Arkansas Rising

EIN: 71-0594414 · Tax status: 501(c)(3) nonprofit

Overview

Arkansas Rising Soccer Club is Central Arkansas’s premier competitive youth soccer organization. The club operates under the legal entity Arkansas United Soccer Club (formerly Riverdale Soccer Club), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit incorporated in Arkansas with EIN 71-0594414. Administrative offices are located at 16603 Cantrell Road, Suite 4, Little Rock, AR 72223.

The organization traces its roots to Riverdale Soccer Club, founded in 1980 to serve the Rebsamen-area neighborhoods of Little Rock. Over four decades it rebranded several times — to Little Rock Futbol Club (LRFC) and then to Arkansas United in 2013 — before undergoing a structural merger in 2020 that created the current Arkansas Rising brand. In that merger, Arkansas United and Real Arkansas Soccer Club combined competitive programs, coaching staff, and administrative resources to form a single organization, positioning Arkansas Rising as the dominant club in the Little Rock metro.

The club provides competitive and recreational programming across the Central Arkansas region, drawing players from Little Rock, North Little Rock, Conway, Maumelle, Greenbrier, Cabot, Benton, Bryant, and surrounding communities. The club’s stated mission is player development across all ability levels, with a philosophy that “lessons from the field carry into every part of life.”

Arkansas Rising also holds an Everton FC International Academy affiliate designation, meaning Everton Soccer Schools programming — designed in consultation with Everton Academy coaches and using the Premier League club’s development methodology — is delivered through Arkansas Rising’s infrastructure. The affiliate camps are open to players aged 6–19 and represent a brand partnership, not a full academy pipeline.

Financials

Based on the most recent Form 990 filings available through ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer (EIN 71-0594414, legal entity Riverdale Soccer Club / Arkansas United Soccer Club):

• Revenue (FY2024, ending June 30, 2024): $1,217,232 (HIGH — Form 990 via Cause IQ / ProPublica)
• Expenses (FY2024): $1,290,070
• Net result (FY2024): –$72,838 operating deficit
• Total assets (FY2024): $768,085

The club operates near breakeven but ran a modest deficit in FY2024. At roughly $1.2M in annual revenue, Arkansas Rising is a small-to-mid-size club by national standards. The deficit may reflect one-time costs associated with program expansion, coaching hires, or facility fees, though no public disclosure distinguishes structural from one-time items.

Historical note: The EIN 71-0594414 is listed under the legal name “Riverdale Soccer Club” on ProPublica’s database — reflecting the original legal entity name that was never formally changed at the IRS despite multiple rebrands. Cause IQ cross-references this EIN to “Arkansas United Soccer Club,” confirming they are the same entity. The operating brand “Arkansas Rising” is not a separate legal entity.

Teams & Players

Arkansas Rising serves approximately 3,000 participants across competitive and recreational programs (LOW — website estimate, unverified in 990). Programming is divided into:

• Competitive (ECNL RL): Boys and girls teams at U11–U19 competing in the ECNL Regional League – Frontier conference, coached by paid professional staff. Competitive players train at minimum twice weekly and compete in 8–10 league games plus 2–3 tournaments per season.
• Competitive (State/Local): Teams competing in the Arkansas Competitive Soccer League (11U–19U), operated by arkansas-soccer-association.
• Recreational: Multi-age recreational programs operating in Little Rock, North Little Rock, and Conway (under the legacy “United North” division).
• United North (Conway): A sub-division serving Conway at Centennial Park, established 2006, offering U9–U19 competitive and recreational tiers.

No ECNL (top-tier national) or girls-academy programming as of 2026; ECNL RL is the highest competitive platform operated by the club.

League Affiliations

• ecnl-rl — ECNL Regional League (Frontier Conference), both boys and girls. Conference peers include Arkansas Comets, Blitz Academy (OK), Mississippi Rush, Oklahoma Cosmos, and Tupelo FC (MS).
• arkansas-soccer-association — Arkansas Competitive Soccer League (state competition, U11–U19)
• Arkansas Soccer Association — recreational and developmental age groups

No current affiliation with mls-next, ecnl (top tier), or girls-academy.

Facilities

Arkansas Rising does not own its own dedicated soccer facility. The club operates as a tenant on public and municipal fields across Central Arkansas:

• burns-park-soccer-complex (North Little Rock) — primary tournament venue; 17+ fields with Bermuda turf; described in marketing as one of the premier soccer facilities in the country. Arkansas Rising hosts both tournament weekends of the Capital City Cup here.
• Murray Park (Little Rock) — recreational and youth training
• Henderson Middle School fields (Little Rock)
• Natural Steps Park (West Little Rock)
• Centennial Park (Conway) — United North division home

The lack of owned or long-term leased facility infrastructure is a material constraint on the club’s ability to guarantee field access, manage costs, and build facility-dependent revenue streams (rental income, academies, clinics).

