The Madison 56ers, the city’s amateur men’s soccer team, will be sharing Breese Stevens Field next year with another soccer club — a newly announced United Soccer League Division III franchise — but that doesn’t bother Cristian Brei.
“We welcome the new professional club in Madison and believe it will have a positive impact on our team, drawing more attention to soccer,” says the 56ers’ general manager, who plans to meet soon with Peter Wilt, managing director of the still-unnamed pro team, to discuss possible partnerships. “As the new team will be of a slightly higher level, a collaboration makes a lot of sense for the benefit of soccer in Madison.”
In another move to boost Madison’s soccer profile, the 56ers joined the United Premier Soccer League this season after previous affiliations with the National Premier Soccer League and the Premier League of America.
The 56ers’ history dates back to the mid-1950s, with the formation of youth programs that are still going strong today.
“UPSL is the largest national soccer league, with over 175 teams, of which 23 are in the Midwest Conference,” says Brei, whose team is off to a 2-0-2 start in the Midwest Conference’s North Division. “UPSL offers an extended season, giving us the opportunity to play roughly April through November.”
The league also supports a promotion and relegation system in which teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance — a process that is standard in international soccer and one that appeals to Brei. “We’ll be trying to implement it in the Midwest [Conference] as soon as 2019,” he says.
Joining the UPSL also allows the 56ers to renew old NPSL and PLA rivalries with the Milwaukee Bavarians and Croatian Eagles (out of Franklin, Wisconsin). Madison’s second home game of the season is June 9 at 6 p.m. at Breese Stevens Field against Minnesota’s Granite City. The Bavarians come to town July 13.
The 56ers are expanding in other ways, too. “We’ve added a live-stream person and are gearing up for the possible demands of participating in a longer season next year,” Brei says. “Player development is going to see a significant improvement with a longer season. Players will train and play with us for eight months a year, [allowing us to function] much better as a team. We will continue to stand for the same values we stood for all these years: developing and giving an opportunity to local players, working with local coaches and serving Madison-area families.”
