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Mar. 27—Gabe Hoffman-Johnson stood next to a sunny soccer field and smiled.
The professional men's soccer team he'd founded was on the field, having a fun, energetic training session. Two days later the team would play its inaugural game in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup at Lewiston High.
Hoffman-Johnson's passion project to bring professional men's soccer to Maine had come to fruition.
And fans had shown they would support the club, named the Portland Hearts of Pine. Over 90% of all the seats for the 18-game home season at Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland had already been sold. The new franchise was crushing its marketing, social media presence and merchandise sales.
"It's fun," said Hoffman-Johnson, 33, a two-time high school all-America soccer player at Falmouth, captain at Dartmouth, and briefly a pro. "Certainly it's validating. Exciting. But I wouldn't go so far as to say unexpected."
What was unexpected was just how long it would take.
Before the beginning
Long before there was a club called Hearts of Pine, even before Hoffman-Johnson had become the founder of an organized movement to bring pro soccer to Maine, the groundwork was being laid.
The United Soccer League, USL for short, was exploring cities that might be right for a new professional league in the third-tier of the United States Soccer's pyramid. The USL wanted markets with 500,000 to a million people, established pro sports tams and local investors.
That's why USL executives Steven Short and Josh Keller were in Portland on a rainy November day in 2017. They talked with Sheila Brennan Nee, a sports tourism veteran like Short, who had recently become strategic director of the Maine Sports Commission. Then Short and Keller toured the city on their own.
"I think our interest in Portland even dates back to around 2015," said Short, now the USL's senior vice president of expansion. "When we were first thinking about going up to Tier Two and then filling a third tier. Portland popped up on our radar real early."
Portland met the basic criteria, especially when the soccer-mad Lewiston area was included, pushing the combined metro population over 600,000. Despite the raw, gray day, Short felt a positive energy.
"You can see why these other teams are thriving, and as we continued to talk there was a determination to have a professional soccer team in Portland," Short said.
What the USL needed was a local to pick up the soccer torch.
A coffee shop meeting
After college, Hoffman-Johnson signed with St. Louis FC in the USL. Persistent back and hip injuries ended his playing career before it ever really started. After working for a New York City private equity firm, he had returned to Maine and opened a marketing firm called Topsail Sports & Entertainment.
Brennan Nee, a Falmouth resident, had known of Hoffman-Johnson since his high school days.
"Gabe had graduated with my daughter," Brennan Nee said. "When he started Topsail, we crossed paths in Portland. So I thought I could just meet him for coffee and help him open doors to help with sports marketing."
As they spoke inside Hilltop Coffee in Portland's Munjoy Hill in March 2019, Brennan Nee shared that USL execs saw Portland as a potential expansion site.
"I said to Gabe, 'Bringing pro soccer to Maine, that's my dream.' And he looked at me and said, 'Sheila, that's my dream, too,'" Brennan Nee said.
As they left the coffee shop, they vowed, "This is happening and it's starting today," Brennan Nee said.
Early momentum; major stumbling block
Soon Hoffman-Johnson had connected with Jonathan and Catherine Culley, the husband-wife owners of Portland-based real estate development company, Redfern Properties. The Culleys joined as founding investors.
Talks began with city officials, including then city manager Jon Jennings, who had been instrumental in bringing the Maine Red Claws NBA D-League basketball team (now know as the Maine Celtics in the NBA G League) to Portland in 2009.
Jonathan Culley recalled: "Gabe and I met with Jon Jennings in 2019 about figuring out a stadium lease, and that point our goal was to begin playing in 2022."
In September 2019, the fledgling soccer group met with USL execs in Portland and made their plans public for the first time.
Hoffman-Johnson, then 27, become the public face of the USL to Portland movement. From the start he emphasized soccer's ability to build community across the city's increasingly diverse populations. Short said, "This is a city we're high on. We're here for a reason, to make sure it's something that's wanted."
But there was one clear glitch. Fitzpatrick Stadium's field, surrounded by the city's only outdoor running track, could not accommodate the needed width for a 110-by-70-yard field mandated by US Soccer Federation for pro leagues. Culley said at the time that if the Fitzy field were wider, the team might have been able to play as soon as March 2020.
