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.
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.