Less than two weeks after winning the 2014 USL PRO championship on home soil in their first season of existence, Sacramento Republic FC kept the good news flowing on Monday with the announcement of new additions to their investor group as the club looks to further strengthen its push for a future MLS expansion berth.
The new investors – whose involvement is contingent on the club's eventual entry into MLS – continue a theme of locally-based ownership, and the most noteworthy figure in the group is mixed-martial arts star Urijah Faber, a Sacramento-area native who has multiple Ultimate Fighting Championship titles to his name.
“I’m always looking for things that will make Sacramento a better place,” Faber – who attended Republic FC's USL PRO championship victory over the Harrisburg City Islanders on Sept. 27 – told the Sacramento Bee. “It’s really cool to see Sacramento excited about something like this.”
Some, but not all, of SRFC's newest investors also hold stakes in the Sacramento Kings NBA team, which nearly relocated to Seattle last year before being sold to a group pledging to keep the team in town and build them a new arena in cooperation with the city.
But as the Bee notes, Republic FC's ownership consortium is almost entirely local, compared to the out-of-towners who helped save the Kings.
“There’s a great pride in that the commitment is largely a regional, Sacramento commitment,” Republic FC majority investor Kevin Nagle told the Bee, also adding that more investors are expected to come on board in the near future.
MLS executives met with Republic officials in September to further discuss a first-division future.
