Perhaps one of the biggest questions among lower-league soccer fans, at least here in southeast lower Michigan was who’s the mystery owner of Detroit City FC?
It was a question of considerable significance that DCFC supporters speculated on ever since the club announced they were moving up to the USL Championship back in November of 2021. That significance is based on the notion that not only did the move out of NISA potentially save the club from certain doom but what did this new future hold for the club with a new major investor on board? Would this new owner have a new vision that would clash with an already established club culture?
Wednesday night some of those questions were ultimately answered, including the big one revealing the identity of the City secret investor.
In an exclusive interview with Nolan Bianchi of the Detroit News, the DCFC mystery owner was revealed to be 47-year-old Matt Schrecengost.
According to Bianchi, Schrecengost originally got connected with Detroit City CEO Sean Mann through a “Detroit-based friend” named Ryan
Cooley, brother of Slows BBQ co-owner Phil Cooley. All this apparently came together at the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic in late 2020 and early 2021 which also marked a difficult financial time for the club as a result of the world essentially shutting down.
“I got along really well with Sean and the guys, and I was like, if I can just be a part of this, where I can support them and help them just keep pushing the vision of what they’ve already created, I felt that was something I could really get excited about.”
Detroit News
But where did Schrecengost accumulate his wealth to eventually help cover the presumed eight-figure sum in USL Championship expansion fees? Schrecengost is the current COO of the Chicago-based proprietary trading firm Jump Trading which focuses on algorithmic and high-frequency trading strategies. High-speed trading is distinguished by its emphasis on fast speeds, high turnover rates, and high order-to-trade ratios. This in turn makes use of high-frequency financial data and electronic trading tools.
In 2021, Jump announced that they would get into the crypto game by establishing their new offshoot brand Jump Crypto.
In any sense, there are sure to be more questions in the coming weeks regarding Schrecengost and his business, something that surely comes with the territory of being an owner of a professional club. This is especially the case given the rising popularity of Detroit City and the very vocal supporter base that puts a great emphasis on maintaining the club’s culture that got them to this point.
