Just announced today, NISA and GCPL have entered into an agreement making the amateur regional league the first one affiliated with NISA. In today’s press release, Josh Prutch, EVP of Expansion, spoke of many future such affiliations, with the goal of NISA being “a home for clubs.” The big win for the GCPL in this current affiliation is two guaranteed slots in the annual NISA Independent Cup, which Prutch described as “based on league play, thereby allowing the and players to decide it on the pitch.” The GCPL had two clubs participate in this year’s Cup, Louisiana Krewe and Gaffa FC. Gaffa FC won the Central Plains Region of the competition.

For their part, GCPL leadership is focused on continuing to grow their impact in the gulf region. GCPL President, Jeremy Poklemba, is quoted in the press release, “growing our network and connecting ourselves to other like-minded entities is our way of continuing to be the front runner for soccer in the gulf coast.” Jonathan Rednour echoed that sentiment, when contacted for this story, “the GCPL wants to remain the top regional league in the gulf. This agreement is about building a strategic partnership to develop lines of communication. The goal of our league is to continue to grow.”

And part of that growth is the unveiling of the new league logo, designed by Grant O’Dell at Forte. The sleeve logo above is designed to incorporate the traditional GCPL pelican design into the new logo, with the soccer ball representing the sun over the Gulf. It’s a slick redesign that refreshes the league’s logo and sets it above the vast majority of regional leagues. The redesign, along with the NISA agreement, all show the influence of Jonathan Collura, founder and President of Bugeaters FC, who joined the league in January of last year to help grow and develop the league.

The elephant in the room and the question on everyone’s minds is, of course, is this the first step to pro/rel? Rednour certainly pumped the breaks when asked, saying it was only a future possibility to “get to a point of GCPL clubs going pro.” But, of course, that isn’t no, is it? How much more is in the agreement remains to be seen, as the information Protagonist has seen is limited to the press release. And there’s not a lot of details aside from the Independent Cup connection. How deep is this agreement and what other aspects of the affiliation aren’t public? It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

But pro/rel? To quote Lloyd Christmas, “So you’re telling me there’s a chance.”

- Dan Vaughn