Soccer fans, get excited. The city of New Britain is adding a professional soccer team, which starts this Spring.
The city of New Britain and the American Soccer League have agreed to bring the Connecticut United Football Club to Veteran’s Memorial Stadium, starting April 2.
The stadium is located next to the New Britain Bees stadium, which formerly housed Rock Cats baseball.
The team would be Connecticut’s only professional soccer team after the Connecticut Wolves left New Britain back in 2002.
Another team, the Hartford City FC indoor professional soccer team, was supposed to come to Connecticut, but it will not play this season at the XL Center.
The league is a professional development league and many of its players go on to Major League or international soccer teams.
“The guys are only training for a very short period of time, where this is going to be a year- round thing, where even in the off-season, we’re going to be training,” the team's general manager, Dan Hoskins, said.
Local
“This is a very, very exciting thing for New Britain. We are truly making ourselves the sports capital of Connecticut and I am very excited to welcome them to our city,” Mayor Erin Stewart said.
There are 10 other teams in the American Soccer League including in Pennsylvania, New York and Massachusetts.
Tryouts for the team will be this Sunday, from noon to 4 p.m. at Chesley Park.
