Q: What does it mean to be part of this, the launch of a new season for a club that you have so much history with?

Rob Stone: Yeah, I think it just goes to show the growth of this game that there are now events that happen like this in American soccer, and that you get a turnout and a huge pop for this, it shows the continued growth at a really staggering rate. The beauty about the Rowdies is it’s one of those few iconic names and brands that has shown the legs to survive from the 70s, 80s, 90s to where we are now. It’s arguably the most iconic name and brand in American soccer, and it’s the oldest team that’s still around now, which is surreal that we’re talking in those kinds of terms.

Q: You grew up with the Rowdies, what was it like growing up as a soccer fan in that era when you had such incredible names playing for the club?

RS: When I grew up as a fan of soccer, it was a chase. It was a chase to find the game. It wasn’t everywhere on television, it was Soccer Made in Germany on PBS, it was a random NASL game maybe on ABC Sports, and you prayed to God your team was there so you could actually see them. I lived in North Carolina and Connecticut as a fan of the Rowdies, and I would chase them down and badger my parents to take me to New England Tea Men games, take me to New York Cosmos games when the Rowdies were in town.

I was that idiot kid in the green and yellow hooped socks, the full kit – yes, I was a full-kit w----r as a kid – because that was my team and I didn’t care. I didn’t care going into the den of Giants Stadium in the swamp of New Jersey all kitted out as a kid because that was my team and that’s what I cared about. I took a lot of heat from Cosmos fans, but it was a good lesson for me to stick up for what you believe in, and I’ve always believed in the Rowdies. It’s my first love in sports, so I’m going to stay with them.

Q: We’ve seen the hooped socks on broadcasts as well, is it fun to be able to transmit that to the national audience?

RS: It is fun, because sometimes we’re asked to do things and other times we want to do it and it’s purely organic, and whenever the Rowdies come up, no-one’s asking me to talk about them, I’m doing it of my own free will and I think you can hear the change in my volume and my energy level and my passion.

Q: What’s your favorite thing about Al Lang Stadium?

RS: The uniqueness of it. The view. I just love that opening, that odd opening in the stadium that really makes no sense, but I love how the Rowdies have embraced it. It makes it different, it sets it apart where you’ve got this gorgeous view of what Florida should be. If you close your eyes and you say Florida, you’re seeing palm trees, you’re seeing water, you’re seeing boats, you’re seeing flip flops and you’re seeing leisure, and you see all of that through the channel, and yet all you need to do is tilt your head down to another degree and you see top-level soccer, an amazing fanbase, and a history that really right now is second-to-none in American soccer.