For women's sports fans in Boston, energetic Legacy home opener was a long time coming

Professional women's soccer is officially back in Massachusetts.

Boston Legacy FC hosted their home opener on Saturday at Gillette Stadium. The team fell 1-0 to defending National Women's Soccer League champions Gotham FC.

Despite the loss, more than 30,000 fans brought the energy to Foxborough for the team’s first-ever game. They came decked out in the Legacy’s green and pink colors, some with winter hats and coats to stave off the mid-March wind.

One group was especially prevalent among the crowd: young female soccer players and their parents.

Michael Ratty, of Boston, brought his 4-year-old daughter, Sadie. She’ll be starting soccer in a few weeks as a fifth birthday present. He said he's excited for a future where his daughter and her siblings see women's sports as normal.

“ I'm a Premier League fan, so they've actually grown up watching soccer. So now anytime there's any soccer, she calls it, ‘We're going to daddy's soccer,’” he said. “This is the first time I'm like, this is your soccer. It's not mine.”

Ten-year-old Frankie Linehan from Dorchester came with her girls’ soccer team. She said she was excited to see women take the field.

“It supports our soccer team, and it gives us the power to keep playing soccer,” she said.

Many of the parents in attendance said they were excited for their children to have female athletes to look up to. That included Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, who brought her two sons and daughter to the game.

“ The power of knowing that these are our role models who are not just on the field, but connected to our community off the field is really incredible,” she said. “We are looking forward to deepening this partnership. We're well underway with their permanent home right in Boston and White Stadium.  It's just a really wonderful moment to celebrate together.”

The team is splitting their home games between Foxborough and Centreville Bank Stadium in Pawtucket, Rhode Island for their inaugural season. They plan to make a renovated White Stadium in Boston's Franklin Park their home pitch next season, sharing the facilities with Boston Public Schools students.

Legacy forward Ella Stevens said she felt the love from the fans on Saturday, even though the team didn’t pull off a win.

“It was so special,” Stevens said. “I think for me, the walkout was like, a little surreal, playing in that stadium with the fans that all showed up, the number of people who came out to support. It was an incredible feeling walking out into the field.”

For longtime women’s soccer fan Sarah Toce, of Boston, it was extra special to bring her rugby-playing daughter Hannah to her first professional soccer game. They had pink streaks and gold sparkles in their hair.

“Whether it's rugby for her, or soccer for her, or whatever it is, she's going to learn lessons in here from watching these incredible athletes and how hard they go and how they pick each other up,” she said. “That's going to make a difference no matter what sport she plays. So I'm excited to have her be able to see that on the big scale.”

Toce grew up watching Boston’s previous women’s soccer team, the Boston Breakers, before they folded in 2017. She said she thinks the Legacy — and women’s sports as a whole — can only go up from here.

“We've been here, we've been doing the thing, we've been playing at a high level, we've been putting ourselves on the line out there,” Toce said. “So now to finally get the recognition from, you know, that other half of the population, it feels good. And it also feels like, come on guys, like, it's about damn time.”