On one of the grassy berms on the east side of Paradise Coast Sports Complex’s stadium, kids run laps around a fan palm under a chalky blue sky while couples unfurl blankets, staking out their spots an hour before the kickoff of the FC Naples match against Red Force FC in March. In the glass-fronted boxes, sponsors make casual conversation, while spectators continue to filter through the gates, a sea of blue-and-white jerseys. Roberto Moreno, the team’s co-founder and owner, stands at an entrance greeting fans. “As soon as they walk through those gates, everyone is the same,” he says.
Here, in this game night, a region built on transplants and overlapping identities finds a shared center. Roberto, who started formally building the team in 2023 after years of executive leadership at Zumba, recognized the community’s desire for something physical, social, structured and rooted in local pride. In his assessment, it could have been anything—centering professional soccer was just a bonus. But that might not be true. Soccer comes equipped with a few key advantages: a shared appreciation across languages and cultures, a participatory undercurrent and a fierce local following that, up until recently, only gathered in pockets.
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Photography by Brian Tietz
fc naples gathering place fans in the stands
By kickoff at the Paradise Coast Sports Complex field, the stands fill in blue and white. Kids run up and down the berms, and voices carry in English and Spanish.
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Photography by Brian Tietz
fc naples gathering place players in action mid game
Before 2025, watching pro soccer in Southwest Florida meant a road trip to Tampa, Miami or Orlando. Locally, fans were fractured between sports bars and scattered weekend youth and adult tournaments. While Naples United FC introduced a semi-pro venture in 2017, the appetite for competition remained. FC Naples filled the void. The club is part of USL League One, the third U.S. professional division (ranked below the independent Major League Soccer), where play is physical and unpredictable—the same 90-minute sport but at a scale fit for a mid-size region.
Impressive matchups like this one keep fan momentum. Games fill two-thirds of the seats on any given night, but even when the score disappoints, the energy remains high. Outreach programs such as FC Naples’ school initiative, which offers tickets for top-performing students, bring in fresh faces each month.
Photography by Brian Tietz
Photography by Brian Tietz
Photography by Brian Tietz
Photography by Brian Tietz
Photography by Brian Tietz
Photography by Brian Tietz
Photography by Brian Tietz
Photography by Brian Tietz
By the second half, the sky has gone dark, and the blue floodlight poles cut upward into the dusty black. Along the VIP pitchside seating, spectators sit behind the touchline, close enough to see the shirt tugs and hear coach Matt Poland’s calls. Whether on the stands, at the pitch or in the boxes, the fans match the fervor on the field. Die-hards shout to the ref in English and Spanish, coworkers clutch their heads in agony when an attempt is blocked, and strangers find unlikely celebratory partners in whoever is nearby when a strike finds the back of the net. Throughout the stadium, FC Naples blue-and-white swag is interspersed with jerseys from Colombia, France and Portugal. “We have players from 13 different nationalities—including Argentina, Mexico, the U.S., England, Scotland, Ireland, Croatia—so [almost] everybody has someone they can connect to,” Roberto says.
FC Naples earned its following from the jump by proving its competitive merit. Last season, fans witnessed the team make history as the first newly launched team to reach the playoffs and secure a top-four seed, granting them home-field advantage. Their success turned what could have been a curiosity into a roster of season ticket holders, and the momentum has not waned. In April, the stadium swelled when FC Naples brought the U.S. Open Cup to town. “People needed something to be proud of,” Roberto says. Though it ended in a 1-0 heartbreak against the 2022 Cup Winners, Orlando City SC, an MLS team, local fans raved about holding their own in a first-division matchup.
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Photography by Brian Tietz
fc naples gathering place player in action
Before FC Naples, following pro soccer here meant driving to Tampa or Miami. Now, a local club—with players from 13 countries and a style that translates across languages—gives a dispersed fan base a place to gather close to home.
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Photography by Brian Tietz
fc naples gathering place fans celebrating with flags
A strong civic identity was baked in from the onset. Before launching, more than 1,000 locals participated in listening sessions, surveys and conversations to shape the team’s names, colors and logo. Roberto and his business partner, Daniel Mildenberg, wanted Southwest Floridians to influence what the club represents and see themselves represented. “We said, ‘Who cares what we want? What does the community want?’” Roberto recalls.
"People needed something to be proud of." — FC Naples owner, Roberto Moreno
Back on the berm, the setting is still more like a neighborhood park than an isolated stadium. The match plays out as a backdrop to the landscape. For many here, the draw isn’t the intricacies of the game, but the marriage of a new pastime with the region’s long-beloved landscape. Tree hammocks and Gulf breezes immerse the crowd in the natural surroundings. Matt Riley, CEO of Thomas Riley Artisans’ Guild, says the best place to watch the sunset is on the deck at the top of the stands. “I’ve been to most home games,” he says.
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Photography by Brian Tietz
fc naples gathering place aerial view of paradise sports complex
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Photography by Brian Tietz
fc naples gathering place player in action
When the final whistle blows on the 3-0 shutout, the barrier between player and fan vanishes. In a rare level of access, the team spends 30 minutes at the pitch-side, signing jerseys and shaking hands. Season ticket holder Chris Harris watches as his 9-year-old daughter, Mikayla—a goalie on Bonita Springs’ Azzurri Storm soccer club—jockeys for a game-worn wristband or shin guard. “She has gotten a thousand times better just watching them play,” Chris says.
Some fans wander over to the on-site bar, The Cove, for a post-match recap over drinks as the crowd disperses. Roberto remains in the stands, picking up trash and putting seatbacks away. For all the tireless planning, the way strangers and leaders choose to linger shows an appreciation that can’t be scripted. “There is no formula,” he says. “It’s with love and heart.”