NASL Commissioner: Our #1 goal remains to keep the Silverbacks in Atlanta

With each passing day as we creep deeper into the month of November heading towards December, the future of the Atlanta Silverbacks in NASL and as a club itself gets even more cloudier. Last week the president of the club came out and said there were on-going discussions with some ownership groups about keeping the Silverbacks in Atlanta.

NASL Commissioner Bill Peterson joined the Ultras Alive podcast on Monday to discuss the league as a whole. Inevitably the Silverbacks situation was brought up and Peterson remained defiant in the league's goal to keep the club in Atlanta. He says that there are indeed talks with several groups about keeping the team stationed in Atlanta.

"Our number one goal remains to keep the Silverbacks in Atlanta. We have groups who are interested in doing that. So, we have to go through that process, we have to be careful we don't rush them or create situations where they feel uncomfortable because of the timeline. But the fact remains, we have to release a schedule, we got to know what's going to happen in 2016."  Bill Peterson told Ultras Live.

Among other options, according to the Commish, are other ownership groups who are interested in acquiring the franchise and then relocating them.

"We also have groups who are interested in purchasing the team and relocating. And that's not a primary focus of ours but it is something that's a reality.

"All of our owners, their first preference would be that the team in Atlanta remains. We love the fans that we have there. It's a great group of fans. And we think that club can be so much stronger going forward with the right ownership group, but we got to find them."

Trying to read between the lines, he's saying everything a Silverbacks fan would want to hear. However, listening to the rest of his interview, he strikes me as the type of businessman that is very confident and outspoken. You can hear a lot of definites in his words. Phrases like "this will happen" are bandied about a lot. His uncertainty and lack of confidence in the situation leaves me very worried about the future of the Silverbacks. Hopefully it all works out for both the club and the league, but as long as this saga drags on, the bleaker the outlook becomes.