BRUNTON PARK – It's 8am. on a crisp, frosty Cumbrian morning and it's standing room only at Foxy's Restaurant.
The great and good of Carlisle's small business community are crammed into this function room in Brunton Park, sipping hot tea and coffee and helping themselves to generous helpings of bacon and sausages. They are officially here to network.
But the real reason for the overwhelming turnout? Carlisle United's new American owners, Tom and Patty Piatak, are in town – and with them there is a sense of hope and rebirth in England's most northerly city.
Tom, who sat at the front of the room and told his life story, is the owner and CEO of Jacksonville's Magellan Transport Logistics, a family business that has become one of the major players in the lucrative trucking business across America.
He's also an Army veteran who attended the prestigious West Point military academy in the mid-1980s before deploying to Iraq as part of Operation Desert Storm.
“I'm an engineer, so my dream was always to build things, but it didn't work out that way when I joined the military,” he jokes to the crowd.
“But I can blow anything up. So if you need anything destroyed, I'm your man.”
However, there are no landmines here. Carlisle are rock bottom of League One but the Piatak family, through Castle Sports Group who completed the takeover of Brunton Park in November, are building foundations which they hope will turn the Blues into, in their words, a 'northern force' .
Piatak may be a long way from Jacksonville, where he, his wife and two children Jenna and Tom II run Magellan, but Carlyle has embraced him and his family as one of their own.
Partly this is down to their tenacious pursuit of the Carlisle deal, which took almost a year, many negotiations and millions of pounds to complete after interest was first expressed last spring. Piatak's frustration at not being able to seal the deal soon after securing promotion in May is clear, the impact of recruiting in the summer on a shoestring budget and entering the League One campaign without the resources to compete. The subsequent struggle was, on reflection, inevitable.
Short-term issues have been forgiven by locals who see the bigger picture. Carlisle have not played in the top two for 30 years, but American investment brings with it the promise of better fortunes.
Until the Piataks bought them, Carlisle was majority owned by a consortium of local businessmen combined with a supporters' trust. They kept the club afloat – literally given the tendency of parts of Brunton Park to flood in heavy weather – but the ground was tired, Carlisle were running on limited resources and produced results accordingly. Money was tight, ambition was curbed.
The new owners changed all that. Plans for a new training ground are fast-moving, with an indoor dome, 3G and grass pitches and state-of-the-art facilities for the first team and academy. This is a particular passion for Piatak, who spoke to former player Jarrad Branthwaite's mother, Donna, during a recent home game. In the long term he wants Branthwaite to become an ambassador for the club and use him as an example to inspire local talent.
There is another reason for this excitement. A sell-on clause of around 15 per cent was inserted when Carlisle sold the defender to Everton, which would have given the Cumbrians a huge windfall if he left Goodison Park in the summer.
Even without this money, investments in coaches, staff and infrastructure are planned. Better and more housing for players – essential to attract new signings to Carlisle – is being delivered. And in January, five permanent signings arrived, including striker Luke Armstrong from Harrogate Town and goalkeeper Harry Lewis, bought from Bradford City. Action to support warm words.
The new owners talk that the top of League One is their minimum ambition, but the Championship is their target and, from there, the crack at achieving promotion to the promised land. It was a very popular message.
“Someone told us earlier that it usually takes 30 years to get the kind of reception we get so quickly in Cumbria because they're usually very skeptical,” says Piatak. I.
He believes the story is “tailor-made” for a documentary and wants to talk to filmmakers about a Cumbria version Welcome to Wrexham. You can see this given how open they have been since they arrived, removing any suspicion of newcomers.
“We tried to be transparent,” he says.
“We wanted the community to know that we are a family business and we are here for the long haul.
“We're not looking for a financial windfall, we want financial viability for the club, but we're going to invest it to make sure we can be the best and have a successful, long-term winning program.”
Talking to you I from one of the club's corporate boxes to a lone home fielder mowing an immaculate pitch, it all begs the obvious question – what prompted a family of proud Floridians to race in Carlisle?
“It was an analytical process,” Piatak explains of the deep data dive undertaken by son Tom II. Options in Brazil and Scotland were initially considered, and possible investment in the United Soccer League's local franchise was also considered.
But the EFL – with its “rich history and traditions” – won the day.
“When we zeroed in on League One and League Two and put in all the parameters we wanted and rated all the teams, five teams came out. Carlisle came out on top,” explains Piatak.
“But it was all on paper, it was all data, analytics, it wasn't one-on-one interviews, meeting people. Once we started talking to the management team here, it strengthened our resolve.
“We are so confident that we made the right decision. We are so sure of what Carlisle can be and what Cumbria can be and will be and should be. We are proud of it.
“I want clubs to be afraid to come here. I want a south London team to come here and feel it, it's a tough place to play and this team is tough, they're physical, they're talented, they've got quality and they fight and we believe they're here.
“Once you start building it, by strengthening the academy and building proper training facilities, you can gain the power. We have seen this and now we have spent three months here, we feel it, we know it. We made the right choice. We are 110 percent committed.”
They have the miles to prove it. Piatak and his wife and co-owner Patty have been in England for most of this year, on site for a grueling January transfer window, before touring fan meetings to speak to fans in recent weeks.
Piatak laughs that while Carlisle is much smaller than Magellan – its £5m-a-year turnover is dwarfed by a logistics business that earns almost £300m – it takes up most of their time these days. They also hunt actively in Cumbria.
Despite the long hours, there is still much work to be done. “The performance on the pitch at the moment – let's show it out there – we're not happy with it. We like to win,” says Piatak.
“But we understand how we inherited this situation. We have 14 games left, let's put everything into it, we can survive in League One, it's a realistic and achievable goal.
“We're realistic, it might not happen, but we feel like we've come away from January with five long-term players who can really help us. If there's an error and we go down, we can back up and we're building the infrastructure for long-term success.”
Despite the struggles, manager Paul Simpson – a folk hero in these parts for the two opposing bids he has delivered – is not under threat.
“As soon as we met him, we knew we had something special there,” adds Piatak.
“He and [wife] Jacqui believes in Carlisle, he is part of the community. As we said to Paul: “Let's build a legacy here, let's build something we can all be proud of here.”
“His heart, his managerial talent is there. We didn't take away his resources [in the summer] he had to be really, really competitive. We all know why that is. I don't want to make excuses, we have to win on the pitch and we understand where the fans are, but all the pieces are in place.
“Paul is part of that plan and has Carlisle in his heart. It will help us turn it into a juggernaut.”
In some ways, it's a strange scene that few would have predicted before American private equity began pouring into English football a decade or so ago, and more recently has erupted in the EFL.
A third of the league's 92 clubs are now American-owned and Piatak says the appeal of the competition means their investment will not be their last.
“The reason we got involved is because we love the product. On Saturdays in the US we watched the Premier League, we watched EFL football,” he explains.
“And more and more kids are watching the Premier League and the EFL – it's a premium product.
“We have Major League Soccer and United Soccer League, they are good programs and good leagues, but they are franchises and they don't have promotion and relegation. If you're a true competitor, you love relegation and promotion – you love being the underdog and building something strong.
“If we build it right, build it strong, there are rewards for the club, the community and the players.
“I think that's probably what's driving it. It's a rich tradition, a great history and the product on the pitch is the best in the world and once you start to see it you think it's a great investment. Let's do it.”