A cloudless blue sky stretched over Harrison, New Jersey. Hot sunlight poured into Red Bull Arena, but it was pleasant and breezy under the shaded awnings. A crowd of 8,314 was in the stands on a Sunday morning to watch Sky Blue FC play out their last home game of the season against Marta and the Orlando Pride. There was an air of cautious optimism going around, from the Cloud 9 tailgate pouring mimosas in plastic cups to the throngs swarming the activity tents outside the stadium. Before the game, Cloud 9 hoisted a tifo featuring a happy yellow sunrise and the caption “IT’S A BEAUTIFUL NEW DAY” - a far cry from this time last year, when they held up a banner encouraging players and challenging ownership with “DON’T GIVE UP THE FIGHT.”

The game ended 1-1, Carli Lloyd giving Sky Blue the equalizer and nearly putting in teammate Elizabeth Eddy for the go-ahead goal in the last gasps of stoppage. After a first half spent being penned into their own 18 by the Pride, Sky Blue gamely fought back, brought on a good sub, and made a 2-1 comeback seem entirely possible in the second half. But in spite of being inches away from a nice home win in a top venue, the players were more than sanguine about the result, looking forward to their final game (against the North Carolina Courage) and then the 2020 season.

“It’s night and day,” Carli Lloyd said after the game, comparing where Sky Blue is now to where they were at the same time last season. “That was a bad place last year. This year is completely different, 80% different. It’s a way better feel and a way better environment all around, on and off the field, in every capacity. I think everyone’s performing their duties to the best they can do and that’s all we ask. Players, staff, ownership, and we just gotta keep making it better.”

Lloyd was complimentary in the mixed zone, praising both the venue and the fans. “We appreciate the fans sticking around for us,” she asid. “It hasn’t been easy. Obviously you want your team to win and do well, and for the fans who have stuck by us and seen the improvement and praised that, it’s good to see. We appreciate the fans more than they can imagine.”

She also thinks Sky Blue has improved on the field, particularly since the end of the World Cup. When asked if Sky Blue would be within shouting distance of playoffs had they begun their post-WC upward trajectory at the beginning instead of mid-season, Lloyd mulled it over for a second before agreeing they could have been a solidly mid-table team. “I still think there’s things we need to continuously improve on to be a top caliber team in this league,” she said, “But we’re working in that direction and that’s a good thing, especially with somewhat of a depleted roster. I feel like we’ve kind of just given players out here and there but we’ve got a good squad and I hope we make it better.”

Kailen Sheridan also felt like the team went through a turnaround from this time last year. “I think last year we were trying to dig out of a hole where this year we’re already level and we’re trying to run,” she said. “So instead of going uphill, we’re on par and trying to catch up now, which is huge for us because I think that just gives us more of an advantage and more confidence. When you’re looking up from the bottom it’s really, really hard. When you have nothing to kind of lean on, no wins or even solid plays that you can look back on and be confident with, it’s really hard to come back from those.”

Sheridan paused for a while, trying to find a way to succinctly talk about everything the team went through last season: the small crowds, the bad housing, the sub-par locker rooms, the perceived lack of care from their last GM, the logistical disorganization, and the constant, unrelenting losing.

“Whatever situations we’ve been put into,” she said, “Whatever we’ve had to face, the resilience of this team has shown this year. You know what, we’re not going to take it anymore. We’ve been through this and we’re not going to let the same thing happen again. We don’t want history to repeat itself, we don’t want to be in last place, and we’re not going to let that happen.”

Sheridan was also in favor of the move to Red Bull, particularly on a more permanent basis for next season. “This is the benchmark,” she said of post-Yurcak venues for the team. “This is the lowest. This is what we’re expecting. It doesn’t have to be here. It can be here, that’d be great. We would love that, but this is the benchmark.”

General manager Alyse LaHue was a little more circumspect in discussing Sky Blue’s 2020 venue. The team will leave Yurcak behind, although LaHue offered a “never say never” caveat on the matter. As for Red Bull Arena as their new home, that’s still a matter of discussion, and is part of why LaHue has held off on contacting fans about 2020 season tickets. “I just want to make sure we know where we’re going before we start to engage fans in that regard for next season,” she said, adding that it’s an urgent matter for her, particularly given the short NWSL offseason. Regardless of where they end up, LaHue listed some of her top criteria: a grass field and amenities for the players, minimum 5,000 seating as per league standards, and the fan experience. She called having a video board to promote stadium atmosphere, a bigger concourse, and good concessions were “basic things” that she wanted Sky Blue to have as a matter of catching up with the rest of the league, and something the fans deserved if they were going to be spending their time and money on the team.

The “new day” Cloud 9 tifo did not go unnoticed by LaHue, who said she and her sales staff had not had a day off since they announced the move to Red Bull on September 16, culminating in LaHue waking up before 4 AM on game day to start prepping. “Cloud 9 is so deserving of every forward step that we take,” she said. “To see their joy and the joy of the fans and having these experiences and coming to Red Bull Arena and seeing this many fans turn out for a Sky Blue game after what the club has been through, I’m just excited for them. As fans of this club, they deserve the world and I’m going to try to continue to push this forward for them. They’re the reason we’re out here, the fans that have stuck by us through thick and thin.”

For a club that was facing a potential boycott from its own supporters group less than a year ago, ending the season in a shiny modern venue with a big, boisterous crowd, a team on the upswing, and a proud SG hoisting a tifo declaring this was the beginning of something beautiful and new, 2019 might have ended in as about as good a place as they could get. No one can predict if they’ll be able to carry everything over into 2020, but there’s reason now to have faith that they can, and for Sky Blue, for people simply to have faith again could be everything they need.