The Rising Tide of Rhode Island Football Club

A RIFC match at The Stadium at Tidewater Landing. Photography by Alex Gagne

It’s a Saturday afternoon in early May, and a crowd from across Rhode Island and beyond has shown up on Pawtucket’s doorstep.

They arrive by car and on foot, buzzing and eager for a day at the game. Parents hoist children up on shoulders, and police direct traffic outside the stadium. Fans tramp past Pawtucket icons long past their prime — the towering Apex pyramid, now a skeleton of its former department store glory; the Old Slater Mill with its stone facade and proud industrial past — even the Modern Diner, still slinging diner classics in a weathered Streamliner that’s not changed a bit since the 1980s. The crowd is loud and raucous, banging drums and shouting for family, and even those who’ve come to observe can’t help but get swept up in the energy of the day.

Once, this pack would have been decked out in blue and red, making its way through the neighborhoods that surround McCoy Stadium. Today, the fans match a new home team’s colors, sporting blue and amber. Their hearts beat for a different kind of ballgame, and their feet pound the pavement outside a new venue, all set against the backdrop of Pawtucket’s promising downtown. The throng swoops down Roosevelt Avenue and onto Taft Street and through the gates of Centreville Bank Stadium, where Rhode Island FC — the state’s resident professional soccer team — will make its stand.

Between the stadium and the Seekonk River, a series of white tents draws families with younger fans. Kids squirm in the chairs of face paint artists while adults show off their team support with shirts reading “Rhode Island FC” or bearing the signature team lightning bolt. One father gestures at the water beside the newly built asphalt riverwalk. “See, this is the Blackstone River. This used to be very clean back in the day.” The history lesson is quickly forgotten as Chip, RIFC’s harbor seal mascot, is spotted in the crowd.

Audrey and Andrew Maigret with their son RJ outside the stadium. Photography by Alex Gagne

Despite the sense of eager anticipation underlying the day, the team is not new. A successful first run last year saw RIFC claim the Eastern Conference championship and go all the way to the league finals in Colorado. Six weeks of away games at the start of this year have delivered a mixed record, but today’s match in a gleaming new stadium has the feel of a fresh start. Andrew and Audrey Maigret are among the fans taking in the scene at the water’s edge with their two-year-old son, RJ. Andrew, a Pawtucket teacher who coaches the city’s co-op high school girls’ soccer team, surveys the stadium as RJ clutches a miniature mascot Chip seal plushy. “It’s beautiful. It’s surpassed everything I thought it would be,” he says.

Less than a month earlier, demolition began on the eighty-three-year-old McCoy Stadium on the other side of the city. At the same time, officials broke ground on a new public high school on the site. For many, the closing of the historic baseball stadium was an irreplaceable loss for the city. But for this teacher, and fan of a rapidly expanding sport, this latest development is a sign of hope.

“We’ve got this, and then we’ll have the new high school,” Andrew says, looking up at the soccer stadium. “Pawtucket is on the rise.”

The history of soccer in Pawtucket is tied up with the history of its mills — and both claim firsts that have been handed down in the record books nationwide. 

Pawtucket, as any student who has taken a field trip to Slater Mill knows, is the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution, begun when its namesake smuggled knowledge of textile mills out of England and onto the banks of the Blackstone River in the late 1700s. For the next century-and-a-half, textile barons wielded unmatched influence over the city, shaping not just industry but the structures of social life. In the early 1900s, the J&P Coats Company off Lonsdale Avenue sponsored a soccer team, a game then popular with its largely immigrant workforce. In 1914, Coats Field, located next to the company’s factory (where a Price Rite now stands), was the venue for the first-ever National Challenge Cup final played between two Brooklyn-based teams. The cup, which lives on today as the U.S. Open Cup and is the country’s oldest national soccer competition, drew more than 6,000 spectators to Pawtucket, according to newspaper reports. 

Twenty-seven years later, a Pawtucket team would win the cup under the name Pawtucket FC.

