OKLAHOMA CITY (July 11, 2024) – The Women’s Premier Soccer League reveals its WPSL PRO footprint expands into Northeast Ohio as an official Letter of Intent (LOI) is submitted from a group led by Gina Prodan Kelly. With the announcement, WPSL PRO confirms this is the ninth team to submit an LOI for the league’s official launch.
“Gina brings an impressive background across both business and sport, and is a further benchmark for the quality of groups that we are attracting to WPSL PRO,” Benno Nagel, WPSL PRO project director, said.
By launching a team in WPSL PRO, Kelly’s vision looks to fill the gaps in both the women’s game and player pathway by fielding more opportunities for athletes to compete and grow not only their personal game, but the U.S. game as a whole.
“By building a strong, supportive community around this WPSL PRO team, we’ll be able to deliver a top-level game for our Cleveland fans and build that game in our athletes too,” Kelly said.
Kelly has been involved in soccer and Cleveland sports her whole life – a passion that fuels her drive and vision to do more for the game in Northeast Ohio. The Cleveland native leads the marketing efforts for Cleveland Pro Soccer project, which has recently submitted a bid to become the National Women’s Soccer League’s (NWSL) 16th expansion team.
“Through my work in the women’s game and life as a soccer fan, I’ve seen and felt how passionate Northeast Ohio fans are about women’s sports and women’s soccer,” Kelly said. “I also know there’s an opportunity gap in our current soccer system on the women’s side, but not for a lack of talent.”
Kelly and the Cleveland Pro Soccer group saw this passionate of its community when the group achieved more than 14,000 season ticket pledges for an NWSL team that doesn’t exist yet.
“It’s a testament of how eager Northeast Ohio fans are to support women’s sports and how ready we are to show up for a women’s soccer team,” Kelly said. “Thousands of more fans have supported this team in ways other than pledging. That 14K barely scratches the surface of what’s possible here.”
The WPSL has been regularly involved in Cleveland and Northeast Ohio with teams like the Cleveland Ambassadors and Croatia Juniors. Securing the market for WPSL PRO capitalizes on the league’s commitment to the advancing and supporting the women’s game in the area.
