Birmingham Legion’s newly minted head coach and president, Jay Heaps and Nick Hall, respectively, held their first joint press conference Friday to talk about the club’s future ahead of the new season.

For just over half an hour, the pair discussed Heaps’ appointment and subsequent restructuring of the club’s hierarchy, ambitions for the season and the work going into fan engagement and the experience at Protective Stadium.

I’ve put a full transcript of the press conference up on my Substack, but here are the key points that were discussed.

Jay Heaps, head coaching, and timing

When the club announced on January 12, just three days before the start of preseason, that head coach Mark Briggs had departed for an MLS role, the timing could hardly have seemed worse.

For Jay Heaps, however, it felt like things had fallen into place perfectly.

The new head coach revealed Briggs came to him during the holiday period asking for permission to apply for the FC Dallas assistant role. Only a couple of days later, the Englishman got the job. The announcement came roughly 10 days after both sides knew last season’s head coach would depart and was only delayed due to minor details that needed figuring out.

So in truth, that left the club roughly two weeks to sort out a new head coach before players returned to the Dunnavant Valley training facility.

Though more than what the fans might of thought, that’s still hardly enough to conduct a proper coaching search. And Heaps realized that pretty quickly.

“We could go down the road of a head coaching search, it could take a month, two months,” Heaps said. “I don’t want to do what we did last time when we hired someone too late into the season, he really didn’t have a preseason to impact the group, where we put Mark in a tough spot.”

The next logical step was therefore to promote someone in house. Many on the outside believed Eric Avila to be a likely candidate, but they did not know one key part of the equation: Heaps had been thinking of getting back into coaching.

“There was a gap there after I let Tommy go and brought Mark in; it was about five to six weeks where I was actually back in kind of an assistant role or interim kind of role, where I was back on the field,” Heaps said. “And I could really feel the energy back, getting a place where we’re going.”

“I felt like we were making the right strides,” he continued. “And so it started. That was probably the first time I thought, ‘Okay, where is this going to be in a year, two years, three years? Is Mark gonna be the long term solution where we’re gonna figure that out?’ So that was probably the first time I really thought maybe this would be a position I’d want to get back to.”

Heaps shared that when he was first hired for the Birmingham Legion GM role in 2018, having last coached in 2017, he turned down several head coaching interviews for the opportunity. At the time, he felt he needed a steadier job, one where he wouldn’t be on the road every other week with a team. His children were all younger, and he wanted to prioritize time with his family.

Eight years later, two of those children are in college, with the third a high school freshman. The timing finally felt right to return into the coaching ring.

“I think the decision was…. A, my passion was there; B, I know this team really well,” Heaps said. “We’d already started signing the players that I think would really help our team.”

New roles and responsibilities

Heaps made it clear that the timing was right not just with his renewed desire to stand on the sidelines, but in the club’s structure and personnel. If Nick Hall was not at the club to take on the role of president, he would never have stepped aside.

“I think that was something that was really important that if I were ever kind of going down this road, we needed to have someone that could run the front office the way it needs to be run,” Heaps said. “And so that’s why it kind of made perfect sense.

“When Mark left, that was when I said, ‘Okay, this is the time to really make the move and to kind of take, for me, Birmingham Legion to the next phase, right?’ Strong business, strong soccer, and we got to make sure we meld those two together.”

While he retains his role as CEO of Birmingham Legion, Heaps revealed the title doesn’t carry as much weight as one would expect. Hall has full autonomy to run the front office side of things, while Heaps’ purview is fully focused on coaching the team. His only real role as CEO is to act as a liaison between the front office and the board.

As part of the reshuffle, some of Heaps’ additional responsibilities as General Manager have also been transferred to another recent hire. Augie Ruiz joined the club as its Director of Scouting and Player Recruitment in May, but became Technical Director earlier this month. While Heaps is still involved in recruitment decisions, as any head coach would be, day-to-day operations regarding playing personnel now fall to Ruiz.

“In terms of player decisions, that’s kind of the head coach/GM role,” Heaps said. “But I’ve kind of moved the GM and kind of the daily of that to Augie Ruiz in the technical director role to allow me to focus really on the head coaching position, which is was what is needed for this position.”

Heaps and Hall sat down together to figure out how things could work from a responsibilities point of view before ever pitching his coaching appointment to the board. Once they had it figured out though, they said it only took two or three conversations with the owners to get them on board with the plan.

Leading with passion

Heaps took a couple of questions on how he plans to lead the team and what he will expect from them. The main response was passion, drive and a will to get better.

The new head coach played under a legendary coach, though in a different sport, while at Duke University. Heaps was a dual athlete in both soccer and basketball, spending four years on Mike Krzyzewski’s Blue Devils team. He and other coaching mentors have instilled a strong belief in Heaps that team culture always comes from the top.

