News Collection

Forward Madison FC will host an Open House and Seat Selection Day at Breese Stevens Field on Saturday, December 1st from 12-4 p.m. This event is open to the general public of ALL ages to celebrate and anticipate Forward Madison's 2019 inaugural season.

CLICK HERE TO RSVP TO THE OPEN HOUSE ON FACEBOOK

Fans who have already made a deposit for season tickets are invited to “shop” for seats and place a request for preferred seat allocation for the 2019 season. Those who have not yet placed ticket deposits for the upcoming season are welcome to explore the stadium, sign up for season tickets and make a deposit.

Tours of the stadium will be offered in addition to light holiday refreshments and cheer. Come meet the Madison Pro Soccer staff, Coach Shore and take a photo or two with Santa Claus. Merchandise will also be available for sale (just in time for the holidays!).

Don’t miss the fun and excitement: Forward Madison's opening season is just months away!

Forward Madison FC will host an Open House and Seat Selection Day at Breese Stevens Field on Saturday, December 1st from 12-4 p.m. This event is open to the general public of ALL ages to celebrate and anticipate Forward Madison’s 2019 inaugural season.

CLICK HERE TO RSVP TO THE OPEN HOUSE ON FACEBOOK

Fans who have already made a deposit for season tickets are invited to “shop” for seats and place a request for preferred seat allocation for the 2019 season. Those who have not yet placed ticket deposits for the upcoming season are welcome to explore the stadium, sign up for season tickets and make a deposit.

Tours of the stadium will be offered in addition to light holiday refreshments and cheer. Come meet the Madison Pro Soccer staff, Coach Shore and take a photo or two with Santa Claus. Merchandise will also be available for sale (just in time for the holidays!).

Don’t miss the fun and excitement: Forward Madison’s opening season is just months away!

November 18, 2018, Madison, WI – Forward Madison F.C., Madison’s first professional soccer team, announced its team name, logo and colors at an event at the Wisconsin State Historical Society Sunday afternoon. The team branding was introduced by team owner Jim Kacmarcik, Managing Partners Vern Stenman and Conor Caloia, and Managing Director Peter Wilt.

“Kudos to Madison soccer fans for submitting the name Forward and voting for it above all the other submissions. This was the most popular name submitted in the crowdsourcing efforts and received the most votes throughout the process. Incorporating the state motto “Forward” is appropriate as it reflects the team’s continuous drive to be a national leader,” Wilt said. “We also incorporated the Official Bird of Madison, the Pink Plastic Flamingo, which was also a popular name submission by the fans,” Wilt said.

The history of Madison's connection to the plastic bird goes back nearly 40 years. University of Wisconsin student government leaders Leon Varjian and Jim Mallon took artist Don Featherstone's 1957 plastic icon and on the first day of classes in 1979, made Madison history. That's when, as a prank, they placed more than a thousand pink flamingos on Bascom Hill. “Their genius, creativity, whimsy and independence reminds us that life – and soccer, especially in Madison – should be fun and a bit irreverent,” Wilt said.

Madison agency Planet Propaganda’s design team created the logo, which incorporates several local representative elements. “Planet Propaganda did a great job distilling the spirit of Madison into this brand,” Wilt said. The logo has representation of Madison’s Isthmus with the sash and area code in Roman numerals, while the blue color represents the lakes that influence so much of Madison life.

Fans can find season ticket and merchandise information on the team website: https://www.forwardmadisonfc.com.

November 18, 2018, Madison, WI – Forward Madison F.C., Madison’s first professional soccer team, announced its team name, logo and colors at an event at the Wisconsin State Historical Society Sunday afternoon. The team branding was introduced by team owner Jim Kacmarcik, Managing Partners Vern Stenman and Conor Caloia, and Managing Director Peter Wilt.

“Kudos to Madison soccer fans for submitting the name Forward and voting for it above all the other submissions. This was the most popular name submitted in the crowdsourcing efforts and received the most votes throughout the process. Incorporating the state motto “Forward” is appropriate as it reflects the team’s continuous drive to be a national leader,” Wilt said. “We also incorporated the Official Bird of Madison, the Pink Plastic Flamingo, which was also a popular name submission by the fans,” Wilt said.

The history of Madison’s connection to the plastic bird goes back nearly 40 years. University of Wisconsin student government leaders Leon Varjian and Jim Mallon took artist Don Featherstone’s 1957 plastic icon and on the first day of classes in 1979, made Madison history. That’s when, as a prank, they placed more than a thousand pink flamingos on Bascom Hill. “Their genius, creativity, whimsy and independence reminds us that life – and soccer, especially in Madison – should be fun and a bit irreverent,” Wilt said.

Madison agency Planet Propaganda’s design team created the logo, which incorporates several local representative elements. “Planet Propaganda did a great job distilling the spirit of Madison into this brand,” Wilt said. The logo has representation of Madison’s Isthmus with the sash and area code in Roman numerals, while the blue color represents the lakes that influence so much of Madison life.

