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MADISON, Wisc. — Last week, Forward Madison FC managing director Peter Wilt doubted he’d get much sleep ahead of Saturday’s USL League One home-opener. One particular concern was the weather, with three inches of snow expected to fall on the Badger State’s capital.
“I’ll probably toss and turn pretty good Friday night,” Wilt told Pro Soccer USA. “I’ll be looking at the forecast, and knowing that there’s nothing I can do to change it.”
Inclement weather wasn’t the only thing on Wilt’s mind, however. The longtime Wisconsin resident and soccer executive who helped launch the Chicago Fire, Chicago Red Stars and Indy Eleven still had butterflies ahead of yet another inaugural home opener.
“I was anxious the night before our first away game. I was anxious before our first game at home — the exhibition game against the [Wisconsin] Badgers last week. And I’m anxious right now.”
When Saturday evening brought snowfall, the response was peak-Wisconsin: ATVs equipped with snow plows cleared the field, and the process pushed kickoff back a half-hour. The blades of the plows kicked up crumbs of black rubber from Breese Stevens Field’s turf, mixing them in with clumps of snow and turning the latter a dark gray. It wasn’t ideal conditions for a home opener, and Forward Madison’s social media team kept an anxious eye on the handful of seats still available via the club’s website in the hours immediately before kickoff.
Visiting Greenville Triumph SC head coach and former U.S. international John Harkes ended up referring to the conditions as “snowmageddon” after the game. But they didn’t deter fans in Madison, as a sellout crowd announced at 4,462 would pack the recently-renovated 93-yard-old stadium. The action on the field likely didn’t create many lasting memories — it was a scoreless draw contested primarily in the middle-third of the pitch — the rest of the evening surely did.
“This may be third division, it might be a smaller stadium, but atmosphere-wise this rivals any soccer venue in the country — MLS down through USL Championship down through USL League One,” said FMFC captain Connor Tobin. “It’s right there. It may not be as large, but the energy, the noise — it speaks for itself.
“I think overall the conditions just made it even that much more special for the fans that first night. This is something, as the club continues to grow, it becomes something of lore. ‘I was there that night for the snow-opener,’ can really be kind of a nice piece of history. It’s too bad we weren’t able to go and get a winner, but the commitment from all the boys was great.”
Tobin added that the only game in his decade-long professional career that may have rivaled the atmosphere in Madison on Saturday was the 2012 Soccer Bowl that saw the Tampa Bay Rowdies, on penalties, crowned champions of the North American Soccer League. The Rowdies’ victory came at the expense of Tobin’s Minnesota Stars, with the latter rebranded as Minnesota United FC the following season.
Throughout the evening, in the 10-seat press box two-thirds full of FMFC staff, the din of walkie-talkies was constant as Forward went about ironing out the wrinkles in its gameday operations. Big Top Entertainment, which owns FMFC, had sent Forward a front-office employee from one of its Northwoods League baseball clubs to serve as press box manager for the night, and to lend a little experience. That employee, Cassidy Sepnieski — a creative services manager for the Madison Mallards — helped to design the uniforms the Flamingos wore on the evening as part of a collaborative process that involved a number of people.
For Wilt, that kind of crossover was by design. Wilt told Pro Soccer USA that the opportunity to work with Big Top was one of the things that drew him to help build a professional soccer team in Madison. Wilt wanted to replicate the success Big Top had running its baseball teams with its newfound interest in soccer.
“The most important lesson is the importance of working with good people — talented, hard-working people of good character — on the front-office side and the team side,” Wilt said. “And then the other thing is working to build the organization from the bottom up, and not the top down. Build a broad foundation, connecting with the community.”
On that second lesson, Wilt’s voice could be heard in the press box from time to time, second-hand and via walkie-talkie. Towards the end of the first half it went scarce. The reason? Wilt had taken a seat among Madison’s supporters’ section — among the Flock, as many of those supporters call themselves.
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Throughout the night, the Flock’s drums and horns were ever-present. The drum line added some flair as it switched up the timing of its beats and offered a unique twist to several songs that have become standards among North American supporters’ groups. A shirtless fan waving a Forward flag on the end of a tall plastic pole, running up an down a plot of standing-room along Breese Stevens’ east end, drew a chorus of, “Flag-guy! Flag-guy!” just before halftime.
To recruit these die-hard supporters that would come to call themselves the Flock, Wilt looked for passionate soccer fans in Madison to pitch.
“Before we announced we were having a team, we reached out to the supporters,” said Wilt. “Well, they weren’t our supporters yet because the team didn’t exist. They were mostly EPL supporters in Madison — the leadership of Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, and Tottenham supporters groups — and let them know what we hope to do and ask them for their input. Making them part of ‘Madison Pro Soccer’ — at the time we didn’t even have a name. That inclusivity gave them a sense of ownership and a seat at the table as we built this.”
Big Top and Wilt crowdsourced their team’s name and colors. They sought the input of future supporters on their logo and their merchandise. And in return, they drew a crowd to Forward’s first competitive home game loud enough to impress battle-hardened veterans like Tobin. Madison’s captain was not the only player to take note.
Around two years prior, 270 miles northwest via Interstates 90 and 94, Minnesota United had a snow opener — a “snowpener” — of its own on March 12, 2017, when 35,043 fans endured a snowstorm at TCF Bank Stadium against Atlanta United. It’s a game that will be referenced by Loons fans for years to come in spite of the 6-1 shellacking delivered by Atlanta. For forward Mason Toye and fullback Carter Manley — both still in college, at Indiana and Duke respectively — that MNUFC game is only lore. But presently on loan with Madison from Minnesota, the pair received night of their own to remember.
“Obviously, I think this one is a little bit better than how their home opener went, which I’m thankful for,” said Toye. “Atmosphere was great. The fans were great. Sold-out crowd is really intense. I’m super happy about the turnout and I’m hoping that it’s gonna be like this all year.”
Manley added his thoughts on energy found inside Breese Stevens: “I think it really helped us. The fans are incredible. The atmosphere was great. The amount of people that showed up despite the weather was just — I was blown away by how many people there were. There were really no empty seats and I just thought that was incredible.”
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For FMFC, its fans, the city of Madison, and Big Top the evening was a smashing success. For Wilt, it was also personal and a homecoming.
“Being able to launch a team in my home state is a real special thing,” Wilt said. “I’ve lived in Wisconsin for 40 years and I ran the Milwaukee Wave twice, but I never had the opportunity to start a team from scratch, or run an outdoor team here in Wisconsin. So that’s pretty special.
“I remember sitting in the shipping container we were using as our office the first couple of months. We were here, actually behind the goal, inside Breese Stevens Field, looking out the window and seeing the history. I remember thinking that this stadium has been here for more than 90 years and we have a responsibility to carry on this history. Satchel Paige played baseball here. Jesse Owens ran track and field here. Some very good Wisconsin Badgers soccer teams played here. The Chicago Cubs had a minor league baseball team playing here. And thinking in terms of that history made me excited and proud.”