“When I talk about Coach K and I talk about some of my mentors, the culture was always led by the head coach”Heaps said. “And then the players, they understand it and then they bring kind of their fingerprints to it, but there’s a standard and a drive that the coach has to set.

“I’m very demanding, he added. “You can come watch any training session, I’m gonna hold our players accountable for a standard that I know that they can hit. They wouldn’t be here if it was otherwise. And if we drop below that standard, we’ve got to lift it back up. Right now, that’s my job. To make sure that we have that standard and then have players that can help others lift the standard, make the guy next to them better by helping maintain that standard.

“So when I look at being head coach again, it’s kind of the way my teams played. I’m a pretty passionate guy. I don’t mince words. I kind of say how I feel, I’m pretty direct and honest, and that’s the kind of team we want to have where we’re leaving it all on the field, that we play with our heart on our sleeve, and every game is life or death. But the process to get there is what’s gonna make us better.”

Heaps recognized that that passion can have a tendency to spill over, as was seen with two yellow cards from the bench last season while not even being head coach.

The Legion man pointed out that the rule of giving head coaches yellow cards did not yet exist when he last coached in 2017, but made no apologies for how he behaves on the sideline.

“I’m really big on making sure that if the referees and our players are playing… if I’m demanding it from our players, I want to make sure the referees are also giving everything they have,” Heaps said. “And I say that, 9 out of 10 games, the referee are doing everything they have to. But if there’s a situation, I call it like I see it and I put my hand up if I make a mistake, but I’m pretty passionate about making sure that everyone is doing their job the best they can.”

A data-driven approach

When talking about raising the standard of the team, Heaps acknowledged that the past two seasons have not been where the club wanted to be.

As part of their efforts to right the ship, the coaching staff has adopted a data-led approach to individual improvement.

In addition to working on team concepts at practice, every player now has an individually-curated program they can focus on. The team keeps track of key metrics such as distance covered or final third entries and will analyze every player’s individual performance against those metrics to find the small gains they can make that will take the team to another level.

Each player is told what their goals are and can see how they compare, giving them the opportunity to put in the work where they’re slacking.

“If we’re looking at entries into the final third,” Heaps said as an example. “If Tyler Pasher is only making three or four of those a game, what are we doing wrong, and how do we make sure he’s seeing that? And then the work that we’re doing in the second session is about developing that strategy for him, and making sure he understands what he’s required to do.”

This plan only works if the players show accountability, another crucial step in redressing the standard at the club.

“If you come with that mindset every day, that you’re just gonna get one step better, we’re gonna work on the team side, and you, physically, and you, as a player individually, then we’re gonna get better each day,” Heaps said. “And I drive them every day to make sure they’re looking in the mirror, to make sure they don’t come to training today just to get it done. We want to make sure you get to training today because there’s a purpose behind it, and we expect you to bring that attitude.

Project “Win Back”

Player performance isn’t the only area where the club has leaned into a data approach.

The fan experience is another.

“We’re taking a very data and analytical approach to our own market here in Birmingham,” Hall said. “We’re tracking what has gained traction in the past and we’re also looking at the things that haven’t worked, and we’re trying to fine tune those things on reaching as many fans as possible and converting those fans that may be interacting with us on social media, how can we take those fans and turn them into ticket buyers and hopefully one day season ticket holders?”

Hall said there is a great exchange of ideas between USL clubs, as though they are competing on the field, they can be very cooperative off it. With every team operating in different markets, there is a real desire for everyone’s product to improve, as that results in a better league nationwide.

That data approach is therefore mixed in with ideas taken by some of the more successful clubs in the league when it comes to fan engagement, and Hall promised the front office is looking to “make a splash” in the Birmingham community.

A big part of his project to increase fan attendance is the club’s “Win Back” campaign, focused on getting former season ticket holders to return to the stadium. Hall said there has been an intentional effort to reach out to members who previously held season tickets but have since stopped attending, understanding why that might have been the case, and correcting course.

So far, it appears to be working.

“We’re having season ticket holders that they haven’t been here in a few years, they’re returning in droves,” Hall said. “I think that the announcement of Jay, some of the new things that we’re doing in the community, in our front office system, it’s working, and we’re excited for that. We’re excited to see where this takes us over this next year.”

Hall added that all the best teams in the league receive support from their community because the community first feels supported by the club. He wants to bring that same energy to Birmingham, while also continuing to spread the word about a team that too many people are still unaware of.

“One of the things that I’ve noticed is that people are having a good time at the games, but not enough of Birmingham is aware of the games,” Hall said. “And I think that’s the big piece that we need to get. We need to get more in front of the folks in Birmingham that are looking for something fun to do on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday, when we’re having our time out.

