Lexington Sporting Club’s new stadium is open. How does attendance, fan experience look?

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Lexington Sporting Club’s new soccer-specific stadium is open for business.

Both LSC’s men’s and women’s professional teams have played their first home games at the venue, which has 7,500 seats and is located along Athens Boonesboro Road near Interstate 75.

The new stadium — which was constructed in a modular fashion in less than a year — opened Sept. 8 with an LSC women’s match. The men’s team’s first match at the venue, which is officially known as Lexington SC Stadium, came last Friday night.

Both LSC teams lost their first games at the Lexington SC Stadium, which is part of a larger LSC soccer complex that also includes seven training and youth fields and represents an $80 million investment by LSC’s ownership, according to the team.

“When you look around at the stadium, it’s unbelievable,” Michael Dickey, the head coach of LSC’s women’s team, said Sept. 8 after his team played in the venue’s first match. “It could be one of the best venues in the United States for soccer only.”

Previously, Lexington Sporting Club hosted its home matches at Toyota Stadium, a 5,000-seat venue on the campus of Georgetown College in Georgetown.

This is only the start for professional soccer matches at the Lexington SC Stadium.

LSC’s women’s team is one of eight founding members of the USL Super League , a top-tier women’s professional league that plays August to June.

LSC’s men’s team only has a few matches left in the USL League One regular season. USL League One is the third tier of American men’s professional soccer, but Lexington will be moving up to the USL Championship — the same second-tier league that Louisville City plays in — in 2025.

With this in mind, what has the first week-plus been like for LSC at its new stadium?

And more importantly, what could the long-term ramifications be of Lexington Sporting Club now having a stadium to call its own, in its home city?

What have attendances been like so far at the Lexington SC Stadium?

Let’s start with the two LSC matches that have been played at the Lexington SC Stadium.

For the Sept. 8 stadium debut, LSC’s women’s team drew 3,946 fans on a sunny Sunday afternoon for what became a 3-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Sun.

This reported attendance figure was significant on a number of levels.

That crowd represented the largest home crowd in LSC’s history for a men’s or women’s match. The previous largest crowd for an LSC home match was 3,029 fans, which was the attendance for LSC’s inaugural men’s professional match in April 2023 in Georgetown.

The buildup to the Sept. 8 match included a strong marketing push from LSC. This included television commercials, along with billboards, flags and signage around Lexington that advertises the club and the new stadium.

That Sept. 8 crowd compared favorably to other attendances the Super League has drawn. There have been 13 Super League matches played so far in the league’s first season, and Lexington’s first crowd ranks sixth.

In an interview with the Herald-Leader prior to that match, Super League president Amanda Vandervort praised the facilities and infrastructure that has been established by LSC’s ownership for its women’s team.

“The financial investment is one thing, but it’s the love that (ownership) pours into it every day that really makes it something special,” Vandervort said. “… I’ve been out here maybe four times in the last year, watching (the stadium) get built, literally beam by beam, brick by brick. Now to see it in real life, and this league, all to come together from an idea years and years ago, to now reality, it’s impactful for me.”

Obviously, that Sept. 8 match benefited from several factors leading to an attendance boost. It was the club’s first match at the stadium, as well as the first time fans could watch LSC’s pro women’s team at home.

The occasion was also marked by the presence of several well-known local figures. Former UK women’s basketball coach Matthew Mitchell served as the in-stadium host. Marlana VanHoose sang the national anthem. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear was also on hand, just as he was last October for the stadium’s groundbreaking event.

“This is going to be an iconic addition to this area,” Beshear told reporters before that Sept. 8 match. “… Just very excited about what it’s going to add to Kentucky.”

Perhaps a more realistic reflection of what LSC crowds will look like came last Friday night, when 2,416 fans attended the first men’s professional match at Lexington SC Stadium. Despite playing with a man advantage for more than 70 minutes, LSC lost to rival One Knoxville SC 1-0.

That reported crowd ranks third-best all-time for attendance for the LSC’s men’s team’s 29 home matches, all but one of which was played at Georgetown’s Toyota Stadium.

Last Friday’s crowd was also the first time this season that LSC drew a home crowd larger than 1,700 fans for a pro men’s match. Still, that reported crowd of 2,416 people represented just 32% of the 7,500-seat capacity.

Something that’s yet to be seen regarding attendance at Lexington SC Stadium is the effect winning could have on crowds.

Three matches into the inaugural Super League season, LSC’s pro women’s team is in last place in the eight-team standings. LSC allowed six goals Friday night in a lopsided 6-2 loss at Dallas Trinity FC.

LSC’s men’s team missed the League One playoffs last season, and Lexington is again on the outside of the playoff picture with six matches left in this year’s regular season. LSC is four points beneath the playoff line. Eight of the 12 teams in League One will qualify for the postseason.

“The fans were superb, they made a lot of noise and went ‘til the final whistle,” LSC’s men’s team head coach Darren Powell said after Friday’s home loss. “… These fans are everything to the club, this is why we built the stadium, why the owners put it together and we want to put on entertainment.”

What is the fan experience like at the Lexington SC Stadium?

For fans who have ventured out to Lexington SC Stadium, what has the in-person experience been like?

Well, the venue is not yet a finished product. While all 7,500 seats are accessible, several areas of the stadium are still not open for use. This includes construction areas that are fenced off and concession stands that aren’t yet in use. Also not yet ready is a building behind one of the goals that will house LSC’s team shop and a VIP area.

LSC has set up a temporary team store outdoors underneath tents and a temporary VIP tent on an outdoor concourse. Additionally, food and drink trucks are located on a concourse to cater to fans.

The club has leaned into the under-construction nature of the venue.

The first 500 fans who showed up to the Sept. 8 stadium-opening women’s match received a commemorative hard hat . Before both the first men’s and women’s matches at the stadium, videos played on the scoreboards of LSC players acknowledging that the stadium is still a work in progress, and thanking fans for being patient as construction continues.

Ingress and egress to the stadium — which is specifically located at 200 Shives Drive in Lexington — appears to function smoothly, despite several parking lots still being under construction: A signalized, restricted crossing U-Turn intersection located at Athens Boonesboro Road and Competition Drive has helped the traffic flow in and out of the complex.

By mid-December, more conclusive data will exist to assess the appetite of local soccer fans when it comes to attending a Lexington SC match.

The men’s team has at least two more home matches in League One play, on Wednesday (7 p.m.) and Oct. 19.

The women’s team has six more home matches before the Super League takes a winter break. Those home games will be on Sunday (4 p.m.), Oct. 6, Nov. 9, Nov. 13, Dec. 7 and Dec. 14.

“I think there’s a misconception that the size of your city would in any way dictate the size of your fan culture,” Vandervort, the Super League’s president, said. “We know here in Lexington the fandom that exists for the university and for other teams here, and the men’s team with Lexington Sporting Club. So, for us, it was always going to be Lexington. We love it here.”

Next game

Lexington Sporting Club vs. Central Valley Fuego FC

What: USL League One

When: 7 p.m. Wednesday

Online: ESPN+

Tickets: Visit lexsporting.com/tickets

Records: Lexington Sporting Club (3-8-5, 14 points), Central Valley Fuego (3-10-2, 11 points)

Last meeting: LSC defeated Central Valley Fuego 3-1 on Aug. 16 at the Fresno State Soccer Stadium in Fresno, California.

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