Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC

An ownership group led by local banker Paul Heasley was awarded a Pittsburgh expansion franchise in the USL A-League by USISL on March 11, 1998. Organizers planned for the team to begin play in the 1999 season, making it the first professional outdoor soccer team in the city since the Pittsburgh Phantoms folded after the 1967 NPSL season. The name "Riverdogs" was initially selected until the threat of legal action by the Charleston RiverDogs led the team to change their name to the Pittsburgh Riverhounds in December 1998. The Riverhounds played their first match on May 1, 1999, against the Cincinnati Riverhawks at Bethel Park Stadium in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. The team lost 3–2 in a penalty shootout after a scoreless draw in front of a sellout crowd of 5,639 spectators. Pittsburgh drew an average attendance of 4,178 in their inaugural season—the second-best in the league—and qualified for the A-League playoffs, where the Rochester Rhinos eliminated them in the second round. The team's attendance declined in later seasons as Heasley unsuccessfully pursued plans for a soccer-specific stadium to replace Bethel Park by 2005. The Riverhounds moved a tier below the A-League (later the USL First Division) to the USL Pro Soccer League (later the Second Division) in 2004 amid financial issues. The team underwent several ownership changes and continued to have unstable finances; it withdrew from competition for the 2007 season but continued to run its youth programs and the senior…