Groundhop North Carolina

Words: Cas Mudde

Images: Cas Mudde

Groundhopping is not an easy feat in the United States, particularly when you live in the South.

When I moved to Athens, Georgia, in 2012, the closest Major League Soccer (MLS) team was DC United, almost 600 miles Northeast.

Today, there are several MLS teams that are closer, most notably Atlanta United, and the main problem is the ridiculously short seasons of the lowest tiers, such as the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) and United Soccer League 2 (USL 2), which play from late May to early July.

This is one of the reasons I drove some 350 miles (one- way) to Cary, North Carolina. But the other reason was more special, namely the opportunity to see a men’s game and a women’s game in the same city and stadium, just one day apart.

Soccer in the United States is different in many ways: no promotion/relegation, a plethora of instable leagues, a more prominent women’s national team.

But the country also has a unique ownership structure, where billionaires, or groups of millionaires, own “franchises” that they can (threaten to) move at will.

Some of them own both a men’s and a women’s club in the same city.

But, unlike in Europe, the women’s team are not just the women branch of the men’s club. Instead, they are their own independent soccer club with a different name than the men’s club.

In North Carolina, Welsh-U.S. businessman Stephen Malik owns both the North Carolina FC, which plays in the USL Championship (second tier of men’s soccer), and the NC Courage, which plays in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), the top tier of women’s soccer.

Malik bought the North Carolina FC in 2015 and founded the NC Courage in 2017, after having acquired the NWSL “franchise rights” from the Western New York Flash (welcome to the world of US soccer!).

He now shares ownership of the latter with, among others, former U.S. soccer player Lauren Holiday and Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka.

Both clubs play their home games at the First Horizon Stadium, which is part of the WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, a small city in the so-called Research Triangle of Chapel Hill, Durham, and Raleigh.

The stadium opened in 2002 and has a capacity of 10,000 people. It is a soccer-specific stadium, which looks like a permanent bleachers’ structure, and, like most stadiums in the U.S., has no covered stands.

It is almost impossible to get to the stadium without a car, but they not only provide ample parking, but the parking is also free – which is very rare. For both games, tickets can only be bought online, and you need to download an app of the team to show the ticket at the entrance – part of the relentless mailing strategy of U.S. sports teams.

Private security mainly ensures that only clear bags enter the stadium – they provide lockers for other bags – and they are as friendly as everyone else who works in the stadium.

In addition to the concession stands of the stadium itself, there are some food trucks on the premises as well as several advertisement and entertainment stands – at the NC Courage game, there was even a bouncy house inside the stadium to occupy the kids.

On Friday, for the men’s game, there were 2,011 people, including about two dozen “away supporters” – although I assume they were local Detroit City fans (transplants from Michigan).

The next day, there were a handful of Portland Thorns fans (including myself). Because of the enormous distances, away fans are a rarity in most U.S. sports.

A small minority of fans were wearing NCFC gear, while a few people wore jerseys of other teams (almost only EPL).

I saw no one wearing an NC Courage jersey – just like, the next day, I only saw one person wearing an NCFC jersey. Both clubs had a small group of “Ultras,” about two dozen each, which stood at the same spot and sang intermittently some songs.

Interestingly, I noticed that a few guys were at both games – notably, the “leader” (number 24), who also played the cymbals (there were also a couple of drums).

On Saturday, for the women’s game, there were 7,122 people, an attendance record for a summer game of the NC Courage. Although there were more than three times as many people, the audiences looked very similar.

While class is difficult to recognize in the U.S., the racial diversity of the crowd was absolutely staggering.

While a majority of the people was white, there were not just very large group of Hispanics, which is quite common in the U.S., but also large minorities of African American and (East) Asian minorities.

Perhaps the most racially mixed crowd I have ever seen in my more than 750 games.

The atmosphere was engaged but relatively quiet – except for some “ooohs” and “aaahs” during exciting actions. There was virtually no singing – except for the two dozen of “Ultras” and, at the NC Courage game, a short back-and-forth between the two main stands – initiated by a guy with a flag.

This is not uncommon among lower division games in the U.S., although some clubs have quite raucous fans – like Detroit City FC and Indy Eleven.

Unlike at other U.S. sports, notably baseball, the vast majority of people arrived (well) before kick-off and stayed until the last whistle.

The two nights confirmed that North Carolina has a distinct soccer culture, which is more (racially) diverse than I had expected – and have experienced virtually anywhere else in the world.

It was also good to see that the highest-ranked team attracted the most support, irrespective of gender. This, again, shows how much women’s soccer is accepted and celebrated in this country. Is it worth a six-hour drive? That depends on what else is on offer in a 300 miles radius. ;-)