“Although we have to have a winning product on the field, Jay knows this as well, we talk about this till we’re blue in the face, but we also need to give our fans more than just the reason of soccer to come to a game,” he continued. “So what else are we doing? How can we not just be Birmingham’s soccer team, but how can we be Birmingham’s thing to do on the weekends?”

Improving the Protective experience

A big part of getting the fans onboard is improving the experience at Protective Stadium.

Many fans have voiced their displeasure with the cavernous stadium — seating nearly 50 thousand but attracting four to five thousand per game — and high concession prices. Hall took some steps to address the latter early on in his tenure, implementing an affordable concession stand, and said continuing to listen to feedback and trying to improve the matchgoing experience is a key focus for the club.

“We’re not just focusing on what we’re doing right, but we’re gathering the info from fans on what are we doing wrong?” Hall said. “What are the things that we can change to make sure that you’re back game after game, year after year? And we’re making changes based on what we’re hearing from our fans and rolling those out have been exciting, and they’ve been met with very positive reaction.”

Heaps added that, given the club’s status as a renter in the BJCC facility, not everything falls under their jurisdiction. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t doing what they can to change it.

“Anything that we can control, we really take pride in that,” Heaps said. “We try to make sure that we focus on that. The things that we can’t control, we go fight for and make sure that we’re doing the best we can. And that’s what I hope our fans are seeing.”

One change the club is implementing ahead of the 2026 season is rethinking where the two supporters’ groups, the Magic City Brigade and Puente 12, are located. Last year, Puente was behind the South goal and the Brigade behind the North, with all other fans seated in the West stand.

Moving forward, all three groups will be seated in the West Bowl.

The club is allocating just 8,000 seats to their fans, though with the possibility to scale up if the demand rises, to try and create a “fuller” feel. The logic is that if fans are in closer quarters with each other, they will be able to feed off each other’s energy and create an atmosphere similar to a sold-out crowd, even when that isn’t the case.

“That’s one of the first things that we decided to start tackling as soon as I got here back in March,” Hall said. “By limiting that footprint, we’re putting people closer together, doing that is going to give a little bit more of a sold out mentality.”

In the same vein, another idea the club will implement is increasing activities for fans, specifically children, to enjoy while at the game. These activations will all be located at the North Concourse, where the food trucks are, to create a true “fan zone” for all to enjoy.

“We started doing this near the end of last year, on some of our education days, especially, and the atmosphere there feels like it’s a festival,” Hall said. “And that’s what we’re going for, that feel of being able to be close, the feel of trying to imitate the feel of a sold out stadium. By setting this up, I think that it’s putting a foot in the right direction of really increasing that fan experience.”

A tone-setting game for the new season

All of the club’s efforts, goodwill and insistence that Heaps’ appointment provides a “reset” for the organziation will mean nothing if Birmingham Legion doesn’t follow through.

As such, the preseason game against Nashville SC will be a litmus test for the new season ahead.

Heaps was asked what he would be looking for from his players against a better team further along in their preseason preparations. While he recognized the result itself won’t mean much, he said the focus for him will be on fitness and if the players are showing signs of understanding what he’s asking of them.

“It’s not gonna be perfect, but can we make sure we break into certain zones, get opportunities?” Heaps said. “Are we gonna be the finished product? Absolutely not. But I’m hoping that we get the key players into those positions that we’ve drawn up as what we think is, from a statistical standpoint, where we’re gonna be the most dangerous, from a data driven point, where we’re going to be the most dangerous.”

The bigger focus will come off the field, in the reaction they get to all the new ideas being implemented.

As a MLS side and the reigning US Open Cup champions, Nashville is likely to draw a larger crowd than most games. Some fans might also come back to see former Legion man Matthew Corcoran, whose sale to Nashville included a stipulation for this friendly game to happen.

The club wants to ensure those casual fans enjoy the experience so much that they return regularly throughout the year.

“First impressions are so important,” Hall said. “Whether it’s the first impression of a first game in a new market or first impression of each and every season. So what fans leave with, both with their experience of on the field, what they’re watching, but then also how we treat them in the stands and how much fun they have, it sets the tone for the rest of the season.

“This is gonna be the first memory and the first impression for our fans throughout the entire year,” he continued. “So this game is extremely important, and so we are going to be setting the tone for this season. We’re going to be rolling out a lot of stuff that’s very new. And we’re excited.”

Birmingham Legion welcome Nashville SC to Protective Stadium at 1 p.m. January 31st. The USL Championship season begins just over a month later with a home game against the Tampa Bay Rowdies on March 7.

The club announced its first new signing of the season last night, and a full, continuously updated roster tracker can be found right here.

Follow Timothy Belin on Twitter/X, Instagram, Facebook or Bluesky to stay up to date on all things Legion this season.