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Soccer swoop: Sporting Jax women's team selects UNF for USL Super League debut
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- Soccer swoop: Sporting Jax women's team selects UNF for USL Super League debut
(This story has been updated to add new information.)
Professional soccer's Jacksonville return is now on the clock.
Sporting Club Jacksonville will kick off its inaugural women's professional soccer season in the summer of 2025 at the University of North Florida's Hodges Stadium, the club announced at a Tuesday press conference at the university.
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For the soccer club, which includes Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow and Jacksonville Jaguars legend Fred Taylor among its ownership group, a destination and a start time are now lined up for the 2025-26 USL Super League women's season.
The projected kickoff for the club's fall-to-spring campaign is August 2025.
For Sporting Jax consultant Becky Burleigh, former NCAA champion coach during a quarter-century career at the University of Florida, the goal is in sight.
"It feels real because we are now in the stage, instead of just putting plans on paper, we're talking to people, whether that's coaching staff, technical staff, players," Burleigh said. "I think once you start to get the people involved, it starts to really feel great."
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The season would mark a first in Jacksonville history for a top-division women's professional sports franchise in any sport, as well as the return of fully-professional soccer to the city for the first time since the North American Soccer League suspended its competition in late 2017.
"Last June, I said that I could not wait to cheer on the new team in its inaugural season, and the first kickoff we've all been waiting for is now excitingly a reality," Mayor Donna Deegan said. "So I can't wait for that."
Hodges Stadium: Sporting Jax's plans
The Sporting Club Jacksonville and University of North Florida logos are displayed at a press conference on December 3, 2024. Sporting Jax will begin its USL Super League soccer season in the summer of 2025 at UNF. [Clayton Freeman/Florida Times-Union]
The stadium deal marks a significant step for Sporting Jax, which received its United Soccer League franchise in August 2022 — then still under the name of JAXUSL — to compete in the men's USL Championship. The organization was subsequently approved in May 2023 to field a team in the new women's USL Super League as well.
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The women's club will kick off at a field that lists an official capacity of 9,400, with all of its permanent seating on the stadium's west side ahead of planned upgrades.
"The facilities are second to none, from the playing surface to the people, the broadcast standards, everything," USL Super League president Amanda Vandervort said.
The 2025-26 season will include a minimum of 16 home matches at Hodges Stadium, with an August-to-May schedule divided into two parts by a winter break in late December and early January.
Hodges Stadium previously served as the home venue for the Jacksonville Armada during the 2017 season in the North American Soccer League and the 2018 season in the National Premier Soccer League, as well as a match in the 2023 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. The Armada is targeting an Eastside site for its planned return to professional soccer in MLS Next Pro.
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In addition to UNF's soccer, lacrosse and track events, the stadium is also a noted site for high-level track and field, including the NCAA first-round preliminary meets in 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2021 and 2023, and the future meets in 2025 and 2027.
Club president Steve Livingstone also announced several planned upgrades to Hodges Stadium, including the installation of 1,800 chair backs in central sections of the stadium, as well as 100 premium seats and a new hospitality area.
Livingstone said that club memberships, which will come with a 20% ticket discount and multiple other benefits, as well as season ticket packages are now available.
Season tickets will begin at $160 ($10 per game) for students, with other tiers at $192 ($12 per game) for supporters' association members, $240 ($15 per game) for general admission, $400 ($25 per game) for premium and $560 ($35 per game) for field-level seating.
Sporting Jax, UNF and USL Super League administrators stand on the field at the University of North Florida's Hodges Stadium on December 3, 2024. [Clayton Freeman/Florida Times-Union]
While Hodges Stadium will be the first host for the Sporting Jax women, still to be determined is the club's venue for its inaugural men's season in the USL Championship, at the second level of American men's professional soccer.
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Livingstone said last week that discussions are continuing about the organization's long-term plans to construct a 15,000-seat stadium for both the men's and women's teams, but the organization has yet to confirm a site.
Co-founder Ricky Caplin on Tuesday did not rule out the possibility that the Sporting Jax men could also eventually begin for one to two seasons at an "interim solution." He said that construction of the permanent stadium may take 18 months.
For now, he's savoring the start of an official countdown to the first kick.
"I feel like this is a major milestone," Caplin said. "We get to kick the first ball next year. It's real."
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Which teams compete in the USL Super League?
From left, Sporting Jax co-founder Ricky Caplin, USL Super League president Amanda Vandervoort, Jacksonville mayor Donna Deegan, University of North Florida president Moez Limayem, UNF athletic director Nick Morrow, Sporting Jax consultant Becky Burleigh and Sporting Jax president Steve Livingstone are pictured on Dec. 3, 2024. [Clayton Freeman/Florida Times-Union]
The USL Super League is one of two leagues to receive Division I status from the U.S. Soccer Federation, alongside the National Women's Soccer League. The NWSL kicked off in 2013.
The USL Super League began play Aug. 17 with eight clubs, in Brooklyn, N.Y.; Charlotte, N.C.; Dallas; Fort Lauderdale; Lexington, Ky.; Spokane, Wash.; Tampa; and Washington, D.C.
Hodges Stadium ranks toward the middle of venue sizes for the league, which range from the Tampa Bay Sun's 5,000-seat home at Blake High School to Dallas Trinity FC's 90,000-seat venue at the old Cotton Bowl.
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"One of the things we've been struggling with is that UNF is the best-kept secret," UNF president Moez Limayem said. "Well, with this, hopefully it will no longer be the best-kept secret, and not just UNF, but also people will see what a wonderful city we have."
Jacksonville is among eight markets listed for expansion for 2025 or later years on the USL Super League website, a list that also includes the likes of Palm Beach, Indianapolis and Phoenix. Vandervort said that Jacksonville is the first to formally announce entrance for 2025-26, making Sporting Jax the league's ninth club.
Currently, Vandervort said the league employs more than 200 players representing 24 countries, although American players account for an estimated 80 percent of the total.
Burleigh, said the club is already conducting discussions toward hiring the club's technical staff and coaches in a process. She said the club hopes to begin assembling its technical staff during the next month or so, and is receiving enthusiastic interest.
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"When you bring up Jacksonville," Burleigh said, "you get a lot of smiles and a lot of people that are really excited about it."
(This is a developing story and will be expanded.)
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Sporting Jax: Soccer club will play women's season at UNF
