Saturday night, Lynn Family Stadium was flooded with Louisville City FC fans wearing purple shirts and even sporting purple hair.
Even though Lou City’s first game in the stadium was last year, it wasn’t until Saturday night that COVID-19 restrictions allowed the community to pack the stadium.
12,115 cheering fans jameed the stadium which holds just over 15,000.
“This is our first time here. We are super excited,” said Lou City fan Debbie Buck. “We’ve seen people we haven’t seen in a long time.”
“The first time at the new stadium without a mask, iit feels like we’re finally getting back to normal,” said another fan Carson Buck.
The Bucks were not the only family to walk inside the stadium for the first time.
Debbie Sorrels, a health care professional, and her husband Jeff described their soaking in of the moment as awakening.
“It just feels like we’ve been closed down for so long and of course everyone at the hospital has been taking care of patients and working really hard and I’m so appreciative for that but it feels like a breath of fresh air to just kind of get out of and be a little normal again,” says Sorrels.
For Lou City, Saturday’s game was a dream that became a reality.
“During COVID you just didn’t really know, and sometimes you thought would it ever happen and for us. To finally get on the calendar, it’s kind of surreal. Like am I actually standing here without a mask on and are all of these seats actually going to be filled,” said Louisville City FC vice president of communications Jonathan Lintner. “I mean there are seats in Lynn Family Stadium that no one has ever sat in before so that’s going to be really cool.”Some fans, like the Kahl family, have experienced the games during 30%, 50% and 75% max capacity caps.
“This is our third game, so we got seat tickets this year. It was good. There's a lot of support but it will be more I think energy through the whole crowd tonight with everyone here so it will be awesome,” says David Kahl.
He believes his family would not have witnessed a packed stadium if the community didn’t get vaccinated.
“If you haven’t yet, get that done so we can do stuff like this cause it’s cool to see the city opening back up, and I think tonight is going to be a celebration for the whole city especially for cheering on Lou City,” says Kahl.
Lou City defeated Memphis 901 in Saturday’s match 3-0. With 100% capacity allowed, Lynn Family Stadium is a tougher place to play for Lou City opponents.
“There are fans who have been supporters of Louisville City FC before they even knew we were going to call it the Louisville City FC. There are a lot of people who put a lot of money, a lot of time, people who have gone and sat up before metro council and said there needs to be a stadium in Louisville and here’s why and those are the people I think i’m happiest for tonight,” says Lintner.
Lou City defeated Memphis 901 in Saturday’s match with a 3-0 win.