One of three McCoy Stadium seats installed in the new Centreville Bank Stadium as a tribute to the former venue. Photography By Alex Gagne

In the second half of the twentieth century, most of the city’s remaining mills packed up shop and relocated to areas with cheaper labor. At the same time, a new sporting dynasty was on the rise in Rhode Island. Built in 1942 and home to a rotating cast of minor league baseball teams, McCoy Stadium didn’t become the family destination remembered today until after Ben Mondor purchased the then-bankrupt PawSox in 1977. The businessman rescued the franchise — which had attracted only 70,000 fans that year — by prioritizing the fan experience. For generations of spectators, McCoy became the place to not only see future greats, but catch fireworks, fish for autographs over the dugout and enjoy an inexpensive night out with family. By the time of Mondor’s death in 2010, the stadium had cemented itself into the state’s emotional landscape, much like the Superman Building or Rocky Point.

Rhode Islanders know what happened next. After an ownership change, a legislative scuffle and the promise of Massachusetts tax dollars, the team announced its departure for Worcester, Massachusetts, in 2018. The PawSox threw out their last pitch on Sept. 2, 2019, their planned final season scrapped by the COVID-19 pandemic. Like its mills, the city’s ball field sat empty and abandoned. Residents lamented the loss of an institution and cursed public officials for allowing one last reminder of the city’s greatness to slip away. Little did they know a new vision was taking shape for Pawtucket, one perched upon the river responsible for the city’s creation.

RIFC’S HEADQUARTERs in downtown Pawtucket is in a brick building directly across from Old Slater Mill. Like many of the buildings downtown, it’s seen a series of small businesses come and go. Most recently, a bookstore vacated the corner unit before Centreville Bank, a growing presence in the city, opened a new branch in the space earlier this year.

Inside, the office is bustling with activity. On the wall in the central conference room, a grid of thirty-nine pictures displays fans from every Rhode Island municipality, all proudly showing off their RIFC gear. “A club for all Rhode Island” was an early rallying cry for club chairman and co-founder Brett M. Johnson, whose vision brought the team to Pawtucket. In a recent interview, he recalls the day in August 2018 when he heard the PawSox were leaving the state for Worcester.

“I just happened to have been in Rhode Island that day, and a friend of mine who I ran into broke the news to me. Putting my entrepreneurial hat on, I immediately thought to myself, ‘If Rhode Island’s losing its baseball team, I’ve got a great solution,’” he says.

Johnson, a California-based investor and real estate developer, is no stranger to soccer franchises. He co-founded Arizona-based United Soccer League team Phoenix Rising FC and is a shareholder in the English Premier League’s Ipswich Town FC. He’s also the founder of Fortuitous Partners, the sports-focused investment firm behind the stadium and related development. As a member of the Brown University men’s crew team in the early ’90s, he frequently rowed the Seekonk River just offshore from where the stadium sits now.

“I felt I was well-positioned to try to make a project like this a reality. I’ve seen the catalytic impact that professional soccer can have in the right markets,” he says.

Defiance 1636, the team’s supporters’ group, marches into the stadium on opening day. Photography by Alex Gagne

After purchasing the USL market rights to Rhode Island in 2018, his first call was to Daniel Kroeber, the director of development and managing partner at Fortuitous Partners who would go on to become an executive board member of RIFC. Kroeber, who attended the same Connecticut boarding school as Johnson, was tasked with making the vision a reality. Joining the leadership team was RIFC co-founder, executive board member and technical advisor Michael Parkhurst, a Cranston native who played professionally for the New England Revolution before retiring from Major League Soccer in 2019. Parkhurst has served as the public face of the team alongside Johnson, offering a crucial tie not only to Rhode Island but to the world of professional soccer.

Despite the city’s emphasis on filling McCoy, Johnson and team made it clear in a 2019 proposal that their interest was not in the aging stadium but an undeveloped parcel close to the city’s center. The winning bid proposed a $400 million development at Tidewater Landing, a contaminated site along the Seekonk River that had once been home to a manufactured gas plant. Along with a soccer stadium, the plan called for a hotel, office space, event center, pedestrian bridge and more than 200 units of housing spanning both sides of the river.

“If you gave us a clean slate to be anywhere in the state, we’d almost be exactly right where we are,” Johnson says. “This is prime real estate right off I-95.”

