I made the drive from Charlotte, NC on that Saturday afternoon for the season opener to see if the “new” club lived up to the hype. I had been to WakeMed before, back in 2015 to see a preseason scrimmage with the Independence, and met some of the loyal members of the Triangle Soccer Fanatics. They were warm and welcoming that day, and a few kept in touch throughout the 2015 season, but the preseason match didn’t give me the impression that this was anything different from what I’d seen elsewhere in the Carolinas. The RailHawks (that day at least) felt like another small(ish) soccer club doing its best in the South, a region that had some loyal fans, but maybe hadn’t fully quite caught the soccer bug just yet. Or maybe it was just preseason…

Because that description did not fit my experience two years later, two Saturdays ago, as I pulled into WakeMed for the second time.

While many of the fans of the Oak City Supporters (more on them in a bit) told me that the pre-game felt pretty similar to a RailHawks regular season game, I personally hadn’t experienced anything like it since moving east from Seattle in 2011. Traffic flowed easily into the complex, and I passed by tent after tent of tailgates: families and “millennials” alike.

I got out of my car and walked up to the first tailgate before getting my ticket at will call and talked a bit with some fans not affiliated with any of the supporters groups. They each said that this had been a tradition for years: playing cornhole, bringing food and drinks, and enjoying the Carolina weather before a RailHawks game. Each of them, to a man, wore NCFC gear: shirts, hats, scarves. Each of them, every one, told me they were happy and content being in NASL, that they were a bit worried they’d lose all of this if MLS came to town. (More on that in a bit too.)

I moved on and found the men and women of the Oak City Supporters before heading into the stadium. OCS was founded in 2015, after my last visit to Cary, by a “younger set” than the family-focused members of TSF. A young man named Kevin (I’m not a journalist, I didn’t write down his last name; sorry, Kevin) talked with me for awhile, saying he appreciated the community of OCS and the excitement they brought to the stands. The tailgate again had cornhole boards, beer, and plenty of food, and the group of 50 or so (when I stopped by at least) all seemed like a big, happy, diverse family.