The Paradise Coast Sports Complex is ridiculously pretty.

PCSC for short is located in Naples, Florida, about 15 minutes away from the city’s downtown. It’s highlighted by a 5,000-capacity stadium. It’s a very open space, with bleachers and suites down one sideline, and a sizable recreational area behind one of the goals, including a big ass video board.

The color scheme is the icing on the cake. Most of the stadium is a pearly white, and it’s complemented by sections that are a lovely shade of light blue. It all just screams coastal Florida.

This venue is the crown jewel of FC Naples, USL League One’s newest expansion side.

Within one of the suites at PCSC Stadium stands Matt Poland, who looks over the complex with a sense of pride and excitement. He’s a decent looking dude to be fair to him, and his general look and style fits in well in this part of Florida.

He’s the other crown jewel of this club.

With these two pieces in place, FC Naples is ready for a crucial winter.

Building blocks

Let’s go all the way back to the beginning, or at least as far back as we can.

“It started with a dream many years ago,” said CEO and co-founder Bob Moreno.

“One of the biggest things was finding a facility and a city and a community that really was craving professional sports. There are no professional sports teams in Naples, and it is a very healthy and active and growing community. I think that was the biggest piece in the whole expansion process.”

“Now everything with the league was, as you can imagine, a negotiation with securing the rights of the franchise. Once we did that, we moved into securing the rights to the stadium,” said Moreno.

There’s crown jewel number #1.

The aforementioned PCSC Stadium has been a huge part of the club’s branding, and for good reason. It’s a lovely place to play and host soccer games, and it’ll serve as a huge asset when recruiting players, staff, and supporters.

“I can't underestimate how important it is. I mean obviously I'm biased, but I would say it's by far the best stadium in our league,” said Moreno. “This beautiful complex opened up in 2019, and they’re still doing work on it. It's got nine multipurpose fields, it's got a bar, it's got a lot of open area, and then there’s this 5,000 person capacity stadium. We're coming in here and we're basically leasing the stadium from the county for our games, our practices, and then some other stuff we're going to do here.”

While that department was being taken care of, the club also had to worry about its branding, from everything to the name to the colors to the logo. While FC Naples seemingly falls into the American soccer trap of simply slapping an FC to the beginning or end of the location, there’s at least a fair reason for their lack of a team name.

“When we announced the team in January, we announced the team with a generic USL Naples name because we really didn't want to come in and impose a name or a philosophy or colors. We wanted to extract that from the community,” said Moreno. “So we held listening sessions, town halls, and online surveys. It was just a lot of working with the community and really understanding what it is that they wanted from the crest and colors. We actually hired a professional to run these sessions for us who've done this before with other sports teams. What came out, if you're talking specifically about the name, is people here are very proud of the word Naples.”

“Even though it's not a huge city, it's a city where anywhere you go you can tell someone you’re from Naples and everybody knows what it is. The community wanted a clean name, they didn't want anything flashy, it's a more conservative type of town. That’s why we went with FC,” said Moreno.

The club did not rule out a name change down the line, though.

“One thing that might happen, and again, we're doing everything with the community, is if the community and the supporters come up with a nickname for the team, then maybe we'll implement that,” said Moreno. “It's not something we're imposing or anything of that sort.”

That sense of community is clearly a driving force, and that was on show once again when it came to the club badge.

“All these things came out of the listening sessions. I'll give you just one example. When we came into listening sessions, we never thought about seashells at all in terms of the name or anything. Every single listening session we were at, people kept referring to sea shelling here in Naples,” said Moreno. “When we researched it, it turns out that the Calusa Indians, who were the first Indians here a very long time ago, used seashells for weapons, for storage, for houses, for trade. They set up these huge shell mountains on the beach for protection to stand behind. That's why when you walk around any Naples beach it's just beautiful seashells all over the place. That's a very concrete example of the community telling us something, and us running with it.”

The logo seems relatively simple at first, with a large blue N in front of a white background with some gold detailing. It’s all about the details, though. There’s lines to represent the boardwalk of a pier, a shell crown at the top, ribbons, a flag pole, and a boat keel at the bottom. The logo is in the shape of a seashell, and there’s a whole video on its design on the club website.

To wrap up things off the pitch, there are the team’s supporters. Despite FC Naples only existing for a short while, not having a single player on their roster, and never having played an actual game, they have a supporters group.

Named Barra 239 in order of the Hispanic word to describe a group plus the city’s area code, they’ve already become Naples’ official supporter’s group.