Public officials rallied to the project early on, with then-Governor Gina Raimondo and Pawtucket Mayor Donald Grebien hailing it as the “opportunity of a lifetime.” Rhode Island residents, meanwhile, needed more convincing. Early estimates put the public investment for the project between $70 and $90 million, about twice that of the PawSox proposal that had failed to win lawmakers’ support (though a smaller percentage of overall costs). Soccer, to many casual observers, appeared a risky venture, an untested proving ground compared with the state’s established fan bases in football, basketball, baseball and hockey.

Defenders of the project were quick to point out that Rhode Island ranks above its size when it comes to television viewership of soccer. An analysis of NBC’s broadcast of the 2018-2019 Premier League (the most recent season for which ratings were readily available) shows the Providence market tied for second nationally in viewership of games on NBC and was rated tenth for games broadcast across all the company’s channels. Grebien, himself a longtime PawSox fan, says the “new” sport is a draw for younger generations.

“For those that grew up here like myself, did everything we could to fight for the PawSox, naturally there’s a loss of legacy there,” he says. “Growing up with baseball, having been there with my parents and my grandparents, we had a lot of memories, so it’s hard to let go. But it’s definitely generational and cultural. We’re very diverse now. Soccer is probably the bigger sport here in Pawtucket, I would say even in Rhode Island. It’s up and coming. I think you’re going to see a higher and higher fan base covering it.”

Joshua “Flanny” Flanagan, an in-game host for RIFC, shows his support from the sidelines. Photography By Alex Gagne

Matt Entrekin, a Rhode Island transplant who co-hosts the RIFC-focused Raising Anchor podcast, points to the state’s ethnic makeup as well as soccer’s growing popularity in the surrounding region.

“Roll the tape back twenty-five years in New England, and soccer was a brand-new team called the Revolution and your uncle playing in a Portuguese league in downtown Providence,” he says.

Today, four out of the six New England states have professional soccer teams. The New England Revolution, the region’s best-known team, plays in Major League Soccer, the predominant league in the United States and Canada. Rhode Island FC and Hartford Athletic play in USL, a second-tier league with no affiliation to MLS. (Portland Hearts of Pine, the fourth professional team, plays in USL League One, a lower tier of USL.) USL, which traces its current format to 2011, focuses on secondary markets with little competition from major sports teams. Much of their focus, Entrekin says, is on building awareness and developing a market within the community. With the FIFA World Cup slated to play games in the Boston area next summer, that awareness is only expected to grow.

In June, Governor Dan McKee announced a new nonprofit, Ocean State 2026, with the goal of capitalizing on the economic opportunities of the event.

“You have to — not win the heart and mind of the casual fan, but you have to get them in the door,” Entrekin says.

In the end, public financing of the stadium came down to a tiebreaker vote in 2022 with McKee casting the final yes. During negotiations, the projected cost for the stadium grew from $83 million to $124 million due to inflation and supply chain delays. In 2022, Fortuitous Partners requested $27 million in public bond funds originally targeted for the housing and commercial parts of the project be reassigned to the stadium. The controversial vote granted the governor’s blessing in a state still bitter about the 38 Studios debacle more than a decade ago. McKee, speaking to Rhode Island Monthly in May, defends the decision, saying he’d vote for the stadium again today.

“It’s difficult to just talk about what does the stadium mean without looking at a broader picture of the plan that we’ve put together,” he says. “And this is a significant piece of it, but it’s not a standalone like 38 Studios was. 38 Studios was a Hail Mary and there was no other support for things. When you look at this as a piece of an overall plan, the impact is contributing to the overall economy in the state of Rhode Island.”

Despite an enthusiastic groundbreaking in 2022, the project continued to face challenges, and many doubted it would be completed. By the time public financing closed last year, high interest rates had driven the cost of bond payments to more than $130 million over thirty years, and public opinion was at an all-time low. For leadership, the setbacks offered a reason to dig in.

“Every time we had a hurdle, we were driven by the vision to get past it because we really believed it was worth it,” Kroeber
says. “It’s just the beginning, we think, of what is the new future for Pawtucket.”

