It is a familiar scenario for sports fans in Birmingham. You show up at your favorite bar or gathering spot a half-hour before the game starts on TV, only to discover that the place is already packed. The beers and the cheers are flowing, excitement is high, and seating options are low.

That pretty much describes the climate around town on a typical college-football-season Saturday in Birmingham. But this same scene also played out all across the city last July. Instead of football, the draw was futball, otherwise known around these parts as soccer.

Yes, if you went to many of the popular bars and eateries in the city on the morning of July 15, you likely were greeted by crowds of enthusiastic soccer fans who were there to watch the championship match of the 2018 World Cup. The kicker? The United States wasn’t even playing. It was a game between France and Croatia, which usually doesn’t register as must-see TV in Alabama.

But it appears Birmingham is getting a big kick out of soccer these days. The city consistently ranked in the top-five nationally in television viewership during the month-long World Cup. In addition, youth membership in the Alabama Soccer Association more than doubled from 2014 to 2017, the highest percentage increase among all state soccer associations in the country.

This is the fertile soccer ground that has resulted in the formation of Birmingham Legion FC, an expansion team in the professional United Soccer League that begins its inaugural season March 9 at UAB’s newly expanded BBVA Compass Field. The USL is only one step removed from top-tier Major League Soccer in this country, with teams stretching from New York to Los Angeles.

“Birmingham has a craving for soccer,” says Morgan Copes, director of business operations for Legion FC and one of the people who helped spearhead the club’s creation. “It’s a love and a passion that wasn’t born overnight, but it’s definitely coming around. We have a great opportunity to tap into that with Legion FC.”

Six years ago, Copes and a former college buddy, John Killian, were tapping into some beverages at a local brewery when Copes had a crazy question: “Why doesn’t Birmingham have a pro soccer team?” They began polling others at the brewery about the prospect of a team, and the response was positive.

In order to better gauge interest, Copes purchased 100 team scarves like the ones popular among European soccer fans and began selling them on a website that declared, “Founded with the intent to attract a professional soccer team to the Magic City.” The scarves sold out in just a few weeks.

After that, Copes and some other local soccer enthusiasts organized an exhibition game between the Atlanta Silverbacks pro team and UAB men’s team. The match was promoted only on social media and through word-of-mouth, yet more than 2,000 people showed up to watch.

“That’s when we thought this might really work,” Copes says. “So we took a leap of faith.”

That leap began with the formation of an amateur team called the Birmingham Hammers. The club played one year of exhibition games, then joined the Premier Developmental League for a season. All along, Copes and a small group of fellow fans were devising a business plan and seeking potential financial backers for a move into the pro ranks.

“It was a way to try to prove the concept that having a professional soccer team in Birmingham would work,” Copes says of the Hammers.

“But there was no telling whether it was actually going to happen. I’d write checks that I wasn’t sure I was ever going to get back. There were some sleepless nights. But regardless of whether the team was winning or losing, fans kept coming to the games and buying merchandise, and we were keeping the doors open.”

Finally, on August 8, 2017, it was announced that a multi-person local ownership group had secured Birmingham a franchise in the USL beginning with the 2019 season. And just like that, the self-proclaimed “Football Capital of the South” became a soccer city.

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Jay Heaps is a soccer lifer, having played the sport in college and professionally before spending six seasons as the head coach of the MLS’ New England Revolution. But it wasn’t soccer that convinced him to become Legion’s president and general manager. It was Birmingham.

“I talked with Morgan and the ownership group over the phone about what they were trying to do, and I was interested. Then when I came here the first time, I fell in love with the project,” Heaps says. “I started to realize that this was about more than just soccer. It was also a Birmingham story, and that’s what sold me. Because I’ve lived the soccer story. I know what it’s like. But this had a different feel to it.”

Legion head coach Tom Soehn felt the same way. Like Heaps, Soehn has no prior connection to Birmingham. Yet all it took was a trip to the city to convince him that this was where he wanted his career to go next.

“The minute I came here, I felt like this was a project where we could build something special. It grew on me really fast,” says Soehn, a former MLS coach who worked with Heaps for four years at the Revolution. “You drive around the downtown area and you see so much construction going on. It’s just a real up-and-coming city.”

“It feels like it’s an awesome time for our club to be starting something here. To build it from scratch and be able to put your handprint on it and say, ‘We’re going to put this team right in the heart of Birmingham and see where we can take it.’ That’s what drew me here,” Soehn says.

Legion FC already has received important financial support from several Birmingham-based businesses, including Buffalo Rock-Pepsi and Red Diamond, which signed a three-year deal to be the official sponsor on the team’s jerseys. Red Diamond President and CEO Bill Bowron says the sponsorship is “a logical extension” to the company’s longtime involvement with local youth soccer clubs.

