By Zach Lowy
He may not have achieved any success as a soccer player, but Jordan Gardner is achieving a new legacy off the pitch. Born on March 4, 1984, Gardner grew up in Northern California and graduated from Davis Senior High School in 2002 before heading south, where he balanced his time between attending classes at UC San Diego and launching his first startup: Ticket Arsenal, a company that buys and sells tickets for events, similarly to StubHub or SeatGeek.
After graduating, he moved to San Francisco and founded his own soccer team alongside his brother: Ticket Arsenal FC. Gardner played left back in the NorCal Adult Premier League, leading them to a 10-1-0 record and qualifying for the league’s postseason tournament. They dominated and became the first amateur club from the city to qualify for the U.S. Open Cup in nearly two decades, before losing to Cal FC in the preliminary round.
“I grew up in California and played soccer up to a semi-professional level…non-league in England would probably be a decent comparison. I started a technology company and put soccer on the back burner, and when I sold that company 12-13 years ago, I really wanted to get back into the business of sport, particularly soccer,” stated Gardner in an exclusive GBC Ghana interview.
“I worked on a couple of smaller professional soccer projects here in the US, and then I transitioned into European football, and then again, it’s been board level, investor level, chief executive level, in lots of different places, in lots of different countries. That’s a very condensed version of my backstory.”
After presiding over fellow Bay Area side Burlingame Dragons in the fourth-tier Premier Development League, Gardner decided to make the move to European soccer in order, purchasing minority stakes in Premier League club Swansea City and League of Ireland behemoths Dundalk FC, in addition to joining the Irish club’s Board of Directors.
He spent a few years cutting his teeth in the business before becoming the Chairman, Chief Executive, and Managing Partner of FC Helsingør in 2019. Gardner quickly impressed at the helm, leading them from the Danish 2nd Division to the 1st Division in 2020 and guiding them to the verge of promotion to the country’s top-flight. Similarly to others like Carlos García, Gardner was able to tap into his soccer passion and make a positive impact.
After finishing fourth in their first two seasons back and third in their third season, Gardner took a hiatus from ownership and started working as an Investment Intelligence Specialist with London-based football consultancy Twenty First Group, doing extensive work for several global investment groups and advising on global football club mergers & acquisitions, club operations, and investment strategy.
He then left after three years and launched his very own JG Sports Ventures consultancy in August 2025, working as an advisor for Los Angeles-based private equity firm Shamrock Capital.
He has served as a guest lecturer at the FIFA Diploma of Club Management Programme and the European Club Association (ECA) Club Management Programme and as an Adjunct Professor for The University of San Francisco’s Master’s Program in Sport Management, but whilst he undoubtedly has a passion for academia and public speaking, his main desire is soccer. It’s why, on January 27, his American consortium Hearts Football LLC group purchased 80% of Scottish club Kelty Hearts, with the remaining 20% going to a company incorporated by the outgoing board of directors.
“I think right now, on the pitch, the club’s not performing well. They’re in last place in League One, which is problematic. Obviously, we knew that, we’ve known that for quite some time, so I think revamping the recruitment strategy, the use of data, and really the soccer side is probably priority number one.
I think there are some infrastructure areas we can grow in terms of some investment in the stadium. We have a new pitch coming this summer with new floodlights, so that’ll help raise the professionalization of the facility…that’s important. The club has had limited resources in terms of being able to market the club and sell tickets and sponsorship, and grow internationally.
We think there are lots of opportunities from an international side, whether it’s creating apparel or bringing in youth teams who want to spend some time in Scotland. We have a lot of growth ideas – it’s obviously still very early days – but I would say commercial and on-field soccer side are the two areas I would say that we see a lot of growth in.”
Kelty spent their first 42 years as a junior club until 2017, before ascending through the Scottish pyramid and earning promotion to the third tier for the first time in 2022. After finishing eighth, Kelty placed sixth in their next two seasons, but today, they sit at the bottom of the 10-team table with 22 points from 31 matches, three points behind the relegation playoff spot and six away from automatic safety. After closing out March with a 2-1 win at Hamilton, they’ll be seeking to win their last five matches and mastermind an escape from relegation.
