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QuickTake:
Bill Cornog, who grew up in Eugene and made his money in private equity, wants Sporting Cascades FC’s games at Civic Park to feel distinctly local — but he also sees the team as part of a global player-development pipeline.
Sporting Cascades would like to introduce itself.
Again.
It was in July of last year when the United Soccer League awarded a League One franchise to Eugene. The club was dubbed Sporting Cascades FC in August, with the new team announcing its intention to begin play in 2026.
Season-ticket deposits were collected. AI renderings of Civic Park were released. Then the whole project was put on hold.
Sporting Cascades announced in December that its inaugural season would be delayed as it dealt with behind-the-scenes logistics. John Galas, the club’s sporting director, died of cancer in March, and Sat Dhinsa, the Vancouver businessman who was initially announced as the club’s primary investor, departed.
That’s where Bill Cornog comes in.
Cornog, 61, was announced as Sporting Cascades’ new owner in April. Last week, he and the club announced an equity gift partnership with Kidsports, the local youth sports nonprofit based at Civic Park.
“When the Eugene Civic Alliance and Kidsports built Civic Park, the vision was for a place where young kids could play on weekday evenings, and professional soccer could thrive on Saturday nights,” said Bev Smith, executive director of Kidsports, in a release. “As a Kidsports alum, Bill Cornog is helping bring that vision to life.”
Cornog is based in Dallas, Texas, and made his wealth in private equity, leading KKR Capstone. He’s the one restoring the Treetops mansion off campus, near Hendricks Park.
He sat down last week for a discussion at 5th Street Public Market, a few miles from where he first kicked around a ball at Edgewood Elementary School in 1976, to talk about how he got involved.
Sporting Cascades was treading water back in February when Cornog got a call from Pete Peterson, the South Eugene High School soccer coach and a lifelong friend, who wanted to set up a meeting with John Galas and Dave Galas, Sporting Cascades’ co-founders.
Dhinsa, the original owner, had backed out. The league was paying for operating expenses, and Sporting Cascades needed a savior.
After Cornog met with the Galas brothers and had many conversations with Smith, he decided that it was time to put his money where his interests were.
Soccer wasn’t always Cornog’s thing. But when work took the Cornogs to London in 2010, it became his kids’ thing.
“My son would literally leave our flat in London on Saturday and go down to High Street and go into the magazine shop, and there was an older Indian guy who worked there that was totally into the Premier League,” Cornog said. “And my son and him would just talk for hours about the Premier League.”
That son, William Jr., just won a Division III national soccer championship with Tufts University after beginning his college career at the University of Portland. His daughter, Quinn, “the freak athlete” of the family, just finished her career with Texas Christian University.
“I’m at the point in my life where I want to do things I care about and I’m passionate about,” Cornog said. “I kind of looked at this and said, ‘This is an opportunity to do a good thing, you know?’”
Filling Civic Park
So Cornog took on the payroll. He took on the debt. And he helped give Kidsports and the rebuilt Civic Park a professional tenant.
He’d like to keep his annual losses below $1 million.
“But if we have a good team and we have a good following and people like Sporting Cascades? Then that’s the best million dollars I’ve spent,” he said. “I’m not going to do this because I’m going to make money. Anybody who thinks they’re going to make money in soccer is crazy. I mean, the franchise values are appreciating, but you’re not going to make cash. You’re going to have to invest in this thing.”
In the short term, Cornog said that investment is focused on building an authentic soccer experience.
He has visions for what 4,000 fans at Civic Park would feel like, and he knows Sporting Cascades will only get there with a quality product. He wants to partner with local artists for designs and give matches a distinctly Eugene feel without going overboard on quirks.
“It can’t be about a different theme every night,” he said. “I want to have a serious, good team with great players and a great fan experience. But I also don’t want it to feel corporate.”
The international soccer transfer market
In the long term, though, the players become the focus — and perhaps the clearest path for Cornog to get a return on his investment.
He tells a story about Yan Diomande, a 19-year-old winger for RB Leipzig who is reportedly in the sights of Premier League power Liverpool and could fetch a transfer fee in excess of $100 million.
Diomande began his professional career with Spanish club Leganés, a team that is part of the ownership portfolio of Blue Crow Sports Group, where Cornog serves on the board of directors.
Leganés discovered Diomande, signed him and watched him play 10 matches for the club before Leipzig came in with a $20 million transfer offer. He joined Leipzig in 2025, and when he takes his next step, Leganés negotiated a percentage of the profit Leipzig makes on that sale.
Read one headline: Leganés pull off the deal of the century with Diomande sale.
“We get a 10 percent sell-on,” Cornog said. “So for that single player, we could make $30 million. That’s a major piece of this.”
While his current sports group is chasing big-fish profits such as Diomande, he said there is a need for a landing spot for other profitable players who aren’t fetching such gaudy numbers.
“For example, we have a national team player for an African country, he’s 17 and we can sign him right now. Our talent guys are like, ‘Well, he looks like he’s going to be a solid investment. He could be a $500,000 to a million-dollar type of guy.’ But they’re not trying to hit that. They’re trying to get the $5 million player — the $10 million player,” Cornog said. “And what we can do with Sporting Cascades is we can create openings where if they’ve got a player they know will have value but might not make the threshold of playing for Le Havre or Leganés, we can get that kid to Eugene, and then maybe they’re even better than they thought.”
That’s the bigger game — and one not without potential competition.
USL League One, where Sporting Cascades will play, is a Division III league in the United States soccer pyramid. Major League Soccer is Division I, while the USL Championship is Division II. MLS also entered the Division III space in 2022 with MLS Next Pro, which has already grown to 30 franchises and has the backing of Cornog’s old firm, KKR.
Coupled with the attention of this summer’s World Cup in North America, that number is expected to grow. USL League One has 17 teams in 2026 and will expand to at least 21 for 2027.
Whether the two third-tier leagues continue fighting for territory or someday merge into something larger, Cornog said it’s a good time for soccer.
“You’re just going to see a proliferation of local soccer clubs in secondary markets,” he said. “I think that’s going to be awesome. Whether the leagues come together or not doesn’t matter. Communities that are large enough are going to have a team.
“I actually view it as a very positive sign of growth that is going to happen to the sport. When that much capital flows in — smart capital flows in — I think that’s telling you something about the potential and value of these franchises.”
There’s an accepted risk there — it’s business. For Cornog, it’s also a little more.
“What joy is there in building an AI stock?” Cornog said. “There’s joy in building a great soccer team. There’s joy in having this relationship. This is a good way to share my love.”
