Franklin Street has seen more than its fair share of rampaging college basketball fans. But in the off-season this week, Chapel Hill hosted thousands of soccer fans instead.
On Tuesday, Kenan Stadium played host to England’s Manchester City and Scotland’s Celtic FC as part of the 2024 FC Series, a collection of friendly matches featuring top global soccer clubs. Last year, Chapel Hill drew a crowd of over 50,000 fans to Chelsea FC’s 5-0 rout of Wrexham AFC in the stadium’s first-ever international soccer match.
And while Celtic won this year’s match 4-3, the real winners may be the American fans.
Haley Heath, a Raleigh-based software engineer, couldn’t get tickets to last year’s sold-out game, but she did manage to score a gig working a beer cart in the stadium.
“I went and watched [the teams] walk into the stadium and I cried and then went to work the beer cart some more,” Heath says. “I did get to see a goal, so that was exciting.” This year, she got her tickets early and cheered on Celtic alongside some friends.
With a downtown anchored by the state’s flagship university, Chapel Hill officials have long tried to figure out how to fuel a year-round economy when the students go home for the summer. Last year’s match made a compelling case for itself by bringing in over $15 million to the local economy, including sold-out hotels and booming bar business.
“Normally, we wouldn’t have an event that would bring that many people to Chapel Hill during [July],” says Patty Griffin, director of communications for the Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau, before the game. “Downtown, on that day, there were tons of Wrexham and Chelsea jerseys, lots of red and white. And this year … the blue [Manchester] City and lots of green Celtic.”
Griffin says the town steered visitors towards businesses by providing a free hop-on hop-off trolley service that ran on a loop along Chapel Hill’s Franklin Street and Carrboro’s Main Street from July 22-24.
“It’s just a fun, welcoming way for us to help people kind of traverse down the downtown areas,” she says. Over two dozen businesses run food and drink specials on game day, and anyone trying to get their hands on team gear at the last minute made use of the popup shop at 200 West Franklin Street.
The match also reflects a growing interest in soccer in the U.S., which generally reserves its most rambunctious fandoms for football (and college basketball). In North Carolina, youth programs like North Carolina Football Club feed excellence at the college and, since 2017, women’s pro levels.
Heath has been a soccer fan ever since she watched the U.S. Women’s National Team lose the FIFA World Cup in a game that came down to penalty kicks.
“I was 10 years old, and I was heartbroken, and then we won at the Olympics the next summer and I fell in love with it and have played ever since and watched ever since,” says Heath. But to see these teams in person, rather than on TV—that’s a dream come true.
“For them to be here and playing—that’s a pretty big deal for Celtic fans.”
Reach Reporter Chase Pellegrini de Paur at [email protected]. Comment on this story at [email protected].