Boston Legacy FC
With FIFA taking the reins at Gillette, to be called “Boston Stadium” for the men’s World Cup, the Legacy will play their first match at their summer home Friday at 8 p.m. against Seattle.
Centreville Bank Stadium in Pawtucket is a 10,500-seat venue, purpose-built for Rhode Island FC, presenting the Legacy an opportunity to better connect with their fans. Lane Turner/Globe Staff
May 21, 2026 | 11:38 AM
3 minutes to read
With 30,207 fans in attendance for Boston Legacy FC’s inaugural home opener, at the time an NWSL record, Gillette Stadium was more than half empty.
Even with a few sections blocked off for the Legacy’s May 3 match against Denver, the rowdy crowd of 12,524 fans — 2,000 more than last season’s league-wide average attendance — looked sparse in the hulking stadium.
“[Gillette] is just too big,” said Legacy chief marketing officer Sabine Feldmann. “If you have a good crowd in there — for the NWSL, having 10,000, 12,000 people in a stadium is a great crowd — it just never looks full at Gillette.”
Centreville Bank Stadium in Pawtucket, R.I., where the Legacy will play seven matches between now and September, offers a potential solution. With FIFA taking the reins at Gillette, to be called “Boston Stadium” for the men’s World Cup, the Legacy will play their first match at their summer home Friday at 8 p.m. against Seattle.
The 10,500-seat stadium, purpose-built for Rhode Island FC, presents the Legacy an opportunity to better connect with their fans while getting a glimpse into what the team’s future could look like at White Stadium, which has a planned capacity of 11,000.
“I think that number of attendees is perfect, especially with where women’s soccer is going,” Legacy goalkeeper Laurel Ivory said. “It creates more draw, it creates more talk, it makes people want to come out, and [it] creates demand.”
The team announced Wednesday that 11 sections of the stadium had sold out for Friday’s game, and Feldmann said sales are trending in the right direction, but the team did not make the number of ticket sales public.
Centreville Bank Stadium was built with soccer fans in mind, giving spectators a better view of the pitch from every seat and putting them closer to the action than they are at Gillette. The last midfield row of the lower bowl is closer to the pitch than the first midfield row is at Gillette Stadium.
RIFC averages about 8,000 fans per game, and even that number makes the stadium feel like a “fortress,” stadium general manager Paul Byrne said.
“The configuration of the stadium itself and the seats — it almost feels like an outdoor arena,” Byrne said. “When those goals are scored by the Boston Legacy, we’re looking forward to how loud it’ll get within the venue.”
The stadium, which is in a residential neighborhood, offers a similar feel and layout to the plans for White Stadium, so the Legacy are using the games in Rhode Island as a testing ground for the fan experience in future seasons.
“We get to test what works, see our fans’ response to it, to create that incredible fan experience,” Feldmann said.
While players said they’re looking forward to having the fans so close, the field itself may take some time to get used to. In advance of the World Cup, Gillette Stadium is furnished with top-of-the-line grass, while the surface at Centreville Bank Stadium is artificial turf.
The Legacy scrimmaged Boston College at the venue in April and know what to expect from the surface: Balls will move faster and bounce harder than they do at Gillette.
“I’m excited to play on it,” forward Sammy Smith said. “It’ll be an interesting game.”
The Legacy anticipate that in addition to their most faithful supporters, playing in a new venue will draw a new crowd of people, many of whom haven’t previously watched or attended an NWSL match.
To make sure those new fans stick around once the team moves back to Gillette Stadium at the end of this season — and eventually to White Stadium next season — Feldmann and her team are going all-in on the fan experience in Pawtucket.
For some fans, the product on the pitch is enough to keep them coming back, Feldmann said. But for those who need more convincing, Friday’s game will feature a poster-making station, face painting, hair braiding, balloon artists, a beach towel giveaway, a halftime performance from acrobatic Frisbee dogs, and postmatch fireworks.
“We are giving fans such a positive experience, and that’s all we can do,” Feldmann said. “Then they want to come back, irrespective of where we play, because now we’ve turned them into fans. And hopefully they’ll tune in for when we play on the road, and they’ll buy tickets for when we play at home, whatever home might be.”
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