Wiese-Carl's wild ride with New Mexico United comes to an end

He’s never scored a goal or made a spectacular save, but David Wiese-Carl has been a key player ever since New Mexico United was formed.

From diehard fan to vice president, Wiese-Carl has risen through the ranks and made a significant impact on Albuquerque’s USL Championship club. His tenure ends Saturday, as next week Wiese-Carl gets what amounts to a call-up to American soccer’s big leagues.

“I wasn’t looking for it and I didn’t apply for the job,” said Wiese-Carl, who was recently hired as vice president for communications and corporate affairs by the MLS Houston Dynamo. “The Dynamo reached out to me and it’s an organization that appears to really care about the community it serves. They made an offer and it was a really tough decision, but my wife and I decided to make the move.”

United’s Saturday home match against Colorado Springs will mark the end of Wiese-Carl’s successful, unique and unexpected tenure with the club. The 34-year-old Florida native and lifelong soccer fan came to New Mexico as a television reporter for KOAT in 2015 and remembers being delighted when the USL Championship announced New Mexico would receive an expansion club.

Wiese-Carl got involved by co-founding the Curse, a supporters group that promotes inclusion and community causes in addition to rooting on the team. Starting with United’s debut season in 2019, Wiese-Carl served as president, marching with the group, playing a drum in the stands and even helping to establish some of the club’s familiar fan chants along with fellow Curse members Ty Ortega and Carlos Tenorio.

Things changed in 2020 when the COVID pandemic cost Wiese-Carl and many others their jobs. Wiese-Carl was working for the state attorney general’s office when his position was lost to budget cuts. He happened to run into his friend, NMU owner/CEO Peter Trevisani, an found out United was in the market for a communications director, a job he soon applied for and accepted.

New Mexico United has been a driving force in Wiese-Carl’s life ever since. His wife-to-be Chanel Wiese also began working with the club as executive director of the charitable Somos Unidos Foundation in 2020, a position she still held when they got married in 2022, though she later accepted a position with Presbyterian Healthcare Services.

Wiese-Carl was later promoted to become United’s vice president for media and community impact and his involvement with the club has been expanding ever since. The job has often prevented him from marching with his friends in the Curse, but Wiese-Carl has remained a face of the organization, interviewing players, coaches and fans on the field before and after games and posting live updates on social media.

Wiese-Carl said he turned down interviews with other MLS clubs in the past, but considered the Dynamo’s offer because of the organization’s commitment to community involvement — something he’s always promoted with United.

“I love New Mexico and have come to consider it home,” he said. “I feel like United really serves the community it represents and that’s so important to me. Every day I’ve been with this organization has been an honor and a privilege and it’s changed me for the better. I just hope I’ve had a small part of the impact that this club’s had on me.”

United began held interviews for Wiese-Carl’s position this week and plans to name a replacement in the coming days.