Statesboro Premier Development League

Statesboro announced the name and logo of a Premier Development League (PDL) team. “We landed the only PDL minor league team in the entire state of Georgia” State Representative, Jan Tankersley said on Wednesday afternoon at a press conference.

Fans sent in over 2,500 entries with over 200 different names they thought would be a good fit to be the new team. After considering the votes, the new franchise is going to be called the South Georgia Tormenta FC. Tormenta is Spanish for storm. The logo of Tormenta FC was created at Brandous in San Diego.

A partner to Tormenta FC, Jason Klein, gave a behind the scenes look at how the logo was picked. “We selected the Glossy Ibis as the mascot, because it’s the first bird to go into hiding once a storm is coming, but also the first bird to come out once a storm is clear,” he said.

The General Manager of the South Georgia Tormenta FC will be Ben Freakley, former soccer player and alum of Georgia Southern.

The team will debut over the 2016 summer. Georgia Southern Athletic Director Tom Kleinlein gave an outlook on when the team will begin play. “Their first games will be played in our soccer stadium,” he said. “We look forward to helping Bulloch County and Statesboro grow to there first but not final step to the growth of sports tourism to this county.”

“We will play seven home games a year, ” President of the club Darin Van Tassell said. “We will be playing them in the summer when no one else is.”

Tickets to get into these games will start at $10 for adults (ages 12 and up), $7 for youth, and free for kids ages 4 and under. If you are interested in buying season tickets, they are $40 for youths and $55 for adults. They will also be offering a VIP package, which will include free food.

The PDL is the minor leagues of Major League Soccer (MLS) in this country and has produced 70 percent of the people drafted into the MLS. One of the biggest names to come from the PDL is DeAndre Yedlin, member of the Seattle Sounders and U.S. World Cup team.