That is why the prospect of advancing in soccer’s pecking order is tantalizing to many fans of lower-division clubs. It is also why, instead of changing the American soccer landscape from the top, Crowley is proposing to do it from the bottom.

“People say, ‘It’s cute, you’re doing this thing with soccer,’” he said. “It’s like when you’re working on a start-up and that’s cute until you pose a threat to Google or Facebook and then they take you seriously. I understand the journey, the improbable rise of that. I feel like we’re doing the improbable rise again.”

Unlike with his tech start-ups, Crowley said, he could find no place to learn how to build a soccer club from the ground up. So he has begun writing his own instruction manual of sorts, publishing several online manifestoes in the hope they will encourage others to start teams in the N.P.S.L.

His approach has been described as “open-source soccer.” In his online treatises, he has published all of Stockade F.C.’s financial data, down to the costs of game programs and staples. According to Crowley’s figures, the team’s expenses for 2016, its inaugural season, were $136,127 and revenue was $99,328, for a loss of $36,799 (minus $12,000 in excess merchandise inventory).

In these online essays, Crowley has been open about strategies that have worked, and others that have failed. He has offered tips: Jerseys are reusable from one season to the next if the sponsor remains the same. It is better to start summer games at 5 p.m. instead of 2 p.m., so fans don’t have to run for shade and players’ feet won’t blister. And if you cannot serve alcohol at a high school stadium, arrange for a beer tent across the street.