Hartford City FC Professional Soccer Team Will Not Play This Season at XL Center

The Hartford City FC indoor professional soccer team will not play this season at the XL Center, the NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters have learned.

The team was scheduled to begin its 20 game season the first week in November, but the Troubleshooters learn from league and team sources that the season has been canceled.

This is further fallout from the troubled Dillon stadium redevelopment project. City officials have called into question the finances of majority team owner James Duckett. Federal investigators are now also looking into the Dillon Stadium project in Hartford, according to sources. A subpoena was delivered last week to Hartford's town clerk who later had the document sent to Mayor Pedro Segarra. The documents ask for any and all information relating to the Dillon Stadium project that went down in flames over the past few weeks. A representative for the City of Hartford must appear before a grand jury at 9 a.m. on November 17 at the Giaimo Federal Building in New Haven, according to the subpoena.

The Hartford Courant initially reported that Duckett, the primary developer and owner of Hartford City FC, the team that was to call a new stadium on the Dillon site home, had a federal embezzlement conviction against him. It also came to light that had previous issues with both personal and professional debts.

The Troubleshooters have also uncovered irregularities with hundreds of thousands of dollars of invoices submitted by the developer of the project premiere sports management group and paid by the city of Hartford.

The Troubleshooters team with NBC Connecticut had previously reported on the invoices with ballooning costs once Duckett, his firm Black Diamond Consulting LLC, and Premier Sports Management Group got involved.

The team practiced for several weeks and none of the players, some of whom moved to the Hartford area from outside the United States were ever paid.

Council Member Larry Deutsch, a member of the Working Families Party, had voiced concerns and reservations about the development since day one. He said, unfortunately, the existence of a federal grand jury, vindicates him and his worries.

“The proposal went a certain distance before city council but it never had any data, any financial support, any timetables and yet we were asked to approve the thing," Deutsch said.

The Troubleshooters learned that a second ownership group was trying to work out a deal with the league to salvage this season, but they could not work out a deal in time.

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