Leadership

Staff:

• michelle-cox — Executive Director / General Manager
• mark-gibbs — Sporting Director (formerly Technical Director)
• sean-dunbar — Recreational Director
• brittany-axford — Soccer Operations Director
• alex-burgess-ar — Girls Competitive Director
• brandon-hom — Boys Competitive Director / Scheduling

Board of Directors (volunteer, nonprofit governance):

• curtis-bailey — President
• RJ Moore — Vice President
• Amy Stumhofer — Treasurer
• Meredith Zachritz — Secretary
• Members: Tod Cochran, Laura Sanders, David Collier-Tenison, Chris Kear, Jason Farrar, Kela Jackson

The board meets monthly (second Wednesday, 6 pm) in an advisory capacity. Arkansas United holds an Annual General Meeting each September.

College Placement

Arkansas Rising maintains an active college commitment tracker at arkansasrising.org/rising-college-commitments. The Class of 2025 includes commitments to multiple four-year programs; one publicly identified commitment is Addison Grogan to the University of Arkansas–Little Rock. The club’s ECNL RL platform provides the competitive visibility needed for player recruiting at the Division I–III levels, though the absence of top-tier ECNL or MLS Next programming limits exposure to elite D-I programs compared to clubs with full ECNL or MLS Next rosters.

Tournaments Operated

Arkansas Rising is the host organization for two recurring tournaments held at burns-park-soccer-complex:

• capital-city-cup — Annual boys and girls weekends held separately (Girls Weekend and Boys Weekend). Approximately 180+ teams across both weekends; U9–U19 age groups; draws clubs from AR, OK, MO, TX, LA, and MS. As of 2025, in its 30th edition.
• showcase-of-the-south — Annual showcase-format tournament at Burns Park; 17+ editions as of most recent public reference.

Tournament hosting provides revenue diversification beyond registration fees and is consistent with the club’s multi-decade presence at Burns Park.

Competitive Position

Arkansas Rising is the dominant competitive club in the Little Rock metro and holds the highest competitive league presence (ECNL RL) in Central Arkansas. Its geographic service area spans a large swath of the state, from the state capital south to Benton/Bryant and north to Conway and Cabot.

The club’s primary competitive challenge comes not from Little Rock peers but from the NWA institutional build-out: sporting-arkansas + ozark-united-fc-academy in the Bentonville/Rogers/Fayetteville corridor now operates mls-next (Pioneer Conference) programming, offering a higher-tier competitive pathway. Top central Arkansas players ambitious for D-I soccer and professional pathways may increasingly weigh the MLS Next option in NWA. Arkansas Rising’s ~3,000-participant scale and its multi-city presence give it strong state-wide brand recognition that smaller Central Arkansas clubs (Central Arkansas Soccer Club, FC Arkansas, Arkansas Revolution FC) cannot match.

The Everton partnership enhances brand equity and provides a European association appealing to families, but it is a summer camp affiliation rather than a formal development pipeline.

At roughly $1.2M in revenue and with no owned facilities, Arkansas Rising operates at a scale that requires careful cost management. The FY2024 operating deficit, while modest, warrants monitoring against program growth plans.

Industry Context

Arkansas Rising occupies the position of Central Arkansas’s legacy club — the institutional memory and community trust of a nonprofit that has existed in various forms since 1980 give it structural advantages in player retention and community relationships. Its nonprofit governance model aligns with typical parent-volunteer leadership structures common among established Midwestern and Southern youth soccer clubs.

The broader Arkansas youth soccer landscape is bifurcating. NWA is attracting private capital (the $250–350M Ozark United stadium/entertainment district) and professional club infrastructure, while Central Arkansas operates through traditional nonprofit community clubs. This divergence reflects demographic and economic differences: NWA (Walmart, Tyson, JB Hunt headquarters) has a higher-income, faster-growing population base than the Little Rock metro.

Nationally, the ECNL RL platform that Arkansas Rising anchors locally is a mid-tier competitive product — above state competition but below the top ECNL and MLS Next tiers. The December 2025 announcement of a new ECNL RL/NPL postseason integration for 2026–27 may enhance the value of ECNL RL affiliation, though the structural implications for club-level economics are still developing.

Arkansas Rising’s tournament portfolio (capital-city-cup, showcase-of-the-south) represents a meaningful revenue line in addition to registration and training fees, and its Burns Park relationships are a durable competitive moat in Central Arkansas.

Open Questions

• Source of FY2024 operating deficit — one-time (e.g., coaching staff expansion, tournament costs) or structural margin pressure?
• Player migration dynamics: are top Central Arkansas U13–U15 players moving to NWA for mls-next access via ozark-united-fc-academy?
• Facility strategy: any plans to secure long-term lease or ownership of dedicated training fields?
• Everton partnership economics — revenue share, exclusivity terms, multi-year commitment?
• Board composition and strategic orientation toward growth vs. preservation of nonprofit community mission
• Key staff compensation in 990 (executive director salary; not extracted from search)
• Whether the club has explored or will explore ECNL (top-tier) promotion, which would require significant investment in coaching and facilities
• Full college commitment list for Classes of 2024–2026 (only partial data publicly available)