Young fans enjoy ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ experience watching FC series in Chapel Hill

Walking around North Carolina’s campus hours before Chelsea and Wrexham faced off in their international exhibition match, fans were running into a different family every few steps. Kids just about every age, from young toddlers to high schoolers, were decked out in soccer jerseys and scarves, anxiously waiting to get into Kenan Stadium.

These kids were in awe of the grand-scale fanfests, the chants and the packed football stadium with 50,596 people all watching the soccer playing out on the field.

For most of these families, they’d never seen a Premier Soccer League match in person — much less one in the U.S.

And sure, quite a few parents were willing to get tickets to the FC Series in Chapel Hill because of one thought: When’s the next time this could happen?

“We drove here from Charleston, South Carolina,” Becky McFalls said about her and her son, Alec. “So that shows you how excited we were when we saw that they were coming to U.S. soil. It was a no-brainer.”

Soccer has slowly garnered more interest over the last two years, following the U.S. Men’s National Team’s performance in the 2022 FIFA World Cup and the Women’s World Cup beginning July 20. And with the NC Courage and NCFC in the Triangle, there’s a rabid soccer fanbase.

But that doesn’t come close to the fanbase for the Premier League.

Tickets for Wrexham vs. Chelsea sell out

Tickets for Chapel Hill’s FC match sold out in four days. Fans from North Carolina, across the U.S. and beyond poured into Chapel Hill over the last 48 hours. Many of them also attended the open practice at WakeMed Park Tuesday evening, despite the sweltering humidity, to take a look at what goes on during a professional practice.

“The open training session was fantastic,” Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson said. “It was a chance to engage with supporters, both the Wrexham supporters and the Chelsea ones as well.”

For the young soccer players, not all of them were longtime fans of Chelsea or Wrexham, but most said they were pretty familiar with the teams. A few of them even shared their favorite players, including Reece James. Former Chelsea midfielder Christian Pulisic was also mentioned a few times, even though he left the club for AC Milan earlier this month.

Those Chelsea fans got exactly what they hoped for — a 5-0 victory over Wrexham, though there were some kids that just wanted to see some skilled scoring.

American fan culture up close

This first-ever international matchup in Chapel Hill also meant the players from both Chelsea and Wrexham had the opportunity to experience American fan culture up close. The teams had opportunities to meet fans, sign autographs, take photos, and for Chelsea, celebrate a victory.

“It was really nice, [and] it was full, the stadium,” Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino said. “We’re thankful to all of the fans here in North Carolina to be here, and we really enjoyed it.”

Both teams have other exhibition matches in the U.S. during the remainder of July and August.

Heading back into the parking lots, kids were still hoping to catch a glimpse of the players and managers before they returned home. The signed clothes and posters will just become a memory that Parkinson hopes gets more Americans excited about soccer.

“It’s important to spread the word that it’s a great game,” Parkinson said. “It’s entertaining, and yeah, it can be a fantastic spectacle and I think it showed that today.”

This story was originally published July 20, 2023 at 8:30 AM with the headline "Young fans enjoy ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ experience watching FC series in Chapel Hill."