Full name | Antigua Barracuda Football Club |
---|---|
Nickname(s) | The Barracudas |
Founded | 2010 |
Dissolved | 2014 |
Stadium | Stanford Cricket Ground |
Stadium capacity |
5,000 |
Owner | Gordon Derrick |
League | USL |
Antigua Barracuda were an Antiguan professional soccer team based in St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda. Founded in 2010, the team played in the USL Pro, the third tier of the American Soccer Pyramid.
The team played its home games at Stanford Cricket Ground (colloquially known as "Sticky Wicket Stadium") in Osbourn, Saint George Parish until the 2013 season when they became a traveling team. The team's colors were sky blue, white and black.
The team was originally set to join the USL First Division in 2011, but was later announced as being a founding member of USL Pro and its International Division after the USL First and Second Divisions dissolved in 2010 to make way for the new league.
The club's first official game took place in April 2010, a friendly against the Puerto Rico Islanders. Approximately 1,000 people attended the event.
The club arranged two further friendlies with Montreal Impact, the first of which took place on 17 April 2010 at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium with the second scheduled to be held on 4 September at Saputo Stadium in Montreal. They also arranged exhibition matches against Jamaica's Tivoli Gardens and Harbour View for May. On August 20, 2010 Barracuda FC announced the cancellation of the friendly matches because of funding difficulties. Impact President Joey Saputo subsequently made an accusation of a serious lack of professionalism on the part of the Antiguan club.
On 23 September 2010, United Soccer Leagues formally announced that Antigua Barracuda FC would join the newly formed USL Pro in 2011 alongside Sevilla FC Puerto Rico and Club Atlético River Plate Puerto Rico as founding members of the league's tentatively named Caribbean Division, which was later officially unveiled as the International Division.