https://akroncityfc.com/

 

So I only just recently became aware that Akron is getting a National Premiere Soccer League (NPSL) team this year!  Another parent on my son's soccer team let me (and basically every other team parent, since not even our coach knew about it) know about it at practice last week.

 

NPLS is not "AA" or "AAA" to MLS the way AA and AAA baseball are to MLB.  It's more complicated than that and I'm still not 100% sure how it works, but NPSL is a semi-pro league, with some paid players and some unpaid amateur ones, and I just read four more Wiki articles and one Sports Illustrated article on the U.S. soccer league system and I'm more confused than when I began.

 

Anyway.

 

We're likely to attend a game sometime later this spring season, with my son's youth soccer team that I mentioned before; Akron City FC has some kind of package deal for youth teams that maybe even includes meeting the players.  I'll try to snap a few pics and give a rundown here of what the game experience is like.

 

Akron City FC will play its home games at Green Street Stadium (the SVSM High School stadium) for at least this season.

Well, in perhaps the most Ohio fashion possible, the start of the inaugural home opener was rain-delayed.  But the forecast showed that the front moving through was fairly narrow, and my oldest kid is generally wired for a later bedtime (frequently goes to bed after 10 pm), so we stuck it out, and I'm glad we did.

 

Akron defeated Pittsburgh 2-1 after scoring in the 6th minute and never trailed.

 

I like the minor league atmosphere.  Much more freedom of movement than at some bigger-dollar, bigger-crowd sporting events.  The Hoppin' Frog beer pavilion was just a few feet past the end-zone fence (it's a fixed pavilion at SVSM's stadium, but I have no idea what it's used for in home football games for the high school).  We spent a lot of the rainy first 30-60 minutes there, or rather I did while my kid played in the grassy area there with a few other kids, including a couple of others from his team who were also in attendance.  A lot of other people just chilled under the bleachers for that first 

 

Buying tickets at the gate turned out to be a good move: They were $15 at the gate but $18 online.  I don't know whether the lower price was just due to the rain or because buying online has built-in convenience fees and the like.

 

I don't know what the total attendance was, probably 200-300.

 

Next home game is Sunday, May 29 at 7pm against Cleveland FC.  That's Memorial Day weekend and we don't have any other big Memorial Day weekend plans yet, so I think there's a good chance we'll be there.

A few shots of the game and crowd. Not the best, I wasn’t thinking ahead about posting here at the time. 
 

But you can see how close to the action my son can get just walking up to the fence behind the goal. Doubt he could do that at an MLS game (speaking as someone who has never been to one …). 
 

And, surprise surprise, the highest population density at the entire venue was at the Hoppin’ Frog pavilion. AKRowdies need their fuel!

Well, it's fair to say that Akron's first year as a minor league soccer expansion franchise is off to a rough start.  The season-opening victory remains the club's only win of the season and they are at the bottom of the league at 1-6-4.

 

I wish I'd gotten to the away game against Cleveland FC at First Federal Lakewood Stadium on July 2, though: On June 29, we played Cleveland at home (at St. Vincent-St. Mary) and suffered our worst shellacking of the season, 0-8.  Just a few days later, on July 2, we played Cleveland at their home field and pulled out a 1-1 tie.  Cleveland is the best team in the division at 8-2-1; we're Cleveland's only tie of the season.  (In fact, our four ties make up 100% of the ties in the division.)

 

The season concludes with a home game this Friday, July 15, against Erie.  This will be our third game against Erie this season and the other two have both ended in ties.

ANDY HOGGARTH RETURNS TO THE NPSL AS HEAD COACH OF AKRON CITY FC

 

https://www.npsl.com/19990/

 

“We are very fortunate to have someone of Andy’s pedigree leading the team this year,” Akron City FC owner Nick Turchan said. “As we continue to build a professional environment for our players during the summer season, Andy checked all of the boxes we were looking for in a head coach.  He is also extremely committed to our vision of building a team and organization the Akron community can be proud of.” 

Hoggarth has been the head coach at Walsh University for seven seasons and has continued to show progression from year to year, with the team reaching 11th in the nation during the 2022 season.  ...

 

He was formerly the head coach at Slippery Rock University for 2014 and 2015.  While at Slippery Rock, he guided his team to a 25-13 record over two years.  After an 11-7 record in 2014, the Rock went 14-6, defeated two teams ranked in the top 25, won its final five games, and won the PSAC tournament championship.

