Cole Pepper
The Gainbridge Super League kicks off its second season of professional women’s soccer Saturday with three Florida teams among those beginning play.
The defending champion Tampa Bay Sun travels to Brooklyn FC, while last season’s runner-up, Fort Lauderdale United, hosts Lexington SC.
Tampa Bay and Fort Lauderdale are two of the three teams in the league that did not bring in a new coach this offseason. Tampa Bay’s Denise Schilte-Brown and Fort Lauderdale’s Tyrone Mears were both brought back for a second season. Philip Poole also returns as the head coach of Carolina Ascent FC after recording the best regular season record in the league’s first season.
The league’s first expansion team is also from Florida, Sporting JAX. The Jacksonville-based team is the first fully professional women’s sports team to represent the city. Sporting JAX hosts DC Power FC on Saturday (7 p.m. ET, Peacock).
Sporting JAX announced that over 8,000 tickets had been distributed for the match as of Thursday, and the game could be headed for a sellout. Hodges Stadium on the University of North Florida campus holds 9,400.
“One of the things we’ll have to control going in is the emotions,” Sporting JAX head coach Stacey Balaam said.
“We all have a right to dream and what we want it to look like. We can’t think too far ahead. We have to think of the next thing, and Saturday is the next thing. We know what we want to achieve, we know what we want the outcome to be, but we’re focusing on the process and not the outcome.”
Sporting JAX had two home preseason friendlies scheduled, but neither was played. A matchup against the Scottish champions, Hibernian FC, was postponed due to heavy rain and lightning on matchday. Another preseason friendly against Wrexham AFC was called off before it began because Wrexham had too many injuries and could not put together a full roster to travel from Wales.
The team played four closed-door friendlies on the road against Orlando Pride, the University of Florida, UNF and Lexington SC. But fans were not allowed to attend. That means Sporting JAX’s first league game will be the first one in front of fans.
“It’s been a long and winding road,” Sporting JAX president Steve Livingstone said. “We’re finally here. We’ve got a big crowd coming out. It’s going to be a historic day for our city.”
Last year, the league launched with eight teams as a first division professional league, joining the NWSL as a top-tier women’s professional league.