Fans can find season ticket and merchandise information on the team website: https://www.forwardmadisonfc.com.

This Sunday, Forward Madison FC revealed its official crest, which features a pink flamingo at its center. But why a flamingo? And what does it have to do with Madison?

On the morning of September 4, 1979, UW-Madison students walking up Bascom Hill in the heart of campus probably had to pinch themselves to make sure they weren’t dreaming. They may not have expected to see 1,008 plastic pink flamingo lawn ornaments, scattered haphazardly across the university’s front lawn, staring back down at them.

By mid-afternoon, the flamingos were gone, taken by students as souvenirs. But the legend they created lives on.

According to David Null, former Director of UW-Madison Archives, pranksters Jim Mallon and Leon Varjian – who had led their “Pail & Shovel” party to power in the university government – were responsible for the stunt.

“They put them up, as far as I know, during the night or very early in the morning,” Null said. “You see photos of people looking kind of befuddled by them. And people started taking them right away.

“People just grabbed them and took them.”

Dave Cieslewicz, who served as the mayor of Madison from 2003-2011, was a student at the time of the prank. He recalled the feeling of “silliness” the flamingos brought to Madison.

“It became such an iconic thing right away. There were pictures in all the papers, I think it got national press as far as I recall,” Cieslewicz said. “It was just fun. It was totally senseless. It was just flamingos on Bascom Hill. It was the very absurdity of it that made it so great.”

As the years passed by, Mallon and Varjian eventually left the university, and many of their pranks faded into the annals of history. Still, Madison never quite forgot about its pink flamingo party. According to Null, Madisonians began to adopt the image of a pink flamingo as a sort of representative of the city.

“It has become this ubiquitous symbol of Madison,” Null said. “[The flamingos] help give Madison this image of this fun, strange place that we like to think of Madison as being.”

When Cieslewicz was mayor, he even tried to put the flamingo onto his official lapel pin. In fact, in 2009, the City of Madison named the plastic pink flamingo its official bird. In Cieslewicz’s opinion, flamingos show Madison at its eccentric, unconventional best.

“Unintentionally, I think [Mallon and Varjian] sort of caught the vibe of this city, or at least the vibe of the way this city wants to be,” Cieslewicz said. “It embraces the feeling of ‘hey yeah, we know we’re different, we know we’re a little crazy, we like that.’”

So when Forward Madison FC set out to choose the protagonist that would best represent the club and its city, there was only one clear choice. According to Forward Madison Managing Director Peter Wilt, the pink flamingo will be a motif for the team as it is for the city.

“It reminds us that life, especially in Madison, should be fun and a bit irreverent,” Wilt said.

For Cieslewicz, there couldn’t be a more appropriate symbol.

“I think it’s perfect,” he said. “I think Madisonians will love it.”

Daryl Shore, head coach of Forward Madison FC, has seen a lot of tryouts. According to his own estimate, he’s been evaluating players for about twenty years. During that time, Shore said, he’s learned a lesson about the players who show up to compete:

“Everyone has a dream, and everyone should live their dream.”

This weekend, over 100 pro soccer hopefuls will show up to Breese Stevens Field in order to live their dreams at Madison Pro Soccer’s open and invitation tryouts (also free for the public to watch). And Shore will once again take up the role of evaluator, looking for players who could fit into Madison’s inaugural team in 2019.

“First and foremost, we’re looking at their ability on the soccer field,” Shore said. “How they move, how they play.”

This time, though, Shore has more than just competitive concerns to consider. Not only do potential players need to be good enough to win, but they also need to represent a new club in a city that has never had a professional soccer team before.

“The culture that we’re building is not one that’s just about doing the business on the field, but also that we can do the job off the field,” Shore said. “How we carry ourselves in the community is going to be a big part of what this organization is about moving forward.”

With hundreds of trialists vying for only a handful of potential spots, it’s not going to be easy to make it through. Still, it’s been done before. Talk to former goalkeeper Nathan Sprenkel, for instance, and he’ll tell you exactly how to make the team from an open tryout. He’d know – Sprenkel has made the roster for three professional soccer teams through tryouts, including that of Indy Eleven, Forward Madison FC Managing Director Peter Wilt’s former club.

According to Sprenkel, Madison’s trialists will have to be up for a challenge.

“It’s nerve-wracking, it’s competitive,” he said. “You have to be on your game for the couple days that you’re there. There’s got to be some luck and other things that fall your way.”

But Sprenkel’s most important advice? Just have fun.

“Have some confidence and belief in yourself,” he said. “Relax and enjoy the moment, because if you’re good enough the talent will show.”

More than anything, according to Shore, this weekend’s open tryouts represent an opportunity. An opportunity for someone, anyone, to fulfill a dream.

