Birmingham’s Premier Development League soccer team, the Birmingham Hammers, is reorganizing into the new United Soccer League or USL team, Legion FC. Legion FC has recruited former New England Revolution head coach Jay Heaps to manage, and the new team is scheduled to begin playing in the 2019 USL season.

“Being able to be a part of building a culture from the beginning. You don’t get many chances at that,” said Heaps in an interview with USL.

The new name is based on the famous football stadium Legion Field located in Birmingham, and the hammer and anvil on the team’s black and gold logo is a tribute to the Birmingham Hammers as well as to the city’s industrial roots. “Hammer Down” is the new team’s first slogan.

 "You think about Birmingham's sporting history, and you think about Legion Field. There is a lot of history in that building, and that's a lot of great history for our city,” said Legion FC vice president Morgan Copes. "Birmingham has centered around Legion Field for so long, we thought this was a great tip of the hat to the stadium. We're elated with the way it all came out, and we can't wait to get everyone's reaction."

Legion FC’s home field will be UAB’s soccer stadium which is undergoing a $7.3 million expansion. The renovated stadium will hold around 4,500 to 5,000 fans, and Legion FC will lease the stadium from UAB for $350,000 a year.

Heaps said in an interview with USL that his goals as manager of the new team is to build “A really strong fan-base, a really strong following and a culture that is authentic to Birmingham that is also a strong soccer culture, that we are a team that, from a soccer-standpoint, players want to come to, that players realize they’ve been treated right.”

Legion FC will have plenty of USL rivals in the southeast. The recently formed Atlanta United 2 and Nashville SC teams are both near Birmingham. However, Nashville SC will be expanding to Major League Soccer or MLS at the beginning of either the 2020 or 2021 season, but it is likely that the team will still support a USL team as many MLS teams have done.

Teams from Austin, TX and Memphis, TN will also be holding their inaugural USL seasons in 2019, and matches between Legion FC and the other rookie teams hold promise to be exciting games to watch.

“For me to be able to get in here and realize Birmingham has a huge challenge, Atlanta’s doing what they’re doing, Nashville’s doing what they’re doing, Louisville as well, those are big-time markets, Memphis is coming in, so for us we’re excited we’re going to have that regional built-in rivalry,” Heaps said.