Today, the 10,500-seat stadium towers over the Seekonk River. During a recent walk-through, stadium general manager Paul Byrne highlights its state-of-the-art features, including four professional-grade locker rooms complete with training equipment and ice baths. A fully electric design and compostable food packaging meet the team’s sustainability goals, while family-friendly amenities like a sensory room, nursing area and contactless markets powered by Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology enhance the experience for fans.

“We’re a team for all of Rhode Island,” Byrne says. “We believe truly in inclusivity and want to make sure that our fans of all ages, demographics and so on have a great experience at the building.”

Photography By Alex Gagne

According to club president David Peart, the team anticipates only about 25 percent of attendees will be avid soccer fans. The remainder will be families, college students, youth soccer participants and other target demographics within a thirty-minute driving radius. In keeping with that strategy, ticket prices are low: A typical gameday seat starts at about $24, and stadium sponsor Centreville Bank releases a limited number of $4.01 tickets for Rhode Island residents every match.

“The whole idea is to get as many Rhode Island residents and residents of southern Massachusetts to come to a game so that we can excite them, thrill them, entertain them and give them a reason to come back. And once we’re able to engage them, we feel confident,” Peart says.

When it became clear last year the stadium wouldn’t be ready by the inaugural season, the team moved its home games to Bryant University, where coach Khano Smith worked to gain a home-field advantage on borrowed turf. After a rocky start, the team gained its footing, and the playoff run generated positive headlines around the state. Fan engagement got an unexpected boost when the first-year team won the Eastern Conference, earning a shot at the league championship in Colorado Springs.  

Nick Parker and Brittany Thomas, season ticket holders from Providence who were not soccer fans prior to RIFC, were among the supporters who flew out to Colorado for the match.

“There was a huge void here, but they’ve created something that was totally community driven,” Parker says.

Businesses, too, have rallied around the stadium, seeing an opportunity for a long-awaited resurgence in Pawtucket’s downtown. Jeremy Duffy is co-founder of The Guild brewery, as well as a co-chair of the Pawtucket Foundation, which advocates for redevelopment efforts in the city. While The Guild has become a home base for RIFC watch parties and announcements, Duffy says the real potential lies in the upcoming developments planned for the Apex site and the riverfront. Combined with the Pawtucket-Central Falls Transit Center opened in 2023, the two areas bookend a section of Pawtucket that has already seen significant interest from housing developers.

“I’m staring out right now at the MBTA station, and that has just been an absolute home run,” Duffy says. “We’re seeing that economic development happen, and it’s all because of the energy level of the train station and the stadium.”

Critics of the project also see its success hinging on additional development. In April, Fortuitous Partners announced the next phase of the project would involve approximately 550 units of housing and commercial space on both sides of the Seekonk River, much larger than the initial plan proposed in 2019. As of June, that phase did not yet have a timeline and will likely involve the developer seeking additional public investment. 

Gary Sasse, a onetime director of administration and revenue for the state who has been a vocal critic of the project from the start, says he remains skeptical the stadium will meet its attendance projections, or that ownership will muster the private and public support to see the project through to completion.

“We’ll know in about six months what the interest is — if the people who are going to do the transformational investments, if they’re just blowing smoke or if they have the wherewithal to do it,” he says. “If it serves as a magnet for development of apartments, commercial space [and] restaurants, and helps reinvigorate the waterfront in Pawtucket, I think it would be a success.”

Amos Shapiro-Thompson with the ball for RIFC during the opening match. Photography by Alex Gagne

Halfway through the opening day match, Centreville Bank Stadium is buzzing despite the 0-0 count on the scoreboard. RIFC’s offense is closing out a hard-fought first half against San Antonio FC, and the sold-out crowd is anxiously awaiting the kickoff.

Up in the press box, Mike DaSilva can almost see the house where he grew up in Pawtucket. The former radio deejay now sets the soundtrack for games at the stadium and considers himself an ambassador for a sport he lived and breathed growing up. As a kid, he attended soccer match watch-parties at the local Portuguese social club. As an adult, he plans to introduce his daughter to the sport at the gleaming new stadium in Pawtucket.

