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Premier League soccer is coming to Annapolis this summer and every coordinator who helped kindle this partnership is bracing for emphatic excitement.
Crystal Palace and the Wolverhampton Wanderers, two organizations competing at the highest level of England’s soccer system, are set to square off July 31 at the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Maryland’s capital city. Their match will count as the second leg of the Stateside Cup, a three-city tour of the East Coast that also involves West Ham United.
Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley introduced representatives from both clubs earlier this month at City Dock and again at the stadium, advertising the city’s enthusiasm to watch “the most exciting league in the world.”
“This is a big sports town and we love to come out for anything, but the expansion in popularity of soccer recently is next level,” Buckley said. “Now, we’re going to get to see world-class players come to the City of Annapolis and [we’ll] watch a game of the highest level.”
Buckley and other Annapolis officials anticipate the city filling all of its hotels and restaurants with visiting fans and locals looking to join in the excitement. The Premier League routinely plays offseason exhibition matches in the United States as it seeks to connect with American soccer fans.
“Anytime we can grow an opportunity around international soccer being played here, not only does it tie to the matches [already] being played here and the economic vitality, but it also ties back to the grassroots initiatives that we’re doing across the state,” Maryland Sports Commission Executive Director Terry Hasseltine said. “We’re really growing the game, the enthusiasm, and getting kids and underserved markets into it as well.”
This will be the lone match the Premier League clubs will play in Maryland as part of the Stateside Cup circuit with West Ham and Wolverhampton starting the series July 27 in Jacksonville, Florida. West Ham and Crystal Palace will wrap things up Aug. 3 in Tampa following the Mid-Atlantic detour.
Crystal Palace, once tied to a Baltimore-based team of the same name, will make its return to the states after last year’s test run in Chicago and Detroit. The Wolves are looking to snap a 40-year drought of soccer on American soil.
“I think what we’re looking to do here is just engage with the community that we’ve probably not engaged with previously,” Wolverhampton marketing executive Todd Newton said. “We know it’s a global sport, it’s watched worldwide, so for us to be able to come out here and play alongside another Premier League football club is a really good occasion.”
The stadium regularly packs the stands with energetic fans of the Naval Academy during American football season, and has quickly capitalized on local soccer intrigue amidst the Annapolis Blues’ second season of existence.
Hasseltine, among others, hopes the summer Stateside Cup games succeed in forging a long-term relationship between the English Premier League and Maryland. He envisions hosting an annual match in Annapolis before eventually branching out to wider ventures within the soccer world.
“We have big visions for our partnership of the future with the English Premier League long-term in the state of Maryland,” Hasseltine said. “Tying it together between what we’re doing here, and Baltimore, and down at the [Washington] Commanders’ field is just giving us a great portfolio to offer up to soccer fans across the globe and locally.”
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