“Is Philadelphia ready for the Union?”
An electric crowd of navy blue-and-gold-clad fans roared with excitement in response to this question from longtime ESPN commentator J.P. Dellacamera Friday afternoon, as Major League Soccer’s newest franchise kicked off its inaugural season with a rally at City Hall.
In front of the energetic crowd, Dellacamera introduced several key members of the organization, including CEO and Operating partner of the Union, Nick Sakiewicz, President Tom Veit, Mayor Michael Nutter, as well as the players and the manager of the team, Peter Nowak.
“There’s a lot of emotion right now and happiness that this team is about to play its first home match here,” Sakiewicz said. “The most important thing is that this team is for you guys.”
And when they finally played Saturday evening, they gave Philadelphia a show. In its first home game in franchise history, the Union played in front of 34,870 frenzied fans and came out victorious in a thrilling 3-2 win against D.C. United.
“I think this is a really big soccer area and finally since the ‘70s when the Fury left, we finally have a team here and we’re ready to embrace it,” Union fan Rick Laudenslager said. “[I’m] ready to have a another professional sport here, a top notch professional sport.”
Despite the choice to have the pep rally at noon, it was clearly an exciting day for soccer fans in Philadelphia.
The Union faithful, for the most part, donned jerseys, hats or scarves with the team logo and found every opportunity to cheer, shout and even sing.
“This is an incredible sports town,” Nutter said. “Whoever is playing and whatever they’re doing, if they’ve got Philadelphia in front of, behind, near or around their name, you know you’re going to have a great fan base.”
While Philadelphia has just recently been buzzing with excitement over the arrival of the Union, no one may be more excited than members of the Sons of Ben, particularly the founders Bryan James, Andrew Dillon and Dave Flagler.
The Sons of Ben, an independent group of supporters for the Philadelphia Union, had advocated for MLS to award Philadelphia an expansion team since January of 2007.
Though it took over three years for their efforts to finally come to fruition, they are proud of what they have accomplished.
“I think I’m probably a little more excited than the rest of the city,” James said. “They’ll be blown away by it because I think once you get into the atmosphere you really understand what having a pro soccer team is all about.”
So to answer your question Mr. Dellacamera, it seems as though the city is ready.
But the better question may be, as Mayor Nutter posed, “Is MLS ready for the Philadelphia Union?”