"Solving for the stadium," as Hoffman-Johnson repeatedly called it, would continue to be the franchise's biggest hurdle.
And no one was playing in March 2020.
Pandemic slows the process
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, a possible soccer franchise took a backseat to pressing problems in Portland that included a homelessness crisis, and an influx of asylum seekers.
But even in lockdown, community interest in the USL to Portland movement grew. The Dirigo Union supporters group formed. The club held virtual town halls to keep the conversation going while working on stadium plans.
In the summer of 2021, the club presented architectural plans for soccer stadiums at two sites, each with an estimated price tag of $10-12 million. One was for a new 5,000-seat stadium nestled between Back Cove and Interstate 295. The other, an extensive renovation of Fitzpatrick Stadium.
Almost immediately it was clear the Back Cove site wasn't viable. The city had already started an extensive (and still ongoing) stormwater project on the same site. By January 2022, Back Cove was officially off the table.
That left renovating Fitzpatrick — and solving the field width problem — as the only viable option. There was talk about removing the track and the soccer group paying to build a new track elsewhere. But that idea seemed to create more problems than solutions.
Mario Moretto, an Ellsworth native and one of the original Dirigo Union board members, said that was "the only moment where I allowed myself a brief doubt," that pro soccer in Portland would actually happen.
NESN studio host and Lewiston native Tom Caron coming on as a part owner provided the club one good-news moment in 2022, and there were quiet hints the USL would accept a skinny Fitzpatrick field.
"And, honestly, credit to the elected officials in Portland that were hearing from the community, and listening that this is something we want and we'll support," Moretto said. "The community was pretty vocal in terms of speaking out."
Franchise granted
On Sept. 7, 2023, four full years after Hoffman-Johnson announced his intentions of bringing pro soccer to Portland, he was in another Portland coffee shop. He and USL League One President Lee O'Neill were crammed into a window table at Hot Suppa answering a reporter's questions.
The lease agreement with the city of Portland to use Fitzpatrick Stadium wasn't finalized, but the team and league were confident it would get done. The track would stay. The league would grant a field waiver. The Portland ownership would fund significant upgrades at Fitzpatrick. Instead of sprinting to a March 2024 start, the team would begin play in 2025.
"I'm a big believer in doing things right, not rushed," Hoffman-Johnson said.
A few hours later it was official: Portland had been awarded a USL League One franchise.
On the fast track to first game
Once the franchise tag was added, major steps happened rapidly. The city and USL to Portland agreed on a 10-year, rent-free, non-exclusive lease at Fitzpatrick Stadium in November 2023. The club pledges to spend at least $1 million on renovations.
In April 2024, the club hired veteran sports executive Kevin Schohl as its first president and finally gave itself a name: Portland Hearts of Pine.
It's a mouthful with meaning. The name, and an artful crest, pay homage to the state's industry, identity and especially the ideals promoted by Kevin Fahrman, Portland's "Valentine's Day Bandit."
Renovations of Fitzpatrick began in the summer and started again in the late fall. The club expected to spend at least $2.5 million for several improvements before its first game at Fitzpatrick, including new artificial turf, press box fixes, installing two locker rooms, new LED lighting, and improved electric and internet capacity.
The jersey reveal in November drew a packed crowd at the State Theatre. Game tickets sell quickly. Sponsors — called "partners" by the team — sign on.
When Bobby Murphy was introduced as the team's first coach in November 2024, the focus shifted to the on-field product. The youthful team, with players from around the globe, went through a 4-0-2 preseason, twice tying 2024 USL Championship runner-up Rhode Island FC.
"In a sense they've already won," said Short, the USL vice president. "Sometimes there's beauty in waiting."
On March 20, a passionate dream became a celebratory reality before 3,200 fans at Lewiston High, when the Hearts win their first game, 4-0.
"I've been fortunate enough to coach in MLS stadiums, and I was never as nervous as I was tonight, just because of what it means to everyone," Murphy said.
