As the sun rose on Saturday, thousands of fans flocked to Lincoln Park to watch their favorite teams play soccer, British soccer.
With nine screens showing live matches of English Premier League football teams, Guinness flowed freely as fans wearing their favourite players’ jerseys waved flags and burst into song. Queues to get into the 10th annual Premier League Mornings Live fan festival, which celebrates British football across the Atlantic, were already stretching onto the pitch at Lincoln Park when the gates opened at 5am.
Premier League fans in the US are used to waking up early on Saturdays. Given the time difference, matches in England can start airing as early as 6:30 a.m. Chicago time.
“We’ve been watching the Premier League every weekend for the last 10 or 15 years,” said Joe Avery, 40, who wore matching Newcastle United FC jerseys with his wife Kim as they sat on a bench waiting for the team’s 9am game to kick off. “The Premier League is the best league in the world in terms of talent and money.”
Joe and Kim Avery traveled from Lincoln, Nebraska, to attend the festival. The couple also attended the last Mornings Live festival in Nashville in April, which drew more than 15,000 people, according to a Premier League spokesperson. Still, Avery said the Chicago crowd already seemed “much bigger.”
The Mornings Live festival, which will take place Saturday and Sunday in Lincoln Park, has attracted Premier League fans from across the Midwest. In addition to live streams of games, attendees can purchase merchandise, take a photo with the Premier League trophy or try their hand at soccer-themed skill challenges.
Entry to the event, which is being held in collaboration with US Premier League broadcaster NBC Sports, is completely free, although tickets must be booked in advance online.
The American fan base for international soccer has grown in recent decades, with audiences soaring for NBC’s morning broadcasts of Premier League games.
For American Premier League viewers, choosing which team to support can be a complex decision, said Leah Chibe, a 44-year-old fan of Crystal Palace FC, a soccer club in the south London neighborhood of Croydon.
“I’m a Bears fan because I’m from Chicago, but you can’t be in another country,” Chibe said. “One of the things that really appealed to us about Crystal Palace is that we’re from the South Side, and South London kind of gets the same treatment as the South Side of Chicago. The people who live there are very proud, but the rest of the city looks down on it, too.”
Chibe even travelled to Croydon to watch Crystal Palace matches in person.
“(The Premier League) is big everywhere, it connects you to a global community,” said Chicago resident and Chelsea FC fan Caleb Pirtle. “American soccer is growing, but it’s kind of an institution, it’s been around for a very long time.”
Chicago native Jonathan Spector, a former Premier League defender best known for his time with West Ham United FC, was at the festival on Saturday along with a dozen other retired players.
Mark Bright, who played for Crystal Palace in the late 1980s and early 1990s, said he was proud to see how the Premier League had grown and become the country’s “greatest export”.
“You’re miles away from England, London, south London, and you see all these people wearing Palace shirts, and it’s strange,” Bright said. “But every time we go there, we have these fan events, we go to a pub, we do a Q&A, we bring players, and it’s just incredible that the place is full of Palace fans.”
He added that soccer was beginning to gain more “foothold” in the United States, citing the success of the women’s national team, which he said is “probably the best in the world.”
“We arrived at 5am, there were already huge queues, thousands of fans were there,” said former Chelsea player Gary Cahill. “They are very knowledgeable and have a real passion for the league… They have a real appetite for the Premier League, so it’s great to see them.”
By midmorning, Cahill had laced up his cleats to lead a practice session with dozens of girls from the Chicago Northwind Soccer Club, a youth program based on the North Side.
Helen Shanabruch and Molly Frey, both 13, left the field with smiles after playing with Cahill. Frey, who has been playing soccer since she was three, said she enjoyed the “teamwork” aspect of the game.
SLebrun@chicagotribune.com
