Former Reno 1868 FC Fans Are Now Hoping for a New and Better USL Soccer Era
Photos and article by Morgan Kilbourne
The USL Reno Pro Soccer website is already taking deposits for season tickets for a hoped for 2027 inaugural season. It also has a section called Crest and Community, with dates for an ongoing listening tour, with different locations hosting interested fans, such as one in mid November at Prost Biergarten.
For a few seasons, beginning in 2017, Reno 1868 FC made the Biggest Little City feel like a rising soccer hotbed, with fans proudly wearing cobalt blue, silver grey and light gold attire, chanting inside and outside Greater Nevada Field. Then, abruptly, it all stopped. In November 2020, Reno 1868 FC ceased operations, citing the financial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Reno 1868 FC totaled out their four seasons with a record of 62-26-28, earning playoff appearances every year. A decade after the initial founding of Reno 1868 FC, its supporter group, Battle Born Brigade, is ready to rally the community once again, now that a new professional soccer project is being prepared.
The USL Reno Pro Soccer website announced in September the new group’s plans to bring pro soccer back to northern Nevada “in a stadium that maximizes the fan experience, builds a loyal and passionate following, and creates pride for our region while enhancing economic impact.” According to these plans, the former Jones West Ford site at Kietzke Lane is to be transformed into a sports and entertainment district with a soccer specific stadium.
The USL is working on a Division 1 league, and runs the second tier USL Championship and a third tier USL League One, all below the top-tier Major League Soccer (MLS). It also features a pre-professional developmental league called USL League Two. Reno 1868 FC played at the USL Championship level in a partnership with the MLS San Jose Earthquakes.
“I believe very shortly after the team [Reno 1868 FC] was announced we all just got together,” Battle Born Brigade administrator Matthew Rafferty remembers of the initial local soccer fan surge. “I guess we really just had a mutual love for soccer that we wanted to pass on to everybody else,” Angela Rafferty, another group admin, said.
Battle Born Brigade is a so-called ride or die group that once had upwards of 3,000 supporters on Facebook. Their page now has over 700 supporters following updates in anticipation for Reno’s new USL team.
Having a specific soccer stadium is creating renewed enthusiasm, as Greater Nevada Field, primarily home to Reno’s minor league baseball team the Aces, made for a strange look and feel to 1868 FC home games.
“That stadium was for baseball, not soccer,” DJ Racis, another admin of Battle Born Brigade said bluntly.
“[It was] less than ideal,” Rafferty added. “It was bad grass, bad sight lines, everybody felt so far away from the action. With soccer, the stands need to be on top of the action. That’s how you’re able to see everything. That’s how you build an atmosphere and that’s how you build a home field advantage.”
The new soccer specific stadium is being planned for 6,000 seats with a reported $80 million price tag.
“Reno, I think, is ready to support some kind of more professional minor league teams outside of baseball,” Racis said. “I was pissed off Vegas was getting everything,” another fan said of the professional sports culture exploding in recent years in Las Vegas.
A rendition of the proposed new soccer specific stadium.
“We are never leaving this town,” Wendy Damonte promised during the public listening session at Prost Biergarten. The former evening news television anchor, whose dad was the commissioner of the West Coast Athletic Conference, is listed on the website among club leadership, along with entrepreneur Todd Davis, former U.S. soccer star John Doyle and lawyer Bob Enzenberger.
“Reno Pro Soccer is a temporary name – a placeholder until we create a crest and name unique to our community and the North American soccer landscape. We’re inviting the community to share what makes Reno special and what you want to see represented in your Club’s crest, colors, and identity,” the website indicates.
During the listening session, attendees were asked to place dots on images that spoke to them about the Reno community. Categories included images of landmarks, nature, and popular locations.
However, it wasn’t all about picking symbols and images that represented Reno, it was also a time to ask Damonte questions about the development and future plans. “Spread the word that way people can see us. People never even knew about 1868,” an attendee said.
Damonte reinforced that the club’s success was not going to be measured only by wins or attendance, but by the connection the community and fans had with the organization. “We need everyone to rally around this new team, because without you guys coming to the games, and getting your companies to sponsor it, and having fun and coming to the stadium for other activities, this won’t survive,” Damonte said.
Doyle echoed her sentiment. “My goal, my expectation, what will get me up in the morning and make me happy is if we win,” Doyle said. “We need you guys on our side during good times, bad times, everything. It’s not going to be perfect everyday.”
Members of Battle Born Brigade hope these won’t just be empty promises as they feel that there was a lack of community engagement from Reno 1868 FC management. Members of the supporter group says they would be the ones handing out tickets and displaying 1868 merch in nearby bars. “If the team isn’t involved in the community, how are those x,y,z fans that aren’t in the supporter group going to know? Why would they show up if they have no idea?” Rafferty said. “I mean, there were businesses 100 yards from the stadium that did not know that the soccer team existed.”
He remembers the grief like process for fans when the team shut down.
“We literally had a night outside the stadium where everybody got to say goodbye. A memorial. Everybody got to share their favorite stories from the team, and what we were going to miss most about each other, and just all kind of hoping we would be able to do it again, and here we are,” Rafferty said. “We’re not an afterthought anymore.”
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