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The professional men's soccer team he'd founded was on the field, having a fun, energetic training session. Two days later the team would play its inaugural game in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup at Lewiston High.
Hoffman-Johnson's passion project to bring professional men's soccer to Maine had come to fruition.
And fans had shown they would support the club, named the Portland Hearts of Pine. Over 90% of all the seats for the 18-game home season at Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland had already been sold. The new franchise was crushing its marketing, social media presence and merchandise sales.
"It's fun," said Hoffman-Johnson, 33, a two-time high school all-America soccer player at Falmouth, captain at Dartmouth, and briefly a pro. "Certainly it's validating. Exciting. But I wouldn't go so far as to say unexpected."
What was unexpected was just how long it would take.
Before the beginning
Long before there was a club called Hearts of Pine, even before Hoffman-Johnson had become the founder of an organized movement to bring pro soccer to Maine, the groundwork was being laid.
The United Soccer League, USL for short, was exploring cities that might be right for a new professional league in the third-tier of the United States Soccer's pyramid. The USL wanted markets with 500,000 to a million people, established pro sports tams and local investors.
That's why USL executives Steven Short and Josh Keller were in Portland on a rainy November day in 2017. They talked with Sheila Brennan Nee, a sports tourism veteran like Short, who had recently become strategic director of the Maine Sports Commission. Then Short and Keller toured the city on their own.
"I think our interest in Portland even dates back to around 2015," said Short, now the USL's senior vice president of expansion. "When we were first thinking about going up to Tier Two and then filling a third tier. Portland popped up on our radar real early."
Portland met the basic criteria, especially when the soccer-mad Lewiston area was included, pushing the combined metro population over 600,000. Despite the raw, gray day, Short felt a positive energy.
"You can see why these other teams are thriving, and as we continued to talk there was a determination to have a professional soccer team in Portland," Short said.
What the USL needed was a local to pick up the soccer torch.
A coffee shop meeting
After college, Hoffman-Johnson signed with St. Louis FC in the USL. Persistent back and hip injuries ended his playing career before it ever really started. After working for a New York City private equity firm, he had returned to Maine and opened a marketing firm called Topsail Sports & Entertainment.
Brennan Nee, a Falmouth resident, had known of Hoffman-Johnson since his high school days.
"Gabe had graduated with my daughter," Brennan Nee said. "When he started Topsail, we crossed paths in Portland. So I thought I could just meet him for coffee and help him open doors to help with sports marketing."
As they spoke inside Hilltop Coffee in Portland's Munjoy Hill in March 2019, Brennan Nee shared that USL execs saw Portland as a potential expansion site.
"I said to Gabe, 'Bringing pro soccer to Maine, that's my dream.' And he looked at me and said, 'Sheila, that's my dream, too,'" Brennan Nee said.
As they left the coffee shop, they vowed, "This is happening and it's starting today," Brennan Nee said.
Early momentum; major stumbling block
Soon Hoffman-Johnson had connected with Jonathan and Catherine Culley, the husband-wife owners of Portland-based real estate development company, Redfern Properties. The Culleys joined as founding investors.
Talks began with city officials, including then city manager Jon Jennings, who had been instrumental in bringing the Maine Red Claws NBA D-League basketball team (now know as the Maine Celtics in the NBA G League) to Portland in 2009.
Jonathan Culley recalled: "Gabe and I met with Jon Jennings in 2019 about figuring out a stadium lease, and that point our goal was to begin playing in 2022."
In September 2019, the fledgling soccer group met with USL execs in Portland and made their plans public for the first time.
Hoffman-Johnson, then 27, become the public face of the USL to Portland movement. From the start he emphasized soccer's ability to build community across the city's increasingly diverse populations. Short said, "This is a city we're high on. We're here for a reason, to make sure it's something that's wanted."
But there was one clear glitch. Fitzpatrick Stadium's field, surrounded by the city's only outdoor running track, could not accommodate the needed width for a 110-by-70-yard field mandated by US Soccer Federation for pro leagues. Culley said at the time that if the Fitzy field were wider, the team might have been able to play as soon as March 2020.
