Little Rock Rangers Partner With Arkansas Rising to Launch Women’s Team

Head coach for the Little Rock Rangers women's team, Alex Burgess, hosts tryouts for the new team. (Photo provided)

Little Rock’s minor league soccer franchise is launching a women’s team in collaboration with the nonprofit Arkansas Rising Soccer Club of Little Rock.

The new team will play in the United Premier Soccer League (UPSL), which is based in California but has divisions across the U.S. The Little Rock Rangers will compete in the Texas North – Arkansas division.

The team will be coached by Arkansas Rising coaches Alex Burgess and Brittany Axford, who will serve as head coach and assistant coach, respectively. The Rangers are providing most of the team’s other staff and organizational needs.

Rangers President and General Manager Jonathan Wardlaw said the partnership with Arkansas Rising made sense for a multitude of reasons. He said Arkansas Rising has put a lot of work into building up women’s soccer in the region. This created a larger pool of local talent.

“The collaboration with Rising — I think that’s a bright future,” Wardlaw said. “It’s exciting to see what could come of the collaboration, because we need their help and they’re an integral part to making this thing a success.”

Wardlaw said there’s also “not a lot” of expenses associated with the women’s team. Many of the players will be local, meaning they can stay at home during the summer and the organization won’t have to pay for housing.

Financially, the team had to buy into the league and pay for uniforms.

The Rangers previously had a women’s team for the 2017 and 2018 seasons, but Wardlaw had to put it on hold due to staffing, monetary and organizational issues.

But the Rangers franchise is in a “completely different spot” than it was in its fledgling years, Wardlaw said. Now, the organization has a set staff and more resources, which will also help keep costs down.

Wardlaw said the first season, beginning this summer, will act as a “test run” for the women’s team and the partnership with Arkansas Rising.

The first women’s game will likely take place at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock. If the fanbase is there, Wardlaw said games could continue at the stadium, but if the ticket sales aren’t enough, the women’s team will move to smaller venues.

“Now, it’s just seeing what the fanbase brings and seeing what the butts in the seats will allow as far as resources for the future,” Wardlaw said. “This is just a stepping stone.”

If the team does well, Wardlaw said he will likely look to moving up to a higher league.

The overall goal of the partnership is to create a “pathway for female players.” Wardlaw said Arkansas Rising has a good hold on the current pathway for female athletes, and that both organizations want to show female players there’s a local soccer scene worth staying in Arkansas for.

Mark Gibbs, the sporting director for Arkansas Rising, said in the team’s announcement post that the new team is “an important step in expanding the women’s soccer landscape in Arkansas,” and that Arkansas Rising is looking forward to “seeing the impact of this initiative on the future of the game in this community.”

The team is already off to a better start than the previous venture. Only around 25 players attended the last tryout for the women’s team in 2018, but the new team’s tryout, hosted March 1, saw more than 65.

“I would love for it to rival our men’s team on attendance. I’d love to see the Red Watch there. I’d love to be more busy,” Wardlaw said. “Some of the [women’s] big pro teams are outdrawing the men’s teams, and we don’t realize it, but maybe Little Rock is one of those markets.”

Men’s Team Update

The Rangers men’s team has seen a lot of success in recent years. The team competes in the United Soccer League Two (USL2), which is three divisions under Major League Soccer. The franchise’s website boasts “one of the highest fan attendances in minor league soccer.”

The team won the Mid-South Division Title in USL2 in 2024, securing them a spot in the U.S. Open Cup on March 19, which is the country’s oldest soccer competition. The Little Rock Rangers were the first club from Arkansas to ever qualify in 2019, and remain the only club to do so.

“There’s going to be players that make six figure salaries that are coming here to play us,” Wardlaw said. “It’s arguably the biggest soccer game that’s been played here ever.”

The game will be held at Episcopal Collegiate School in Little Rock, rather than the team’s home field at War Memorial Stadium — its field dimensions don’t meet the U.S. Soccer Federation’s guidelines. The location limits the game’s attendance to 1,000.

Wardlaw said War Memorial’s field needs renovations to increase it’s width. He’s long had plans for the Rangers to promote leagues up to USL1 or the USL Championship League, which is only one tier below MLS, but that can’t happen until the field at the stadium is widened.

“Everybody wants it,” Wardlaw said. “We could be a year round presence. We could turn Little Rock into a soccer city.”