“Both my parents are immigrants from Portugal. My dad is from the Azores, my mom is from Madeira. They both came here in their teens and with that they brought the soccer culture,” he explains. “As far back as I can remember, one of my first memories ever is wearing a little Portugal soccer jersey, kicking a ball, going to the Portuguese club to watch the broadcasts.”

A member of Defiance 1636. Photography by Alex Gagne

Down in the supporters’ section, Ervin Vargas feels the same. The president of Defiance 1636 — the club’s ardent supporters’ group, named for the year Rhode Island was founded — grew up in Pawtucket and Guatemala, where he fell in love with the devoted culture around soccer in his parents’ home country. Though he previously owned season tickets for the New England Revolution, he sees RIFC as an opportunity for Rhode Islanders to cheer on an authentically Rhode Island team for the first time.

“Before, they could only claim colleges, and not many people can claim a college,” he says. “For people who didn’t go to those schools, really there’s nothing to cheer about.

“To me, this is bringing a little piece of home to the United States,” he adds.

As the game rounds the ninetieth minute and heads into stoppage time, a dense storm cloud opens up above the stadium, dumping cool rain on the packed stands below. A few fans run for the stairwells, but most remain at their seats, cheering madly, waving sopping shirts and hats overhead as the throb of a bass drum continues beneath their feet. On the field, the intensity ratchets up a notch, and even the players seem to derive new energy from the deluge. 

Suddenly, something draws attention upward. A stunning double rainbow has formed overhead, framing a Pawtucket skyline that’s seen one blow after another over the years — the shuttered Memorial Hospital, the shell of the Apex building, the struggling downtown, even the river whose history of industrial use left it battered and polluted. To most of Rhode Island, Tidewater Landing’s success — and, by extension, the team’s — will depend on what happens next, and if steel and concrete can build a new vision for an industrial city long overdue for a comeback.

But to the fans shouting and cheering on their home team by the banks of the Seekonk River, it’s already here. 

Drenched fans watch the end of the opening match as a rainbow shines overhead. Photography By Alex Gagne

Stadium Tour

BEER GARDEN

Northwest corner

Where to find the RIFC Pale Ale (brewed a mile down the road at The Guild), plus mixed cocktails and other local and national brews. You’ll also find Maven’s Delicatessen sandwiches, pretzels from the Salty Knot and pulled pork from Smokehouse BBQ.

FOOD HALL

Behind south goal

Here you’ll find tasty burgers and dogs from Gansett Grill, hummus and red quinoa bowls from the Veggie Nook, ice cream from Ocean State Scoops, Del’s Lemonade and additional seating.

GRAB-AND-GO MARKETS

Northeast and northwest corners, behind south goal

Three contactless markets powered by Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology let fans grab soda or beer, snacks and even pizza or hot dogs by tapping their credit cards before returning to their seats.

GREEN MACHINE

The country’s first 100 percent electric soccer-specific stadium features compostable food packaging and zero single-use plastics. Hold onto your bottle to use at one of the many water refilling stations.

PREMIUM WEST CLUB

West side

This is the place to watch the match in style. Enjoy gourmet food and beverage options from behind the glass while you rub shoulders with VIPs.

SENSORY ROOM

Behind section 115

The stadium partnered with The Groden Network to create a sensory-friendly room for fans who need a little break from the action. Families can also pick up free sensory bags featuring noise-canceling headphones and fidget tools at Guest Services.

NURSING ROOM

Behind section 114

Located behind the south goal, for nursing parents and the smallest RIFC fans.

SUPPORTERS’ SECTION

Section 116

Home to Defiance 1636, the team’s loud and proud supporters’ group. Pick a seat here if you want to be at the heart of the action.

RIFC STANDS

West side

Sit here for a full view of the match and the Seekonk River beyond. Lower down, seat colors alternate between navy and light blue to mimic the movement of waves.

FAN FEST

Riverwalk

This free festival along the riverwalk is where you can find face painting, hair braiding, foosball and sub soccer before each home game. Don’t forget to snap a photo with Chip, the harbor seal mascot.