“What's so beautiful about this is that they created it without even telling us. I'll give you the quick story of how it happened,” said Moreno. “They started with seven guys on a Friday night, got together here at the complex and did a little barbecue and played some soccer. Then the next week they invited some more and it was 12 of them. The next week it was 18 of them, and then 20 something of them. This week there's going to be over 60 people here.”

“Most of them are Argentine, and you know in Argentina that the supporters are everything. You think about the River Plate supporters and a lot of them are from there. So the seven leaders came together, they said we're going to create the supporters section, and they started sort of inviting people to these games and recruiting people to the point where now we met with them last week and they're setting up a company so people can actually become members of the supporters group, and then we can donate the drums and the smoke bombs and things like that to them to support them,” said Moreno. “It all started without us even knowing. We're not involved in their day-to-day, but we're supporting them a lot because they’re a super key part of making the stadium atmosphere work. The people sitting in the premium seats, the suites, they want to hear those crazy fans over there, right? It's part of the experience.”

Those fans will need some players and coaches to support.

From the office to the field

On July 17th, Naples announced the hiring of new head coach and sporting director Matt Poland.

There’s crown jewel number #2.

Poland joined from amateur side Chicago House Athletic club, where he served in the same role. He was previously an assistant coach for them in their sole professional season in NISA, and he has experience playing and coaching in Scandinavia.

He’s also a local of the area.

“Just 20 minutes south of Naples is home base for me in Marco Island. That's where I am every offseason. I've lived down here for 13 years, so this is right in my backyard, which is nice to not have to move and I can live out of my own house instead of having to rent somewhere,” said Poland. “Obviously being able to be close to my family is nice. To help start a club in a community that I'm deeply invested in is special.”

That local connection was how the manager was able to get in touch with the club.

“Our first meeting was in person. The Saturday after we announced the team, we held a community event here at the stadium where we put up inflatable soccer darts and face painting and had a soccer carnival type of day. Poland happened to be here because it was his offseason, so he literally walked up to me and that’s how we met,” said Moreno. “I’m looking at the pitch, and I was standing right there. I remember it like it was yesterday, I remember it perfectly.”

“We started having phone conversations throughout the springtime and then right around the time I went to Germany for my coaching licenses is when it really took off. The conversations and talks became more serious,” said Poland. “I was actually at a wedding of one of my House players when it became official, my agent called me between the wedding and the reception that the contract had been agreed upon.”

That is the how. Now it’s time to figure out the why’s.

“When you meet somebody, there's a three-second rule where you kind of know if you have a good feeling or not about them. I had an amazing feeling with Poland,” said Moreno. “We had four or five conversations on the phone throughout the search just talking. Honestly we weren’t even talking about soccer, we were talking about life and philosophy and how he views the community, how he views being here, how he views being the first professional sports team in town. The more I talked to him, the more I felt comfortable.”

“It didn't hurt that he is from the area. When we actually started our process, we received many applications and had many people interested in the roles. I inserted Poland as part of the process and when one of my business partners met him and our principal owner met him, everybody had the same feeling I had. It's not like I came and I said this is our guy, I put him into the process and naturally he rose to the top again,” said Moreno.

The fact that Naples is an expansion side made this a really intriguing project for Poland, who was around when the House were going through their creation.

“The stadium is gorgeous, the complex is gorgeous. There’s obviously beautiful views from the press boxes, and to get to start another club is exciting,” said Poland. “It's a blank canvas. You get to build it and form it in the best way that I can based on the vision that I want to create. There's a lot of work with that, though. You have no players. We don't have cones, we don't have balls, we don't have anything in that regard. Then there’s logistical stuff. How do we travel to the airports? How do all of those things look? We have to build it, but I think it's exciting too because I get a big opportunity to really build something and model it in my vision.”

With that excitement comes some concerns, of course. Projects like these are so daunting when you look at the big picture, and it’s only human nature to be a bit worried about the future when you’ve not got any sort of past. That’s why you’ve got to focus on the little things.

“It's kind of hard. You can't get too far ahead of yourself. The reality is it's a process to sign players. It's a process to fill up a roster and it's going to take time. And especially in the first year, it can't be done overnight. It's not just a quick switch,” said Poland. “It's just kind of taking things a day at a time, making sure you're doing the right things and making sure the pieces fit together, understanding that in any first-year team there's a different set of obstacles. We saw it with the House in 2021. I think we had a lot of talent in that squad, but even there it took a little bit of time for all the pieces to fit together to have success on the field. And so I think the biggest thing is not getting too far ahead and not stressing about March in July.”

Oh yeah, the whole signing players thing. Poland’s clearly an exceptional talent, but he’s not going to be stepping on to the field this season, at least he’s not planning to. The next step in the Naples roadmap is to make some acquisitions.