“I think this team is long overdue and they’ve tapped into a really rich soccer market,” Bowron says. “I couldn’t be more excited about it. I think it’s going to flesh out downtown Birmingham even more, and create a progressive image for our city that is very important.”

One person who is particularly excited about the creation of the team is Birmingham native Chandler Hoffman. In August, the former two-time Alabama Player of the Year and state champion at Oak Mountain High School became the first player to sign a contract with Legion FC. He also will serve as team captain. It was a moment Hoffman could not have imagined in 2011, when his college team, UCLA, played in Birmingham for the NCAA Division I Men’s Soccer Championship.

“I thought that would be my last competitive game in Birmingham,” says Hoffman, who has played professionally since 2012, winning the MLS Cup with the Los Angeles Galaxy in 2014. “To come back here and play again is a dream come true. I love Birmingham, and I couldn’t have written a better opportunity to help grow the game in this city.”

In addition to being a serendipitous homecoming, a large part of Hoffman’s decision to return was based on the opportunity to build something from scratch for a community that’s so thirsty for it.

“I’m excited to see how the community latches onto the team,” he says. “It’s a chance for people to be there from the beginning. How often do you get to do that?”

Birmingham resident Simon Iles certainly did not think he would have that opportunity when he moved to the Magic City from his native England in 2015. He knew college football was king here, and assumed he would be watching the occasional soccer game on television by himself.

But Iles was pleasantly surprised to find a strong and growing soccer fan base in the city, including backers of the Birmingham Hammers. He joined the team’s official support group, the Magic City Brigade, an organization that is now leading the cheers for Legion FC.

“I’ve been very impressed and encouraged about the interest in the game here,” Iles says. “There are more die-hard fans in Birmingham than you might expect, and there has been a growth in the casual fan. Even for somebody who is not interested in the tactics, you can still enjoy the game because there’s drumming and chanting and singing [in the stands]. It’s just a fun atmosphere.”

And as it turns out, Iles might still be watching a bit of soccer on television (though probably not alone), as Legion signed a multi-year partnership with Sinclair Broadcasting Group to air the team’s games—both home and away—on My68 WABM.

That atmosphere Iles alludes to is what Copes calls “the show within the show,” and he believes people in Birmingham will be attracted to both the game on the field and the overall events surrounding Legion FC. He will find out soon enough. Because after several years in the making, big-time professional soccer is finally here.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to take something of a pipe dream and turn it into a full-time position in sports,” Copes says. “It still hasn’t really hit me, and it probably won’t until we actually have that first official game, when the players are wearing that crest on their jerseys and representing Birmingham.”

Mark Your Calendars

Running from March through October, here’s the full schedule of Legion FC’s home games.

March 9 | 6:00 p.m. | Bethlehem Steel FC

March 16 | 7:00 p.m. | Ottawa Fury FC

April 6 | 7:00 p.m. | New York Red Bulls II

April 20 | 4:00 p.m. | Swope Park Rangers

April 27 | 7:00 p.m. | Loudoun United FC

May 11 | 7:00 p.m. | Louisville City FC

May 22 | 7:00 p.m. | Nashville SC

June 1 | 7:00 p.m. | Tampa Bay Rowdies

June 22 | 7:00 p.m. | Hartford Athletic

July 13 | 7:00 p.m. | North Carolina FC

July 20 | 7:00 p.m. | Atlanta United 2

July 27 | 7:00 p.m. | Charlotte Independence

Aug. 17 | 7:00 p.m. | Memphis 901 FC

Sept. 13 | 7:00 p.m. | Saint Louis FC

Sept. 20 | 7:00 p.m. | Indy Eleven

Oct. 5 | 7:00 p.m. | Charleston Battery

Oct. 20 | 3:30 p.m. | Pittsburg Riverhounds SC

Meet the Players

As of press time, the Legion FC roster had 14 players. Of the 14, eight have experience playing in MLS, three have been signed from overseas, two are recent graduates from UAB, and one is a former USL Cup champion.

#1 Matt Van Oekel | Goalkeeper

#2 Marcos Ugarte | Midfielder

#3 Kyle Fisher | Defender

#4 Marcel Appiah | Defender

#5 Mikey Lopez | Midfielder

#8 Joe Holland | Midfielder

#9 Chandler Hoffman | Forward

#10 Prosper Kasim | Forward

#12 Eric Avila | Defender

#16 Daigo Kobayashi | Midfielder

#17 Gael Mabiala | Defender

#22 Mathieu Laurent | Defender

#30 Zak Cromwell | Defender

#88 Femi Hollinger-Janzen | Forward

Details

For ticket information and to purchase official Legion FC merchandise, visit bhmlegion.com. Supporters are encouraged to follow @bhmlegion on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for the latest club news.

This story appears in Birmingham magazine’s March 2019 issue. Subscribe today!