in a professional environment.
“We welcome Worcester Hydra FC to the PDL and look forward to watching the growth of a dynamic, entertaining team,” USL CEO Alec Papadakis said. “This addition in central Massachusetts only strengthens a highly-competitive New England presence for the PDL.”
The Worcester Hydra FC PDL team will play a 16-game schedule between the months of May-August. The top supplier of talent for professional soccer in North America, the PDL saw another large group of its alumni make the move into professional soccer in 2011 with 37 of the 54 players selected in the 2011 Major League Soccer SuperDraft having previously played in the PDL.
A remarkable eight of the first 10 selections in the draft had PDL experience, including 2011 MLS Rookie of the Year C.J. Sapong of Sporting Kansas City, who previously played for Reading United AC.
“We are very thrilled to launch a PDL team in our area next season,” said Phong Le, president of Worcester Hydra FC. “We have been planning for a long time and now is the best time to join USL PDL with the ambitions to make this club one of the best in North America, to build our own stadium and to compete at the highest level in the U.S.
“Our mission is to create one of the best professionally-run soccer clubs,” Le added. “Hydra Football Club will be one-of-a-kind in that it will be run by the fans, for the fans; from top-level management all the way down to the game-day volunteers. This unique aspect of our club will allow us to create one of the most passionate fan bases in all of sports.”