About Ozark United FC - Ozark United FC

Ozark United FC was formed by co-founders Chris Martinovic and Warren Smith to bring both Men’s and Women’s professional soccer to the Northwest Arkansas region. Our goal is to build community and be a force for good in our region, leveraging the “beautiful game” as our vessel to leave an enduring positive impact to ultimately make Northwest Arkansas an even greater place to live, work, and play.

Ozark United FC will build, own, and operate two professional clubs, including a USL Championship Men’s team and a USL Super League Women’s team. The USL Championship is the only sanctioned Division II league in the United States with 24 teams competing in the 2024 season. The USL Super League is a new Division One professional women’s soccer league that launched in August 2024 with eight inaugural teams, and additional teams set to join in subsequent seasons.

STADIUM DETAILS

Location is critical when it comes to a successful stadium, for the club and for the fans. In determining where to hold our home matches Ozark United FC focused on creating the optimal fan experience – thinking about pre, during, and post match activities and needs. With this in mind, we will build a high quality multi-use stadium placed centrally within the region, that is easily accessible, and is located adjacent to prime additional entertainment opportunities for match goers.

MEET THE CLUB LEADERSHIP

Chris Martinovic

Co-founder

Chris is long-time business executive in Northwest Arkansas, who grew up with the love of sports in his blood. His father Sam, a Croatian immigrants, instilled early on how soccer could be an asset for individual development, and provide a massive community impact. In high school in New Jersey, Chris was All-Conference in 3 sports, but soccer was his true passion, so he accepted an opportunity to play D1 college soccer at Seton Hall University. At Seton Hall, Chris was fortunate enough to play for the US Soccer coaching legend Manfred Schellscheidt, who became his most influential coach as well a lifelong mentor. Chris was a recruited walk-on at Seton Hall, however, he eventually developed into the team’s leading scorer and Captain.

After college he began his business career while also pursuing a professional soccer career in the USL. Since then he has remained extremely active in the game, as a player, as a fan (attended 2 World Cups and 2 Euro’s), and as a youth soccer coach for 25 years. In 2007 Chris moved to Northwest Arkansas and his family fell in love with the region. After 15 years with Bayer, in various leadership roles, Chris now works as the Chief Customer Officer for Arcadia Consumer Healthcare, a private equity held company. Chris lives in Northwest Arkansas with his wife Marcy, his two sons Kristian and Niko, and their dog Myles.

Since 2019 Chris has spearheaded the idea that Northwest Arkansas, one of the fastest growing regions in America, DESERVES to be a professional sports market. Chris is an entrepreneur at heart and his passion to help build a club for this community up from the grassroots level matches well with his skillset. As a club founder Chris will play a long-term role on the Board of Directors for the future club, including a liaison, a connector, a recruiter, an investor, and overall community builder.

warren smith

co-founder

Warren is a proven industry leader with 25 years of experience developing and leading brands in professional sports, focusing on building teams and stadium solutions in communities around the country. The teams he has led or participated in have all led their leagues in revenue metrics and have all been top performers on their field of play winning five championships.

Warren was the principal that led the effort in 2000 to bring AAA Baseball to Sacramento, CA when his group built Raley Field and moved the Vancouver Canadians to Northern California and became the Sacramento River Cats. According to Forbes Magazine, the River Cats have been the most successful team in of all of minor league sports to date. While at the River Cats, he participated in the turn around and sale (2007) of the Portland Beavers AAA Baseball team and the Portland Timbers United Soccer League (USL) franchise, which soon after elevated to Major League Soccer (MLS).

He also led the effort to build the Sacramento Republic FC, where he acted as the Founder and

President of the club. The club started in 2014 and quickly rose to the top of all USL KPI’s and won the 2014 USL Championship as well as winning the Western Conference in 2016. Warren and his team sold the club to the group that could take it to MLS in May 2017, and the club was awarded a franchise in that league in October 2019.

Most recently, Warren partnered with USA legend Landon Donovan to co-found the San Diego Loyal Soccer Club, which began play in the USL in 2020, where he served as the Club President.

Warren now focuses his efforts on helping cities build teams in their communities with an emphasis in the USL, which is currently the fastest growing soccer league in the USA. Current projects include New Orleans, Northwest Arkansas and a club re-build in Oklahoma City, where the Energy FC will be building a $100 million new stadium in partnership with the City.

wes harris

managing director

Wes is Ozark United FC’s first official employee and serves as the Club’s Managing Director. Wes is a long-time resident and business executive in Northwest Arkansas, and is as passionate a soccer fan as they come – he’s a diehard Liverpool FC supporter (he sings You’ll Never Walk Alone to his 3 young children each night before bed).

Wes grew up in Annapolis, MD playing soccer competitively from the age of 3 all the way through the collegiate level, including co-founding the Men’s Club Soccer team at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, PA. He still is active in the adult Men’s leagues in the area, and has served as a USSF licensed referee and coach across all youth age groups.

However, playing, coaching, refereeing, and being a fan wasn’t enough for Wes. In college he co-founded a media outlet focused on the business aspects of the “beautiful game”, called Business of Soccer, leading a team of 10+ writers globally and reaching over 50K+ unique readers a month, 150K+ page-views, and appeared on television several times as a subject matter expert in soccer business.

Wes brings with him a great enterprise skill set from +15 years leading businesses and people in the consumer goods industry, working for Johnson & Johnson, HARIBO, and consulting. In his role as Managing Director, Wes will be focused on building the club from the ground up, including community engagement, public relations efforts, building systems and processes, working with USL league HQ, fundraising, and representing the club in the Northwest Arkansas community.

Forrest Eber

Advisor

Prior to co-founding Intersection Ventures, Forrest served as Chief Financial Officer for Orlando City Soccer Club, where he helped oversee the club’s business operations and served as the organization’s lead on financing, design and preparations for construction of the downtown stadium project. During his tenure, Orlando City was hailed by Sports Business Journal as one of the top professional sports expansion launches in history and the stadium design was later called a “Blueprint for the Future” by MLS Commissioner Don Garber.

Forrest served on Louisville City FC’s Board of Directors from launch through its inaugural season and worked closely with LCFC ownership on the club’s initial business plan. He worked in the Office of the C.E.O. for the U.S. Soccer Federation, where he focused on a variety of special projects, including serving on a three-member Executive Committee operating the 2003 FIFA Women’s World Cup and overseeing the Youth National Teams Program. Forrest also served as CFO and Associate Commissioner of the West Coast Conference (WCC) from 2011-13.