 

Before making his way to Slippery Rock, Hoggarth was an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for the University of Akron’s women’s soccer program ...

 

Outside of the college ranks, Hoggarth also served as the head coach for NPSL side AFC Cleveland where he led his team to a conference championship and won the Rust Belt Trophy.

 

============================

 

So fun story: I had no idea Nick Turchan was the team owner when I first saw the name, because I just saw it as a name in the "from" field in the marketing e-mails  Apparently owning an NPSL team requires a bit more on-the-ground work, though perhaps a mite less up-front capital, than owning an NFL franchise.

 

So I bought my season ticket package on November 1, which included a team jersey and a Hoppin' Frog gift card.  I e-mailed back to what I thought was a customer service or marketing person asking if the jersey would arrive in less than two weeks, since my son had a "wear your favorite team jersey to school" day coming up (break from the usual uniform policy).  Nick said that no, the 2023 jersey wouldn't be ready--so he sent a complimentary inaugural season (2022) jersey that they still had in inventory and my kid got to wear that to school instead.

 

What I had forgotten is that in soccer, team jerseys don't display the team name on the chest, unlike in most American pro and college sports.  That prime real estate goes to the premiere sponsor of the club.

 

So we're walking into school at drop-off on that day and I look around seeing people wearing shirts and jerseys that say "Cavaliers," "Browns," "Buckeyes," "Zips," etc. ... and my second grader proudly displaying the enormous logo of Hoppin' Frog Brewery, on a jersey for a team that even most Akronites probably don't know exists yet.

ACFC schedule for 2023 was just announced!

 

 

Of even greater relevance to my interests, Hoppin’ Frog is once again the presenting or premiere sponsor so the beer pavilion will once again be the best of any sport in any league in the state. 😎😇🍻 

Just in case anyone else might be stopping in for the (thus-far-lopsided) rivalry game tonight against Cleveland FC, I just received this from the ACFC mailing list:

 

==========================================

 

The newest Ohio sports rivalry renews tonight and we look forward to hosting you at Green Street Stadium on the campus of St. Vincent-St. Mary High School!

 

We are expecting a larger than normal crowd tonight so here a few key pieces of information.

 

- Arrive early, kick off is at 7pm and we will open gates 30 minutes earlier than normal at 5:30pm. We recommend arriving no later than 6:30pm to ensure you can park and be in stadium for kickoff.

 

- Parking is off Maple Street, we anticipate the lower lot next to the stadium to fill up and over flow parking can use the upper lot next to the high school (reminder, parking is $5/car, we take cash or credit and all proceeds go to benefit the St. Vincent-St. Mary Boys Soccer team who provide all of our volunteer staff for each home game). We will have volunteers directing traffic, so please follow their directions.

 

- There is an annual STVM charity race tomorrow and the event is using the stadium's south pavilion area (i.e. our Beer Garden) for staging and registration. For tonight's game the Beer Garden will be relocated to the north side of the stadium next to the main gate entrance. Fans can line up along the fence line behind the north goal.  For tonight, beer can also be consumed in the stands.

 

============================================

 

Akron City FC making a jump to a higher league: officially stepping up to USL-2 for this coming season!

 

Lineup for the new conference announced.

 

And as a fan of geographically sensible conferences *cough*WTFBigTen*cough*, I approve:

 

 

Toledo, Cleveland, Akron, Steel City (Pittsburgh), Erie, Buffalo.

 

Not that the conference from last year was crazy, but it had teams from Indiana and Michigan as well.

 

Based on early announcements from the team, we'll have most of the key players back from last year, with one understandable but glaring exception: Sam Sarver was drafted by FC Dallas 41st overall in the latest draft, currently assigned to their MLS Next Pro team, North Texas FC.

 

Incidentally, personal note on encountering USL-2 players as just regular folks walking around and working "regular" jobs: Semi-randomly ran into one of the ACFC players working at one of the on-site training gyms at Pinnacle in Medina, where my oldest son plays.  My kid happened to be wearing his ACFC jersey and the player noted it--he was excited to see one of their team jerseys "out in the wild," as much as my kid was to meet one of the players out in the wild, too.

Great to see a bunch of the guys back!  Sarver will be a huge loss, but Marko Rimac from CSU is a sneaky good replacement!  We seem to be getting a lot of guys who played for the Cleveland teams in the past.