Brooklyn FC (Gainbridge Super League) @ Maimonides Park (Brooklyn, NY)

After a three month delay, I FINALLY get to see Brooklyn FC

*This trip occurred on November 8, 2025.

Brooklyn FC was established in 2023 by a group of investors. Originally, the plan was for a men’s team to be established in USL League One (the second tier of the USL, and the "third tier" of soccer in America) and a women’s team to be established in the newly formed USL Super League (a top level women’s league)¹ in 2025. However, the women’s team had their debut moved up to 2024, while the men’s team got “promoted” to the USL Championship (the highest level of the USL and the second tier of US Soccer), but had their debut postponed to 2026.

Unfortunately, it seems as if people don’t know that the club exists or aren’t interested: they (the USL Super League team) finished dead last in attendance by a not-so-insignificant margin in their first season (2024-25), are currently (still) last in (average) attendance, and had one of their matches last season draw just over 200 spectators (good for the lowest single match attendance in the league). Part of that may be due to the much more established Gotham FC two rivers away, but another part of the can likely be attributed to the team not playing in Brooklyn until near the end of their first season due to field issues (they were somewhere in Manhattan).

Speaking of Gotham, there's another factor that may be hindering Brooklyn FC: The USL Super League itself. The Super League was established by the United Soccer League in 2021 as a top level division for women’s soccer, and played its first season in 2024. I don't believe it's "competing" with the more established NWSL, however: the Super League features ZERO players who have played with the U.S. Women's National Team, and many of its teams have players on loan from the NWSL² - but none going the other way. Also, unlike other professional soccer leagues in the United States, the Super League follows the “standard” football/soccer calendar of August-May; thanks to Northeastern winters and their tendency to be WAY TOO COLD, Brooklyn FC has ZERO home games from December-March while the league continues on (two other teams share this schedule quirk)³.

The backstory for this trip can be found here, but long story short: I wanted to come here back in August when a ticket plus jersey package was available, but was prevented from going to that game and ended up pivoting to a Cyclones game. I then looked at a date at the end of September, but prior plans made that date difficult, and then I felt November (i.e. now) would be the best time for this trip (largely due to a 3 PM start time; all of Brooklyn's October games started at 6 PM⁴).

Much like the MLW post, I won’t get into details on Maimonides Park as anything I would’ve said here has been said the first time I was here (this game being my THIRD visit). However, I do have to mention that similar to Yankee Stadium, the soccer layout here is kinda strange. Like Yankee Stadium, the soccer field here does not cross the pitcher’s mound (as confirmed by seeing traces of the soccer field’s lines during the second Cyclones game I went to). Here, however, the field is set with one goal line along the third base side, so given that there are zero outfield seats...no one has a good sideline view; home plate is kinda far from the field, and the first base side, while “better”, isn’t great as it’s not flush with the field (though it is kinda interesting).

Field side seats are available, but these are not exactly "cheap", so be aware of that. I also found what I believe is a premium area for Cyclones games that I never bothered to try and explore during either game I went to near the entrance for the field side seats, but there was nothing going on here (only one concession stand was open for this game).

A few sections behind the goal on the third base side are marked as supporters' sections. Unlike Gotham FC, however, the seats are not locked upright, so you can actually sit here if you wanted to. Given how sparse crowds here are, you could feasibly sit just about anywhere, though from personal experience...it's probably a VERY BAD idea. These were also the least expensive seats I found for this game, so I ended up getting a ticket here (and it seemed like 90% of the crowd was back here too, as it's easily the best seats to actually see the game with how the field is set up).

The original match I wanted to go to saw Brooklyn defeat the league's defending champions. However, that was their only win of the season...until this game! Brooklyn ended up winning 1-0, with the lone goal being scored while I was in the bathroom.

MERCH

I’ve already mentioned pretty much everything worth noting about the store here during the prior posts about this place, but in case anyone forgot: the Maimonides Park team store is a two-level store with various items on both levels. During my first visit, a small selection of Brooklyn FC merch was available, but nothing was available during the second visit.

At this game, merch was sold on the upper level of the store; a "mobile hat display" - which had a bunch of Cyclones and some rather interesting non-Cyclones hats - blocked access to the lower level. Despite there being a rather wide display of shirts and such available, there were only a few jerseys (leftovers from last season) - and all of them were quite small. I ended up only getting a scarf, and it seemed like they had very few of THOSE in stock. However, one other thing I thought about getting but ended up not: a shirt/hat commemorating the 2025 South Atlantic League champion Brooklyn Cyclones!

One other note: when my original plan to get the ticket/jersey deal fell through, I ended up just getting a jersey from their online store (as it was half off); I was only able to get an away jersey as they had run out of home jerseys in my size (again, they were selling only the OLD home and away jerseys at the match). It was later announced that several games over the course of 2025 would also receive ticket/jersey packages, and while several of the other packages featured interesting jerseys, this one came with a "replica home jersey" - another reason it became the date I chose to go see the team.

My original intention was to wear the away jersey to the game, and then MAYBE put the home jersey on over it. I did end up wearing another jersey over my Brooklyn FC away one, but events both here and abroad made me choose a different team altogether, and I ended up not taking the home jersey out of the plastic it came in until I got home...

One other note: Congratulations to New York Red Bulls II for winning the MLS Next Pro championship! I thought about going to that game as they were hosting and tickets were pretty inexpensive, but the combination of the long journey to/from Brooklyn, a 7 PM start time, having to pay for parking in Harrison, and weekend PATH scheduling nixed that idea almost instantly - and then the game going to PKs confirmed that going would probably not have been a good idea.