As the sun rose on Saturday, thousands of fans made their way to Lincoln Park to watch their favorite teams play football—the British kind.
With nine screens projecting live games between soccer teams from England’s Premier League, the Guinness flowed freely as fans wearing their favorite players’ jerseys waved flags and broke out into chants. Lines to enter the 10th ever Premier League Mornings Live Fan Festival, which celebrates British soccer from across the pond, already stretched across the grass of Lincoln Park when the gates opened at 5 a.m.
Premier League fans in the U.S. are no strangers to waking up early on Saturdays, however. Given the time difference, games in England can start airing as early as 6:30 a.m. Chicago time.
“We’ve watched (the Premier League) every weekend for probably the past 10 or 15 years,” said Joe Avery, 40, who wore matching Newcastle United F.C. jerseys with his wife Kim as the two sat on a bench awaiting the start of the team’s 9 a.m. match. “The Premier League is the best league in the world as far as talent goes, and money.”
Joe and Kim Avery traveled from Lincoln, Nebraska to attend the festival. The couple also went to the last Mornings Live festival in Nashville this April, which drew over 15,000 people, according to a Premier League spokesperson. Yet Avery said that Chicago’s crowd already seemed “a lot bigger.”
The Mornings Live festival, which will run both Saturday and Sunday in Lincoln Park, has drawn Premier League fans from across the Midwest. In addition to the match livestreams, attendees can purchase merchandise, take their photo with the Premier League trophy, or try their hand at soccer-themed skill challenges.
Entry to the event, which is being held in conjunction with the Premier League’s U.S. broadcaster NBC Sports, is entirely free, although tickets had to be booked in advance online.
The American fanbase for international soccer has grown over recent decades, with ratings on the rise for NBC’s early morning telecasts of Premier League matches.
For U.S. viewers of the Premier League, picking which team to support is sometimes a complex decision, said Leah Chibe, a 44-year-old fan of Crystal Palace F.C., a soccer club from the South London borough of Croydon.
“I’m a Bears fan because I’m from Chicago, but you can’t do that when it’s a different country,” Chibe said. “One of the things that really appealed to us about (Crystal) Palace was 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 really proud of it, but it also kind of gets looked down on by the rest of the city.”
Chibe has even traveled to Croydon to attend Crystal Palace games in person.
“(The Premier League) is big everywhere, it connects you to an international community,” said Chicago resident and Chelsea F.C. supporter Caleb Pirtle. “United States soccer is growing, but this is something that’s kind of an institution, it’s been around for so long.”
Chicago native Jonathan Spector, a former Premier League defender most known for his time with West Ham United F.C., was present at the festival on Saturday along with about ten other retired players.
Mark Bright, who played for Crystal Palace in the late 80s and early 90s, said he was proud to see how the Premier League had grown and evolved into the country’s “biggest export.”
“You’re miles from England, from London, from South London, and you see all these people in Palace shirts, and it feels strange,” Bright said. “But each time we go, we have these fan events, we go to a pub, we do a Q&A, we take some players, and it’s just amazing that you’ve got, like, the place is packed with Palace fans.”
He added that soccer has begun to get more of a “foothold” in the United States, mentioning the success of the women’s national team, which he said was “probably the best in the world.”
“We arrived 5 a.m. this morning, massive queues already, thousands of fans here,” said former Chelsea player Gary Cahill. “They’re so knowledgeable and have a real passion for the league… they’ve got a real appetite for the Premier League so it’s great to see.”
By mid-morning, Cahill had put on his cleats to run a training session with dozens of girls from the Chicago Northwind Soccer Club, a youth program based on the North Side.
Northwind players Helen Shanabruch and Molly Frey, both 13, grinned as they left the pitch after playing with Cahill. Frey, who has been playing soccer since she was three, said she loves the “teamwork” of the game.
