CASE STUDY 005: Hooked on Launching a Professional Football Club - Red Hook FC

By hook, without any crook, can you really climb your way from Sunday league to the pros? Red Hook Football Club is begging the question. 

Centered on a belief that football is, and should be, a mechanism for social good, RHFC is attempting to build a club, a brand, an institution in a different way than most. They aren’t beginning with the banks, the wealthy private owners, or elite football industry executives. No. Instead they are pursuing social investment from local businesses. Record shops, barbecue joints, art studios, bakeries, etc. Simultaneously, “RHFC seeks to highlight local nonprofits with game day signage and have the opportunity to table games, with dedicated game days highlighting specific initiatives, providing visibility and fostering community engagement” (RHFC Leadership). Not a bad idea. Especially when you are hoping to build a professional sporting institution in one of the most segregated and underserved neighborhoods in a city of over 8 million people.

The club’s ethos exudes a sense that Red Hook is a place to BE. Not just a stop on the NYC Ferry to Rockaway Beach, or a place to dip your toes in the sand while you crack open some crab with a crisp glass of white wine when the weather warms. RHFC wants you to come on down, catch a game, watch some of the most exciting and diverse talents the sport has to offer this side of the Atlantic, stop by The Record Shop, go for a walk to Pier 12, see the historic shipping yards. Learn a little something about a culturally rich, albeit relatively forgotten, part of the largest city in the United States. 

Led by new Head Coach Edison Sanchez Aviles, a seasoned professional with extensive experience across all three NCAA divisions, Red Hook FC enters the UPSL Division 1 Spring season with a new look and a clear aim - continue rising up the footballing ladder. 

With everything to prove on the field, and everything to do off the field, the work lay very much ahead of this budding institution. That sentiment was palpable at RHFC’s SS25 Kit Launch Party on a breezy Friday night in March at The Record Shop (a local favorite for all things movin’ and groovin’). But with a boatload of “to-do’s” freshly docked in the Red Hook’s Atlantic Basin, there was something more powerful in the air - the local community’s love for this project. 

If we are speaking probabilities, the odds of making it to the pros are dubious at best. But with a community that is positively HOOKED, you may want to throw a dollar on red.