‘They’ve never second guessed.’ How Lexington has moved up pro soccer ranks so quickly.

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Lexington Sporting Club’s men’s pro soccer team is making a big move.

On Tuesday, LSC’s senior men’s team announced it would be moving from USL League One, the third tier of American men’s pro soccer, to the USL Championship, the second tier, starting with the 2025 season.

The USL Championship is the highest level of men’s pro soccer overseen by the USL, and it ranks behind only Major League Soccer in the American soccer pyramid. It’s also the same league that Louisville City plays in.

With regard to the question of how and why this move was possible for LSC — a club that has largely struggled on the field and in the stands in both of its seasons at the USL League One level — one word is being repeatedly used.

Ambitious.

Between remarks in a prepared speech and comments during a session with reporters Tuesday, USL Championship president Jeremy Alumbaugh used the word “ambitious” or a variant of it 13 times when discussing LSC’s move.

“We’re looking for ambitious cities, ambitious owners, ambitious players, ambitious staff, people that want to strive to be more than what they are currently,” Alumbaugh said, adding that the word is used daily in USL communication. “Lexington Sporting Club is ambitious.”

Tuesday’s announcement was a clear example of LSC’s ambition, but that alone isn’t why the club will find itself in the USL Championship in 2025, less than four years after Lexington was awarded a USL League One expansion franchise and just two years after the team began play.

Instead, LSC’s move up the soccer pyramid is the result of actionable steps taken and ownership investment made to position the franchise well.

Front and center is the completion of a soccer-specific stadium in Lexington. Located on Athens Boonesboro Road near Interstate 75, a new, 7,500-seat venue is almost ready as part of a larger complex that also includes training and youth fields.

According to LSC, this represents an $80 million investment by the team’s ownership group, which is led by majority owner Bill Shively.

Tuesday’s media event announcing LSC’s move to the USL Championship took place just a stone’s throw from the new stadium, and with plenty of construction still ongoing.

Since its debut in spring 2023, LSC has played home matches at Toyota Stadium, a 5,000-seat venue on the Georgetown College campus in Georgetown.

Even though it’s located a 20-minute drive from downtown Lexington, the new stadium is a major catalyst behind LSC’s step up in league level.

“It’s very important,” Alumbaugh said, citing other USL Championship cities like Colorado Springs and Louisville that he said have reaped economic rewards from soccer-specific venues. “(Louisville City) looks a lot different today (playing at Lynn Family Stadium) than they did playing at Slugger Field in terms of the economic impact it means to the local restaurants, the bars, the coffee shops, places that soccer fans seem to like to go to before the game. … We’re seeing this over and over again, these transformational projects and how they really change communities.”

LSC has complete ‘pathway to pro’ models for men, women

In addition to the stadium component, Lexington Sporting Club has also fleshed out a complete “pathway to pro” model on both the men’s and women’s sides of the club in a short time.

Since Lexington was awarded a USL League One expansion franchise in October 2021, the following major events have occurred:

▪ Former youth soccer programs Lexington F.C. and Commonwealth Soccer Club merged to become Lexington Sporting Club Youth Soccer Club.

▪ LSC established pre-professional teams at the USL Academy and USL W-League levels for men and women.

▪ LSC became one of eight initial teams in the USL Super League, a professional women’s soccer league that’s been sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation as a Division I league, which places it on the same level as the already-established National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL).

Lexington’s first game in the Super League will be later this month, and the Super League team will open the club’s new stadium with a home match on Sept. 8. LSC’s men’s team is set to play the final three matches of its USL League One regular season at the new stadium starting in mid-September.

During Tuesday’s event, Lexington Sporting Club CEO Kim Shelton — who joined the club in this capacity in January — said LSC offers a “robust and comprehensive” soccer structure with these pathways in place.

“It’s about ambition and it’s about investment. From the beginning, this club has been investing in the community, investing into people, facilities,” Alumbaugh said. “… You don’t think about it from the youth to the men’s team to the women’s team, but since day one I think they’ve been ambitious and this has been part of their plan, is to get (to the USL Championship).”

Ownership investment is driving force behind LSC joining USL Championship

The investment from LSC’s ownership in Central Kentucky was cited by Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton during her remarks Tuesday.

Gorton — who said she used to coach 12-and-under girls soccer and also that she’s an LSC season ticket holder — specifically credited the LSC ownership team led by Shively for what they’ve done for youth in the region with pro soccer aspirations.

Shively — who didn’t speak during Tuesday’s event and also didn’t speak to reporters afterward — previously told the Herald-Leader that community involvement through youth soccer was a driving force behind his decision to bring professional soccer to Lexington.

“The first thing I told the pros was, ‘This is about youth sports,’” Shively told the Herald-Leader in March 2023. “… I’m doing this because I love kids and I want kids to play soccer, and I want you to be the role model to make sure they want to play soccer.”

Fittingly, Tuesday’s event featured a smattering of LSC youth players in the front rows near the speaker’s podium.

The investment made by Shively and the LSC ownership group has helped establish several building blocks for the club, including the hiring of current LSC men’s head coach Darren Powell.

“It’s clear to see the significant investment into the club, you can see just in these present surroundings, what’s available and what this club is looking to achieve,” said Powell, who previously was part of the coaching staff for Inter Miami of Major League Soccer. “You see the facilities, you see the stadium. … Everything that Lexington Sporting Club is doing is going to be first class. We’re absolutely very proud of where we are, who we are and where this team is going.”

When he sat down with the Herald-Leader for an interview in March 2023, Shively said he hoped Lexington Sporting Club would be in the USL Championship within the next five years.

He’s met that deadline with startling efficiency.

“This has been part of their plan from the get go,” Alumbaugh, the USL Championship president, said of Lexington Sporting Club’s ownership. “They have been pretty aspirational, pretty bullish. They haven’t wavered. I think oftentimes it’s easy, sometimes when people get involved in this, they start to waver and start to second guess. … They’ve never second guessed.”

Lexington Sporting Club to be one of 26 teams in the USL Championship

Currently, there are 24 teams in the USL Championship that are split evenly into 12 teams in each of the Eastern Conference and Western Conference.

Those teams are:

▪ Eastern Conference: Birmingham Legion, Charleston Battery, Detroit City, Hartford Athletic, Indy Eleven, Loudoun United, Miami, North Carolina, Louisville City, Pittsburgh Riverhounds, Rhode Island and Tampa Bay Rowdies.

▪ Western Conference: Colorado Springs Switchbacks, El Paso Locomotive, Las Vegas Lights, Memphis 901, Monterey Bay, New Mexico United, Oakland Roots, Orange County, Phoenix Rising, Sacramento Republic, San Antonio and FC Tulsa.

Two more teams are set to join the USL Championship for the 2025 season: Brooklyn FC, an expansion franchise, and Lexington Sporting Club.

This means 26 teams are expected to compete in the 2025 USL Championship season.

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