"Solving for the stadium," as Hoffman-Johnson repeatedly called it, would continue to be the franchise's biggest hurdle.
And no one was playing in March 2020.
Pandemic slows the process
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, a possible soccer franchise took a backseat to pressing problems in Portland that included a homelessness crisis, and an influx of asylum seekers.
But even in lockdown, community interest in the USL to Portland movement grew. The Dirigo Union supporters group formed. The club held virtual town halls to keep the conversation going while working on stadium plans.
In the summer of 2021, the club presented architectural plans for soccer stadiums at two sites, each with an estimated price tag of $10-12 million. One was for a new 5,000-seat stadium nestled between Back Cove and Interstate 295. The other, an extensive renovation of Fitzpatrick Stadium.
Almost immediately it was clear the Back Cove site wasn't viable. The city had already started an extensive (and still ongoing) stormwater project on the same site. By January 2022, Back Cove was officially off the table.
That left renovating Fitzpatrick — and solving the field width problem — as the only viable option. There was talk about removing the track and the soccer group paying to build a new track elsewhere. But that idea seemed to create more problems than solutions.
Mario Moretto, an Ellsworth native and one of the original Dirigo Union board members, said that was "the only moment where I allowed myself a brief doubt," that pro soccer in Portland would actually happen.
NESN studio host and Lewiston native Tom Caron coming on as a part owner provided the club one good-news moment in 2022, and there were quiet hints the USL would accept a skinny Fitzpatrick field.
"And, honestly, credit to the elected officials in Portland that were hearing from the community, and listening that this is something we want and we'll support," Moretto said. "The community was pretty vocal in terms of speaking out."
Franchise granted
On Sept. 7, 2023, four full years after Hoffman-Johnson announced his intentions of bringing pro soccer to Portland, he was in another Portland coffee shop. He and USL League One President Lee O'Neill were crammed into a window table at Hot Suppa answering a reporter's questions.
The lease agreement with the city of Portland to use Fitzpatrick Stadium wasn't finalized, but the team and league were confident it would get done. The track would stay. The league would grant a field waiver. The Portland ownership would fund significant upgrades at Fitzpatrick. Instead of sprinting to a March 2024 start, the team would begin play in 2025.
"I'm a big believer in doing things right, not rushed," Hoffman-Johnson said.
A few hours later it was official: Portland had been awarded a USL League One franchise.
On the fast track to first game
Once the franchise tag was added, major steps happened rapidly. The city and USL to Portland agreed on a 10-year, rent-free, non-exclusive lease at Fitzpatrick Stadium in November 2023. The club pledges to spend at least $1 million on renovations.
In April 2024, the club hired veteran sports executive Kevin Schohl as its first president and finally gave itself a name: Portland Hearts of Pine.
It's a mouthful with meaning. The name, and an artful crest, pay homage to the state's industry, identity and especially the ideals promoted by Kevin Fahrman, Portland's "Valentine's Day Bandit."
Renovations of Fitzpatrick began in the summer and started again in the late fall. The club expected to spend at least $2.5 million for several improvements before its first game at Fitzpatrick, including new artificial turf, press box fixes, installing two locker rooms, new LED lighting, and improved electric and internet capacity.
The jersey reveal in November drew a packed crowd at the State Theatre. Game tickets sell quickly. Sponsors — called "partners" by the team — sign on.
When Bobby Murphy was introduced as the team's first coach in November 2024, the focus shifted to the on-field product. The youthful team, with players from around the globe, went through a 4-0-2 preseason, twice tying 2024 USL Championship runner-up Rhode Island FC.
"In a sense they've already won," said Short, the USL vice president. "Sometimes there's beauty in waiting."
On March 20, a passionate dream became a celebratory reality before 3,200 fans at Lewiston High, when the Hearts win their first game, 4-0.
"I've been fortunate enough to coach in MLS stadiums, and I was never as nervous as I was tonight, just because of what it means to everyone," Murphy said.
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