On Sunday night, the first ever event at Lincoln Financial Field, the new home of the Eagles, will be a football game played before a sellout crowd of over 68,000.
However the new stadium -- according to some observers, potentially the best sports venue in the Northeast -- won't see helmets in its debut.
The ball will be round instead of pointy. The goalposts will be short and white instead of tall and yellow.
In other words, the first football game at Lincoln Field will be a soccer game.
Manchester United and FC Barcelona, two of the most famous clubs in European soccer, will have the honor of christening the first of two replacements for Veterans Stadium -- the other being the Phillies' new Citizens Bank Park, which will open next year.
There is no small significance to the fact that soccer has trumped football as the opening event at Lincoln Field. The Manchester-Barcelona matchup will be the last of the Champions World Tour for both teams, and the excitement around the game was such that it sold out three hours after tickets went on sale in the spring.
"The sellout is a terrific feather in the cap of Philadelphia sports," said Paul Hanlin, a soccer fan and long-time Philadelphia Charge season ticket holder from Philadelphia. "To be a fly on the wall at [610-]WIP right now, knowing that the new football stadium will be christened by an actual football match."
WIP is the city's largest sports-talk radio station and is dominated by discussion of (American) football.
The excitement level surrounding Sunday's game increased considerably when Manchester United announced its intention to sell one of its star players, English national team captain David Beckham, earlier this summer. Barcelona was one of the front-runners to sign him as the club's new president -- popularly elected by the team's season ticket holders -- was elected on a platform based around acquiring Beckham. However, in the end it was Real Madrid, Barcelona's arch-rivals, who signed the superstar.
Barcelona struck back, however, by signing Brazilian midfielder Ronaldinho, who had been nearly sealed as United coach Sir Alex Ferguson's prime summer acquisition when he cut off contract talks and headed for Spain.
This game has ramifications for other parts of Philadelphia's soccer culture as well. Combined with the Women's World Cup coming this September, the city has been given a chance to prove that it can support an expansion Major League Soccer team. Rudy Fuller and Darren Ambrose, the Penn men's and women's soccer coaches, respectively, both will be in attendance on Sunday night.
"Hopefully this means that there will be more games to come in the years ahead and that it's a sign that MLS is on the way," Fuller said. "I think the stunning sales, selling out in a few hours, is a strong sign that this might be a good place for an MLS team."
"It's not every day that we can see games of this caliber in Philadelphia," Ambrose said. "It will certainly show some of the investors and the other business minds in the area how much support there is for soccer in this city."
Those investors could include Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie who has been rumored for a few years as the man who would bring MLS to Lincoln Field and operate the franchise in Philadelphia.
