Colorado will soon add a third professional soccer team.
The Katofsky family and Future Legends ownership group have plans to start Northern Colorado FC in Windsor as part of the United Soccer League in 2022. An official announcement is expected Tuesday.
“When we look to expand, we’re looking for three primary things: communities with a strong appetite for the sport, a committed local ownership group, and a fan-friendly venue and this club has all of those things,” said Ryan Madden, a spokesperson for USL. “And we expect them to be very successful.”
Northern Colorado FC will compete at the Future Legends Sports Complex in Windsor — the same site that will host the NoCo Owlz of the revamped Pioneer League starting this summer.
The soccer club will compete in the United Soccer League League One, which is the third division in American soccer, below MLS and USL Championship where the other two teams in Colorado already compete.
“Every person that we’ve had a conversation with knows how big soccer is up here in Northern Colorado, and honestly Colorado as a whole,” said Casey Katofsky, Future Legends Complex Executive Director and co-owner of the professional teams and complex. “You have the Colorado Rapids in Denver, you have the Switchbacks down in Colorado Springs, and for us to be able to provide the first outdoor professional soccer team in northern Colorado history was extremely appealing to us.”
There are no current plans to be affiliated with the Rapids, although that is a possibility somewhere down the road.
“With the Rapids, I have no idea what that can hold,” Katofsky said. “I don’t want to limit ourselves, as I said, but so far they’ve been incredibly generous to us and I look forward to seeing what we compete together.”
The Katofsky family and Future Legends ownership group have a goal of being community-driven and want to be a staple team in northern Colorado. They already have plans to allow the community to help with branding, including team colors, logos and uniforms.
“That is very important for us, is a team that is all there by the community as well that they feel like they have a say in what we do,” Katofsky said. “And then they can really feel attached to it, instead of us just presenting all the different things that they just have to get used to.”
Although the Northern Colorado FC name is set in stone, the team is looking to add a nickname in the coming months.
“They are community-focused, which is the most important thing,” Madden said of the NoCo FC ownership group. “They want their club to be a representation of the region that it’s from, so they want to embody Northern Colorado in a genuinely authentic way, which is the most important thing.”
The Future Legends Complex is in the process of being built and is expected to span over 118 acres, include multiple baseball and soccer fields, and will be able to host a wide array of sports.