“One of my philosophies as the CEO here is that I know what I know and I know what I don't know, and I'm not going to pretend that I am a soccer expert. I'm not Jerry Jones, I'm not getting involved in every decision. We hired Poland to make those decisions, so we're going to support his decisions,” said Moreno. “Obviously I'm going to have a say in player recruitment, but more than just thinking how good a player is, we’re focusing on bringing in the type of person we want. We’re not going to sign a Messi or a Suarez level talent. We need players who can connect with the community. We need them at schools, at the libraries, at public events. When they're out at a restaurant eating and a kid comes up, they need to be able to sign that autograph, have that conversation, be that role model for the kids. So I'm going to be very involved in the type of people that we have as players.”

“I want to find players that are young that don't see USL League One as the end of the road. I want players that want to dream to go higher. I think what my staff and I did very well at Chicago House is player development. That became a big focus, and obviously getting players signing pro contracts throughout my two and a half years there showcases the development that we did as an organization. I want to do that same thing, just on a different level,” said Poland. “I want them to come in and not just be happy with being a professional, but to have aspirations for the USL Championship or MLS or whatever other opportunities we can get them. I still want players that aren't satisfied with that.”

Before Naples started scouting players, they had to figure out the market they were in. They’re in a tricky spot in some aspects, as they’ve got the budget and prestige to pull in a wide variety of players, but they’re not quiet at the stage where they can just secure anyone they want.

“It's definitely going to be a mix. We're very lucky that in southwest Florida there's a lot of talent, so I'm sure we're going to find some local talent here, but we do have an extensive network. Poland has an extensive network of agents and teams. Through his connections, through our connections in Europe, and then naturally I'm Colombian and so are my business partners, we've got a Rolodex of potential targets. I could literally pick up the phone and contact basically any pro soccer team in Latin America very quickly,” said Moreno. “I do think we're going to build a team from all over the world, I honestly do. Naples is such an attractive place for people to move that we are getting a lot of interest from players saying they’ll even take a pay cut to move to Naples. There's no state tax in Florida. I mean if you look at migration maps in the US, there's a lot of people coming to Florida.”

The club also has some remarkable connections in Europe.

“And then as an ownership group, we have ownership in two teams in Europe. We own a part of Leyton Orient, which is in League 1, the English third division. We got involved three years ago with them, and I've learned a lot from that experience,” said Moreno. “We own part of a team in Germany called Preußen Münster, who's now in the second division after getting promoted. They had back-to-back promotions actually. When we got involved, they were still the National League. I'm not saying I have anything to do with the promotion, of course, it just happened.”

Once those players come in, it’ll be up to Poland to train them up and get the most out of them, both in practice and on gameday. To do that, he’s going to have to implement his system quickly, and establish a Naples brand of soccer.

“The focus is playing on the front foot. We don't want to sit back and have the other team give it to us the whole time. We want to create an environment that, especially at home, is fun and enjoyable to the crowds. We want to entertain people, and I think the best way to do that is to play on the front foot and play aggressively and sometimes open the game up for some faster action,” said Poland. “When you have a club that's established, you kind of have a history and identity to it. We have a community that's established, but we don't have a club that's established. I think the greatest responsibility for me as the first head coach is making sure that the on-field playing style reflects the community and bridges the gap between the culture of the community and the culture on the soccer field.”

Last call

All in all, that’s a lot of words about a lot of different things. Plenty of work has been done, and plenty more has to be done before opening day. Thankfully for Naples, they’ve got loads of time and motivation as they look towards the future.

“I think the biggest thing for me is I want to make sure that fans understand that this isn't my team, this is their team. I'm tasked with the job of building the team to represent them,” said Poland. “I definitely want the community to feel that this is their team and their club because hopefully we're building something that'll be here for a long time in the community and having a positive impact in the community.”

“We're committed, we've been committed to building this team with the community and for the community. We're only going to be as successful as a community wants us to be. Having that responsibility of being the only professional sports team in town is a very big deal. The closest professional sports team is two hours away,” said Moreno. “It's super important that everybody knows that this team has been built with community first, and we’ll show that through everything we do, including our prices. We want this to be affordable for everybody.”

“Live entertainment has become unattainable for the regular family. We know that if we keep prices affordable and we keep this community together, the team can become a sort of melting pot of Naples where you've got the families who are on a budget and you've also got that billionaire up in the suites, but they're all together. They're all rooting for one common goal, which is beautiful,” said Moreno.

It truly is. See you next season, Naples.

- Adnan Bašić