Here at Protagonist we love to get stuck into teams and leagues we’ve never heard of before and when we recently discovered the MASL (A professional arena league hiding from us in plain site which plays in front of thousands and thousands of fans) we were instantly in love and wanted to know more. We reached out to all of the teams and one of the first to reply was Utica City FC - based in the Mohawk Valley, and seat of Oneida County, Utica is home to over 65,000 New Yorkers. One of the founding members and co-owner, Tommy Tanner, was gracious with his time and answered all of our initial questions!

One of the things we love to find out about clubs is their founding - who started your club? What was the mission or vision and has that changed over time?
I started the club along with Doug Taylor and Pete Ramin and my father Tom Tanner. Always wanted to bring a professional team to my home city. Chris Economides came to me in 2011 and was starting a new league with the USL and we ended up merging with the MISL. In 2018 I met with Rob Esche and asked him and the Utica Comets to partner with us and Utica City FC was created.

Historically, who is your biggest rival? What is the most important game you’ve ever played and who do you look most forward to playing against this season?
It has to be Baltimore as we have played them so many times. I think the most important game was our first both in Syracuse and then Utica. In both cities we kicked off the team very well.

Who are your biggest or most important players or coaches of all time? Record setters and trailblazers?
I think we have had a number of great players and key figures throughout the 12 years. Kenardo Forbes, Slavisa Ubiparipovic, Bo Jelovac, Nate Bourdeau has just been a great leader on and off the field. Gordy had one of the best seasons in our history and We look this year for Franck and Moh to add to the really good group of young players we have ready to explode.

Do most of your players play both or are they dedicated to playing indoor professionally?
Most playing mainly indoors and then play in tournaments in the summer outdoors or small sided.

How do you keep the lights on? What are the most important marketing strategies? Where do you trim the budget and where do you spare no expense?
It is a full team effort of all our staff members to come up with ideas and ways to maximize attendance and partnership opportunities. This is Utica City commercials on home game weeks has been very effective.

How does your club connect with your community outside of the arena? What do you do that makes a difference?
We are consistently in schools, training sessions and doing more with our refugee community each year. After every game our players let the fans know how important they are to us.

Want to know more or get involved?
Follow Utica City FC on Instagram HERE
And give them a follow on “X” Twitter HERE