Brick West Brewing was buzzing with activity Friday morning: The U.S. Women's National Team was playing England up on the big screen, with the Mariners set to play in Toronto as well. But the crowd came to learn more about the United Soccer League's plans for Spokane, specifically who would be the owners of the new team.
"This is going to be a special market for the USL," said Justin Papadakis, the Florida-based chief operating officer of the USL, which operates the leagues just below Major League Soccer.
Papadakis reviewed the journey that Spokane has taken to build a downtown stadium, with partners including Spokane Public Schools and the Public Facilities District. Soccer on this level, he said, would not have been possible without the public investment in a new field, which is expected to be open for high school football next fall. And while Spokane already knew a men's USL League One team was coming, Papadakis dropped the big news: Spokane would also be home to a women's soccer team. The room erupted in cheers.
Amanda Vandervort, president of the USL's Super League, took the microphone to add that the vision for USL women's soccer is to build an infrastructure along the lines of what exists in Europe, with integration from kids soccer to junior soccer to pre-professional to professional. Spokane's women's team will play in the USL W league.
"Gender equity is truly at the heart of what we're building," she told the gathering, also predicting that someday a Spokane player would be on the pitch for the U.S. Women's National Team.
But Papadakis was also in town to announce the owners of Spokane's new teams: Ryan and Katie Harnetiaux, who both have deep Spokane roots. In fact, if you were creating a classic Spokane love story in a lab, you couldn't do much better. They grew up five blocks from each other on Spokane's South Hill, but never knew each other. Ryan was a Bullpup at Gonzaga Prep; Katie was a Tiger at Lewis and Clark. And of course they first met at Camp Reed.
The whole thing came together over the past six months, Ryan told the crowd; Katie recalled that when Ryan said he wanted them to lead the ownership group, she remembers saying, "'Are you crazy?' It is crazy, right?" she continued. "But it's the good kind of crazy. It's right for men, it's right for women, and it's right for Spokane."
Katie is an executive at Amazon, and Ryan is a Gonzaga University grad who spent 25 years in wealth management as an adviser in both public markets and private equity; they live in Bellevue but will be spending more time in Spokane, with family all around to support them on their new journey. (Ryan's dad, Bryan, is Spokane Civic Theatre's playwright-in-residence, and recently was written up in this very newspaper.)
The announcements don't stop there, as plans are in place to share the team names and crests in the coming months. The first men's match will be in April 2024. Stay tuned @uslspokane. ♦
