Greensboro, NC: Today the Carolina Dynamo made three announcements to officially kick off their 2008 campaign. The 1st announcement came from Dynamo GM Scott Zapko. Zapko said this is something the Carolina Dynamo & Greensboro Youth Soccer (GYS) have been working on since Mapcherson Stadium was built back in 2002. Just before the 1st of the year Dynamo management and Greensboro Youth Soccer executives came to terms for a licensing agreement that allows GYS to use the Dynamo name and essentially bring the Carolina Dynamo under its umbrella. Joe Brown (VP & Head Coach) and Scott Zapko (GM) will both continue to run the USL franchise but will also handle the sales and marketing of Bryan Park and Greensboro Youth Soccer as whole. “This is something extremely exciting for both parties, this will take both GYS & the Dynamo into a new era Zapko goes onto add. The Dynamo gets an immediate attachment to the some 3,500 GYS participants, and can now offer Corporate America more comprehensive grass roots marketing opportunities that last year round. By bringing the two parties together it gives both organizations the chance to use each others strengths to run more efficiently and provide better opportunities for the children that participate.

The Second Announcement names Adidas as the new and exclusive equipment supplier of the Carolina Dynamo. It was a natural fit for the Dynamo & Adidas to partner especially since Adidas has been such a loyal support of Greensboro Youth Soccer. To go along with the Dynamo moving into a new era, a new title sponsor was announced. Parks Chevrolet of Kernersville will be the new title sponsor of the Dynamo and have their logo placed on the front of the Dynamo uniforms. We are very fortunate to have had the support of Corporate America and have always had and extremely large business partner in the community on the front of the Jersey says Dynamo VP & Head Coach Joe Brown. We are please to announce our partnership with such a fine company Parks Chevrolet. Both Parks GM, James Berry and Emily Parks, Parks Marketing Director were on hand to unveil the 2008 home jersey.

Dr. Steve Lucey was on hand to make the most exciting announcement of the day. Steve is a partner at Sports Medicine and Orthopaedics Center in Greensboro, a member of US Soccer’s medical staff, a GYS Board Member, and a corporate partner of both the Dynamo & GYS. On behalf of the board of directors of GYS, we are very excited about this new chapter in the relationship with the Dynamo. We would like to announce two things in this new relationship. First, we are renaming the boy’s side of our club the Dynamo. So, moving forward we will have the Twisters on the girls’ side and the Dynamo on the boys’ side.

Second, we would like to announce the launch of our capital campaign for facility improvement at our Bryan Park complex. The plan is to expand Macpherson Stadium to 7,000 seats. The six-year-old stadium now holds 3,000 fans. The $2.5 million project would add seats behind both goals and a two-story field house with locker rooms and a hospitality area.

Our vision is clear: we want to be a soccer association from the recreational, challenge, classic, and professional level. This stadium will not only host our senior Dynamo teams, but we also will bid for ACC, NCAA, MLS matches, US National Team friendlies, as well as foreign team exhibitions, such as Liverpool from England and Necaxa from Mexico, both of which have already played in our stadium. These events will allow our families, as well as the triad community, to enjoy quality soccer AND it will strategically allow us to create revenue to reinvest in the club.

This will allow us to keep costs low and reach out to Hispanic, African-American, and other key minority demographics that we want and need in our association. In addition to an improved stadium, we will also be building a wonderful indoor facility. We will have winter training, foul weather training, indoor soccer leagues for our youth and adult teams here. It will be on field six directly behind our GYS offices.

The Dynamo season kicks-off on May10th with a doubleheader. The Dynamo Women face the Carolina Railhawks at 5:30. The Dynamo men face the Nashville Metros at 7:30.