Dear Paradise Fans,
What an amazing year 2024 was for Paradise! We continued to build our club and took some gigantic steps towards our shared future. I’ll never forget our 4-0 thumping of Miami in the last home game to solidify our first division championship and secure our first trip to the playoffs. It was a beautiful night with a great crowd cheering and supporting our players.
The playoff experience unfortunately ended quickly after extra time in the first round game. It left us wanting more. The memory of me, assistant coach Jamie, and player Chris Solari driving through the night from SRQ to Asheville in order to make it to the game is still vivid. We were supposed to fly up, but that was the day Microsoft crashed the flight system. Thankfully the boys were all on the bus and had safely arrived before our flight was cancelled.
After the season, we added a number of full-time staff as we continue our investment into our incredible community. First we were able to increase the role of our 2024 captain, Felipe Rojas to a full-time Marketing Coordinator. Then Tim Jansen, the Venice native, was brought home to Paradise as the Director of Operations charged with creating the most exciting game day experience in the league. As the months wound down we secured a key hire from Austria, David Herman came on board as our Managing Director with a primary focus on revenue generation. The next full-time team member we are hiring is a Paradise Community Evangelist. If you know someone who would be a great fit, or if it’s you – send me an message!
We ended 2024 with securing a lease at Premier Sports Campus which will allow us to take the next step in building paradise. A big thank you to Manatee County for being a great partner throughout the process! 2025 will move us closer to fulfilling our vision of uniting our community around the soccer field. Let’s fill our stadium, raise our scarves, and sing:
We Are Paradise!
Sincerely,
Marcus Walfridson
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