It was all over social media over the weekend, the Maryland Bobcats had broken their attendance record on Saturday. The NISA club hosted Chattanooga FC in a battle with big implications in the newly restructured league table. Pictures from the match showed a strong showing in the stands, but specifics from the match waited till Sunday to be revealed. While the club sold 1,233 tickets, 1,013 people showed up for the match on Saturday. Using social media to push supporters of the club to “Pack the Plex,” the club had many out of town supporters purchasing tickets to support the club’s goal.

Evan Raimist, Vice President of the club, explained why the club picked this match as a target for the surge. “Couple of factors: There was a youth tournament at the Maryland SoccerPlex (our complex) Friday - Sunday with a ton of youth teams. We were able to work with the tournament director to get discounted tickets in front of players/families. It was also Kaizo Health Night (our sleeve sponsor) and wanted to 1) show them what we could do but also 2) get as many people in front of them as we could as a thank you to all they’ve done. Playing CFC we always see a small bump anyway, so building off that was an easy add.”

This year, Maryland has seen an increase in support across social media, but especially in the stands of Maureen Hendricks Field at the Maryland SoccerPlex or, as the club refers to it, The Plex. The field was the former home of the NWSL’s Washington Spirit. According to Raimist, the clubs has seen a massive spike in attendance this year, currently up 102% over last year. The club is averaging over 600 a match this season and Raimist credits several factors:

“A big thing that’s helped is our own Youth academy growing. It’s gone from 3 teams in Fall 2021 to now 9 teams kicking off in 2022. There’s more players/parents/families that are interested in coming to matches (all youth players get a free season ticket, families get discounts for being in the club).

“The brewery that sells beer at all our games (True Respite Brewing Co) has been awesome in helping push our games as they’re local to the SoccerPlex and have even heard from some fans that they came out because they wanted some beer, and then came back because the games are fun. Having “Halftime Haze” co-branded beer with True Respite was great to launch preseason and get the initial awareness up that we’re kicking off.

“Keeping up the same social/online presence where we get most of our ticket/merch sales and giving people constant content keeps us top of mind.

Finally, we’re getting out in the community even more now that more things are open after COVID (not that it’s DONE, but more things are happening). Just being visible and showing we do what we mean has driven new fans in.”

Some might think that the Bobcats’ improvement on the field should be credited for the uptick in support, but Raimist is quick to point out that “even after a 5 game winless streak this year, we had our 2nd highest attendance of the year. I think we’re doing a good job of showing people that win, lose, or draw, we’re still going to have a positive impact in the community and continue to do the things we’ve committed to.”

Attendance has been a problem for NISA clubs as a whole. While former club Detroit City and current club Chattanooga FC had long-established fan bases, most clubs in the league enter with almost zero community support. That lack of support is apparent in the stands. The Bobcats drawing over 1,000 fans to a match is a sure sign that the club is connecting with its fanbase. For sustainability reasons, this is a BIG deal.

While NISA has struggled this year to find positives in the news cycle, what Raimist and the Bobcats are doing should be highlighted. The club is impacting the community in positive ways and the community, in turn, is showing up for matches. It’s a cycle that spiked this weekend at the Plex. The team delivered a draw against the best team the East for the crowd, so there was plenty for the record crowd to cheer for.

- Dan Vaughn