The Tampa Bay Rowdies U23 were an American semi-professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

team based in

St. Petersburg, Florida St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 258,308, making it the fifth-most populous city in Florida and the second-largest city in the Tampa Bay Area, after Tampa. It is the ...

. They were the reserve club of

USL Championship The USL Championship (USLC) is a professional men's soccer league in the United States that began its inaugural season in 2011. The USL is sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation (U.S. Soccer) as a Division II league since 2017, pl ...

club

Tampa Bay Rowdies The Tampa Bay Rowdies are an American professional Association football, soccer team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The club was founded in 2008 and first took the pitch in 2010. Since 2017, the Rowdies have been members of the USL Champions ...

. The club is part of the Rowdies Youth Network, which consists of the U23 team in League Two, Rowdies Women (run in partnership with Pinellas County United SC), and the Tampa Bay United Rowdies Development Academy (run in partnership with Tampa Bay United). In 2016, the Rowdies operated a team called Tampa Bay Rowdies 2 in the NPSL. This team was replaced by the U23s the following year.

History

Prior editions

In December 2015, the Rowdies announced that they would begin fielding a developmental team in the

National Premier Soccer League The National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) is an American men's association football, soccer league. The NPSL is a semi-professional league, comprising some teams that have paid players and some that are entirely amateur. The league is officially ...

for the 2016 season and that the club would be called Rowdies 2. The original Tampa Bay Rowdies had fielded a similarly named reserve/developmental squad from 1982 to 1983, but used Roman numerals to dub them ''Rowdies II''. Rowdies 2 competed in the Sunshine Conference of the South Region of NPSL, finishing in fourth place with a record of four wins, four losses, and two draws. The team disbanded in 2016. In February 2017, The Rowdies announced that they would field a U23 team in the USL's

Premier Development League USL League Two (USL2), formerly the Premier Development League (PDL), is a semi-professional developmental association football, soccer league sponsored by United Soccer Leagues in the United States and Canada, forming part of the United Stat ...

, with Rowdies U23 set to join the league this for

2017 PDL season The 2017 USL Premier Development League season is the 23rd season of the PDL. The Michigan Bucks entered the season as the defending champions, but their title defense campaign ended with a loss in the Central Conference semi-finals. On August 5, ...

, playing in the Southeast Division in the Southern Conference. The majority of the roster had ties to the Tampa Bay and Florida area. They played their first match on May 27 against

Weston FC Weston FC is a soccer club in Weston, Florida competing in the USL League Two. They are also one of the largest soccer clubs in the country for youth soccer. The club was founded in 1998 as a youth soccer club. They have approximately 1,100 pla ...

. The team went 3-8-3 in conference play and finished sixth out of nine teams. The team did not return for the 2018 season.

Current edition

On January 15, 2020,

USL League Two USL League Two (USL2), formerly the Premier Development League (PDL), is a semi-professional developmental soccer league sponsored by United Soccer Leagues in the United States and Canada, forming part of the United States soccer league syste ...

(formerly the PDL) announced that the Rowdies would be re-launching the U23 for the

2020 USL League Two season The 2020 USL League Two season was to have been the 26th season of the USL League Two, the top pre-professional soccer league in the United States, since its establishment in 1995. Flint City Bucks were the defending champions after defeating Read ...

, however, the season was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. The team was to play in the Southeast Division once again, play its games as Al Lang Stadium, and will be coached by former Rowdies player

Andres Arango Andres Arango (born April 23, 1983) is a Colombian-born Canadian former soccer player who played in the Canadian Professional Soccer League, USL A-League, and the North American Soccer League. Arango is currently a coach with Florida Premier F ...

. The team is a partnership between the USL Rowdies and Chargers SC. However, they never played as the 2020 season was cancelled due to the

. In 2021, they were replaced in USL2 by

Tampa Bay United Tampa Bay United Soccer Club is a soccer club from Tampa, Florida that plays in the Southeast Division in USL League Two. History The club was founded as a youth soccer club in Tampa, Florida, where they are the largest youth team in the city. ...

, who are also an affiliate of the Rowdies.

Year-by-year

Tampa Bay Rowdies 2 Tampa Bay Rowdies U23

References

{{Florida Sports USL League Two teams Soccer clubs in Florida Tampa Bay Rowdies