It didn’t matter that they were at Bryant University, not the yet-to-be-completed Tidewater Landing stadium: For sports fans, the sold-out season opener for Rhode Island’s first professional soccer team was reason enough to celebrate.
“It’s a great day for Rhode Island professional sports,” said Jay Schotter, of Lincoln, one of thousands who attended Rhode Island FC’s first game on Saturday. “It’s exciting to be part of it.”
Like many other native Rhode Islanders in attendance, Schotter said that supporting a local team felt especially important after losing the Pawtucket Red Sox. He purchased season tickets to Rhode Island FC’s games, he said, because “I wanted something to attach to locally.”
He wasn’t alone: Hours before the game against New Mexico United began, the parking lot at Bryant’s Beirne Stadium was full of enthusiastic tailgaters, many of them dressed in the team’s signature navy and yellow jerseys and scarves. Sunshine and relatively warm temperatures that hovered near 60 degrees added to the celebratory mood.
As smoke from barbecue grills filled the air and music blasted from portable speakers, casual pickup soccer games broke out among both kids and adults. An eccentrically dressed marching band — featuring baton twirlers, spinning dancers and a larger-than-life fuzzy magenta puppet — wove between the rows of parked cars.
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Paula and Carl Hardman, of Johnston, who’d set up a picnic table spread with strawberries and wine, said that they had traveled to Germany last year on vacation and witnessed the popularity of soccer in Europe. They had always enjoyed attending their children’s soccer games, they said, and hope that the sport can become equally popular here.
“It’s sold out today, so, hopefully, they can keep the momentum going,” Paula Johnston said.
The crowd milling around the parking lot represented a true cross section of the state — senior-citizen sports fans in wheelchairs, Bryant students taking a break from homework, even a nun.
Rhode Island has some of the highest viewership numbers for broadcasts of Premier League soccer games, noted Jason Tomblin. He was among the members of the Rhode Island Gooners, local fans of England’s Arsenal FC who had gathered under a pop-up tent decked out with both the Rhode Island FC and Arsenal flags.
The group usually gathers at Hope Street Pizza to watch Arsenal games. A few weeks ago, Tomblin said, Rhode Island FC “reached out to us to come out and enjoy the home opener.”
“Soccer fans from all over the world, we came out to support the new local club,” said Erik Hanson, who had joined the Arsenal fans’ tailgate despite being a fan of rival club Leicester City.
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Andy White, who orchestrated the meet-up, said he thinks the popularity of youth soccer is helping to drive interest in professional soccer. He and other local fans often make the drive to attend New England Revolution games in Foxboro, he said, but “this is more exciting to us, because it’s even more local — it’s home.”
Was he disappointed to be watching Rhode Island FC’s first game at Bryant’s Smithfield campus rather than the new Tidewater Landing stadium?
“It doesn’t really matter,” he said. “I think we’re just happy to get out here. Wherever it was, we were going to go.”
