North Carolina, playing out of Cary, and California Victory, a team in Northern California under the ownership of Dmitry Piterman (chairman of Spanish team Deportivo Alavés) which folded after the end of the 2007 season, having played only one season. In November 2008, the Atlanta Silverbacks announced that they would sit out the 2009 season to "reassess the landscape," and would possibly return at a future date. Similarly, the Seattle Sounders left prior to the 2009 season due to the imminent entrance of Seattle Sounders FC into Major League Soccer. Their spot in the league was taken by the Cleveland City Stars, who won the USL Second Division title in 2008, and voluntarily moved up to USL-1 for the 2009 season, folded at the end of the year. On December 2, 2009, Inside Minnesota Soccer reported that the USL had asked the City Stars to terminate the contracts of all the players, as the franchise was to be dissolved. Posting an email addressed to all players under contract with the Cleveland City Stars and written by team president Jonathan Ortlip and executive director Aaron Tredway, the club executives went on to accept the decision to terminate the franchise. On June 19, 2008, an announcement was made that an expansion slot had been awarded to a Tampa Bay, Florida-based franchise led by main investors Andrew Nestor (CEO) and Hinds Howard (chairman) of Citrus Ventures. The plan was for the club to join the league in 2010 and be named the Tampa Bay Rowdies. Expansion rumors Possible cities mentioned for future campaigns included Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Syracuse, New York. Syracuse had had a highly attended team in the A-League from 2002 to 2004, but it folded due to stadium issues, having ground-shared with the local baseball team. Fort Lauderdale also had a history of teams from the NASL, American Soccer League, and USL First Division. There was also discussion that Argentinian team River Plate is interested in putting a second USL team in Puerto Rico, as well as discussion that recent start-up team, the San Diego Flash may also join either the USL or NASL. Prior to the 2009 NASL split several other cities had been mentioned as being locations where future USL-1 franchises might launch, including St. Louis, Missouri (led by the current USL Premier Development League (PDL) franchise St. Louis Lions); Orlando, Florida (with Mexican side Pachuca being rumored