When Reno 1868 FC decided to cease operations following the 2020 USL Championship season, it jolted defender Thomas Janjigian.
"It’s something that surprised me in the moment because we were a very solid team, and we were doing well," said Janjigian, who played four seasons in northern Nevada, following a standout college career at UC-Irvine.
Reno had a record of 62-26-28 and earned playoff berths in all four campaigns since its 2017 inception. The club, however, believed it needed a soccer-specific stadium to compete in the current iteration of the USL Championship as opposed to the minor-league baseball stadium that served as its home. However, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic prospect of a soccer stadium went from challenging to impossible.