In a shock Friday afternoon news drop, Rhode Island FC announced the departure of David Peart, their second Club President in as many seasons as the team has played and the winner of the Leadership award at the 2025 USL Front Office Awards.

While there are many rumors swirling around the nature of this departure, one thing is clear – removing the Club President 22 days before the season starts and less than 22 months since his appointment, should be a cause for concern.

Or is it?

Introduction to Rhode Island

Taking over for the inaugural President of RIFC Brett Luy in May of 2024, Peart was billed as a highly experienced sports executive, tasked with accelerating the growth around the club:

“As we step into this next phase of Rhode Island FC’s journey, our executive committee and ownership group is thrilled to have someone with David’s decades of proven experience at the helm,” said Rhode Island FC Co-Founder and Chairman Brett Johnson. “Throughout his career, David has built sports brands that reflect the values and culture of the communities they are a part of, and we expect he will do the same in Rhode Island. David has a well-earned reputation amongst his colleagues in professional sports and I am confident that his leadership will accelerate Rhode Island FC’s growth and development in the Ocean State and within the ecosystem of North American soccer.”

RIFC Announcement – May, 2024

While fans had mixed feelings about moving on from Luy – a leader who had embedded himself in the RIFC community and didn’t seem to be given a chance to see the project he was core in starting through, bringing in someone with the level of experience as Peart made sense for a club looking to maximize revenue with the opening of a state of the art stadium on the horizon.

The Highs

With a clear remit, it’s only fair to start the analysis of Peart’s tenure on maximizing revenue in the Ocean State.

One of the rumors around the departure of Luy was ticket sales. After selling out the inaugural match at Beirne Stadium, the team averaged 4,327 fans in the reported attendance before Peart’s appointment. After his appointment, the team averaged 4,772 fans with three sellouts (according to FBRef).

This momentum carried into the new season with a sellout for the inaugural match at Centreville Bank Stadium. The team averaged almost 9K tickets distributed with five sellouts during the 2025 season.

The team was also able to secure deals with core sponsors like Centreville Bank, AAA, Ford, Chick-fil-A of Attleboro (I won’t remind you of what that activation was supposed to be) and partnered with companies and local agencies like RIPTA.

The Own Goals

While being a part of the team who opened the stadium was a massive win, there were clear shortcomings of the Peart tenure.

When conducting research for this article, the main feedback I received about Peart’s reign was that there always felt like a borderline hostility towards the core fans. A new fan in the door was treated as exponentially more important than retaining the core customer.

At numerous points of last season, Defiance 1636 delivered reports to the Front Office going into extreme detail on observed shortcomings from the club. Do you know how desperate you have to be to sign up for a group project as adults completely in your spare time?

In a document that over 130 fans signed, which can be read here with the signees removed, the fans went into detail around inconsistent communication, extreme price increases, stadium experience and more.

With a remit of driving revenue for the club, the clearest own goal was the lack of consistent merchandise, the merch quality and hostile pricing.

During the 2025 season, the two main kits (Energy and Rhode) were out of stock for the majority of the season. The Wave Kit had an exciting launch, then was unavailable for the majority of the season.

And even when you could buy a kit, the $115 price tag was the highest in the USL Championship and more than you will spend on a fan Premier League kit. An analysis conducted by the crack Tide Talk Data Team last summer showed that RIFC kit prices were 23% higher than the average USL kit price. Want to blame Capelli? RIFC kit prices were 35% more than the two other clubs using the horrible kit supplier in the USL (Loudoun and Colorado Springs).

The team store opened mid-season yet had inconsistent hours. And if you wanted to shop online? There were a handful of items available for purchase. With reports that Portland Hearts of Pine, a USL League One team (division below RIFC), were expecting to generate between $7-$9 million alone in gross revenue in their first season, this is a massive issue and opportunity for the team to sort out.

In the continuation of gouging fans, individual game parking increased $7 this year. While there were briefings on a 7% sales tax being the core reason behind the increase, those of us who stuck around through 5th grade math class will know that this was a 32% increase in the price of parking.

And one final nail in the coffin around the core fan experience? Sticking the Supporters Group with a ticket rep who was incredibly unqualified and so ineffective that a 10 page binder of complaints had to be delivered to the club in an attempt to make a change. To their credit, the club has now resolved this issue.

Looking to the future

So what, or who in this case, comes next? If I had a wishlist of what I would like the President of Rhode Island FC to embody, it would look something like this:

Someone with deep experience, not just in sports but specifically in soccer

Someone who takes the time to understand the community around this club and, even more importantly, the state they represent

Someone who thinks listening to fans isn’t a chore but is an opportunity to actively engage with the lifeblood of your club

Someone who doesn’t need a 10+ page dossier from fans to make obvious decisions

Someone who holds the standard of this club to the level fans believe it deserves. That being average isn’t acceptable on or off the field

Someone who prizes elite execution above all else

Someone who will tell us the truth, even when we don’t want to hear it

Someone who bleeds Amber and Blue just like the rest of us

While some are worried that this vacancy is an issue for the club, I think this is an incredible opportunity to establish the best culture in the USL. I trust in Brett Johnson and the board to learn from their experiences in this still very young project and bring in someone who we will all be proud to lead this club.