A Hampton Roads pro soccer team? Leaders say the region has the fan base to support it. – The Virginian-Pilot

For a few hours, nothing else mattered to Lauren Bland except soccer.

The executive director of the Hampton Roads Soccer Complex attended the July 5 World Cup match between Brazil and Norway in New Jersey. She was among the more than 80,000 people in MetLife Stadium who watched Norway win with two late goals.

Bland said the moment transcended politics, race and religion.

“Everyone in that venue was there for the love of sports,” Bland said.

It was an exhilarating experience she thinks could be replicated in Hampton Roads. Sports leaders say the region has the fan base and talent that could support a major-league soccer team.

For example, 1,000 fans saw the U.S. beat Bosnia-Herzegovina 2-0 in the World Cup during a watch party July 1 at Christopher Newport University’s TowneBank Stadium. Fans also routinely packed locations such as Waterside District in Norfolk or sports bars across the region throughout the tournament.

Despite the fandom, securing a home team would face several challenges, include financing and the lack of a major stadium.

Nikki Johnson, an economist with the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, studied the numbers behind a major league professional soccer team in a July report. Looking at census data, Johnson found Hampton Roads, with 1.8 million people, is the largest stand-alone metro area without a major professional sports team (She did not include the Riverside, California metro area due to its closeness to Los Angeles).

Additionally, Johnson and other experts say the region has an ample fan base to support a soccer team. According to NBC Sports, Norfolk’s market posted the second highest average season-long ratings for the 2021-22 Premier League season. An average of 535,000 people watched Premier League matches during the 2025-26 season in the U.S., up 5% from previous season.

Bland also organizes the North American Sand Soccer championships at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront each summer. The event draws hundreds of teams, thousands of players and around 100,000 people over a three-day period, she said. Additionally, the Hampton Roads Soccer Complex off Princess Anne Road includes 26 fields and gets roughly 750,000 visitors a year, Bland said.

And the region has two semi-professional teams competing in the United Soccer League: Virginia Beach United Football Club and Newport News’s Lionsbridge Football Club.

Virginia Beach United was founded in 2019 and follows a lineage of former amateur and professional soccer teams such as the Virginia Beach Piranhas and the Virginia Beach Mariners, said co-owner Chuck Thornton. Lionsbridge was founded in 2017 and played its first season in 2018, said co-founder Mike Vest.

The teams draw more than 1,000 people to the Virginia Beach Sportsplex for their annual matchups, Thornton said. Vest said the fan response to his team has been unreal — their games average 2,000 people at TowneBank Stadium.

“It’s always been here,” Vest said about the regional appetite for soccer.

But snagging a top-level professional soccer franchise presents several challenges. There’s the money, Vest said. The owners of the last Major League Soccer expansion team, San Diego, shelled out $500 million in franchise fees to join.

Hampton Roads also lacks a stadium. Bland said a facility with seating for at least 18,000 would be ideal. She said a comparable venue is Washington D.C.’s Audi Field, a 20,000-seat stadium. That stadium cost about $400 million when it was built in 2018, with the city paying $150 million, according to the Washington Post.

However, Vest said there is another option: USL plans to launch a top-tier men’s league in 2028, eventually targeting 20 clubs.

Unlike MLS, he said USL is an open club-style league. It means the top minor league teams can eventually advance to compete in the top league. It would be akin to the Norfolk Tides being able to face the New York Yankees if they do well enough, he said. Theoretically, either of the two existing Hampton Roads clubs could work their way up to being promoted to the top league.

“It’s the place where fairy tales can happen,” Vest said about the similar system in the United Kingdom.

Franchising fees would also likely be less expensive than MLS, he said.

Beyond financing challenges, it’s questionable how much economic impact a pro team could generate, Johnson said. For residents who attend games, spending on tickets and food is money they would have spent on other regional activities, such as concerts or movies, Johnson said studies have shown.

But a major league team would bring other benefits to the region, the experts said. Vest said the team would get region’s name in front of millions of eyeballs on ESPN and other national sports TV networks. And the regional pride generated from the team would help unite the region.

“A pro sports team brings brand recognition, a national profile and a shared sense of identity,” Johnson said in the report.

There are also state-level tools, such as regional sports authorities, that would allow cities to band together to create a special district for the soccer stadium, Johnson said. They would then split the revenues associated with the project.

Ultimately, cities have a unique opportunity, Johnson said. It remains to be seen whether they will be able to capitalize on that energy.

“I think there’s a lot of pride in our region and people are looking for something to celebrate,” Bland said.

Trevor Metcalfe, 757-222-5345, trevor.metcalfe@pilotonline.com