Photos by Erin Nelson.
Birmingham Legion Football Club
Trialists participate in a training session with Birmingham Legion FC at the Hoover Met Complex on Feb. 5.
The president and general manager of Birmingham’s professional soccer team walked into his club’s First Avenue South headquarters on a bright morning in late January. Wearing a dress shirt and gray vest, he strolled past the pingpong table positioned at the building’s center and made his way to his sunlit office.
It was another busy day in the life of Jay Heaps.
He already had attended one meeting and would soon drive to BBVA Field, where Birmingham Legion FC was holding its first training session ahead of the 2020 season. Sandwiched between those two events, Heaps took a few minutes to reflect on his team’s inaugural campaign in 2019 and look toward the future.
That the club has one is reason for optimism.
“I think year two is really important because there’s been a lot of year ones in Birmingham with professional sports organizations — point in case was the football team last year — so it’s really important we show longevity,” Heaps said. “Year two is critical for that and showing that we’re here and trying to get people to understand we’re not the typical sports team.”
Unlike the ill-fated Birmingham Iron, whose league disbanded midway through its first season, Legion FC competes in the stable United Soccer League. The USL started in 2011 and has grown steadily, with Legion FC becoming one of the newest additions to its Championship division last season.
The Birmingham area supported its club well in year one.
According to data provided by Legion FC, it ranked eighth out of 36 USL Championship teams in merchandise sales, 12th in corporate sponsorships and 13th in average attendance. The team drew 4,550 fans on average to its 17 regular-season home games, filling BBVA Field at 85% capacity.
Heaps and Clayton Humphries, the club’s director of communications and marketing, said they were satisfied with the brand awareness Legion FC created in year one. It accumulated close to 30,000 followers on its three primary social media platforms — Facebook, Instagram and Twitter — and developed a core group of fans.
“We feel like the experience is there for you to enjoy the game from a fan experience standpoint. There’s good food options, there’s food trucks, there’s great angles to see the game, but what we think is the most exciting part about 2020 is to engage the fans in that competitive, ‘Hey, this matters,’” Heaps said. “I want them to be upset when we lose. I want them to be thrilled when we win. I want them to understand who our rivals are. I want there to be more to it than just, ‘Hey, Birmingham has a team.’ I want it to be, ‘Hey, let’s get invested in this.’”
Heaps knows that winning games will help Legion FC continue to build the diehard following it seeks. In that regard, the 2019 season provided encouragement.
After only prevailing in four of its first 19 games through July 1, the team won 10 of its final 19 to close the season with a 14-17-7 overall record. Legion FC finished 10th in the Eastern Conference and qualified for the playoffs before falling in the conference quarterfinals.
Head coach Tommy Soehn is back on the sideline this season, as are a number of key players from last year’s squad. They’ll be in charge of parlaying the momentum and positive team culture cultivated in 2019.
Legion FC kicked off its 2020 campaign with a home exhibition against Atlanta United FC, a Major League Soccer club, in February.
Its first of 17 regular-season home games will be March 15 against Charleston Battery FC. The playoffs will begin in late October if the team qualifies.