“There’s always hope, and that’s what you look for when you do these kind of tryouts,” Shore said. “You never know when you’re going to find that one player.”

Daryl Shore, head coach of Forward Madison FC, has seen a lot of tryouts. According to his own estimate, he’s been evaluating players for about twenty years. During that time, Shore said, he’s learned a lesson about the players who show up to compete:

“Everyone has a dream, and everyone should live their dream.”

This weekend, over 100 pro soccer hopefuls will show up to Breese Stevens Field in order to live their dreams at Madison Pro Soccer’s open and invitation tryouts (also free for the public to watch). And Shore will once again take up the role of evaluator, looking for players who could fit into Madison’s inaugural team in 2019.

“First and foremost, we’re looking at their ability on the soccer field,” Shore said. “How they move, how they play.”

This time, though, Shore has more than just competitive concerns to consider. Not only do potential players need to be good enough to win, but they also need to represent a new club in a city that has never had a professional soccer team before.

“The culture that we’re building is not one that’s just about doing the business on the field, but also that we can do the job off the field,” Shore said. “How we carry ourselves in the community is going to be a big part of what this organization is about moving forward.”

With hundreds of trialists vying for only a handful of potential spots, it’s not going to be easy to make it through. Still, it’s been done before. Talk to former goalkeeper Nathan Sprenkel, for instance, and he’ll tell you exactly how to make the team from an open tryout. He’d know – Sprenkel has made the roster for three professional soccer teams through tryouts, including that of Indy Eleven, Forward Madison FC Managing Director Peter Wilt’s former club.

According to Sprenkel, Madison’s trialists will have to be up for a challenge.

“It’s nerve-wracking, it’s competitive,” he said. “You have to be on your game for the couple days that you’re there. There’s got to be some luck and other things that fall your way.”

But Sprenkel’s most important advice? Just have fun.

“Have some confidence and belief in yourself,” he said. “Relax and enjoy the moment, because if you’re good enough the talent will show.”

More than anything, according to Shore, this weekend’s open tryouts represent an opportunity. An opportunity for someone, anyone, to fulfill a dream.

“There’s always hope, and that’s what you look for when you do these kind of tryouts,” Shore said. “You never know when you’re going to find that one player.”

Dear Madison Pro Soccer fans,

Since my last update several weeks ago, we have been putting in the work to make Madison Pro Soccer’s launch a successful one in the lead-up to our first season. This Sunday, we enter a new phase of our existence as we reveal the team’s name and identity. Before then, I’d like to take a moment to update you on some of our progress:

• NAME AND LOGO: Almost six months ago, we put out a call for fans to submit a name for Madison Pro Soccer. This process culminates Sunday with a public celebration at the Wisconsin Historical Society on 816 State Street. The name, color selection and logo design elements were all influenced by the public as part of a community input process that exemplifies the way we aim to operate – fans and team, together as one. I hope you’ll be able to be there with us as we reveal our name, colors and crest.

 

• PLAYER TRYOUTS: More than 100 hopeful trialists have registered to compete Saturday for a few available positions in the team’s invitation tryouts Sunday and Monday. All three days of tryouts begin at 10 a.m. and are open to the public. There will also be afternoon sessions Saturday and Sunday. The majority of the open trialists are from Wisconsin, while the majority of the invitational trialists selected by Head Coach and Technical Director Daryl Shore are current professionals from around the United States.

 

• PLAYER SIGNINGS: As we move closer to Madison Pro Soccer’s inaugural season, we will continue to build our inaugural roster. In addition to our first player, veteran winger Don Smart, we have also completed the signing of several seasoned players from across the world of soccer, including one who represents his country on an international level.

 

• SEASON TICKETS: Madison Pro Soccer continues to add season ticket deposits ahead of our first season. The first 1,856 fans to place a $50 season ticket deposit, including those of you who already have done so, will become members of “Club 1856” (named for the year the City of Madison was incorporated). I’m also excited to announce that we will be hosting an Open House and Seat Selection Day at Breese Stevens Field on December 1st from 12-4 p.m. If you have already made your deposit, you’ll be able to “shop” for your preferred seats. If not, consider this an invitation to look around.

 

• USL LEAGUE ONE: Since my last update, USL League One has added several teams to compete in its inaugural 2019 season. Madison Pro Soccer will be joined by Chattanooga Red Wolves SC, Dallas/Fort Worth, FC Tucson, Greenville Triumph SC, Lansing Ignite, Orlando City B, Richmond Kickers, South Georgia Tormenta FC and Toronto FC II. Two other teams, Penn FC and Rochester Rhinos, have committed to the 2020 season and more are in the works.

 

• SCHEDULE: USL League one has announced that we will play 28 games in our opening season, starting the last weekend of March: 14 at home, 14 away. We’ve requested to play our first two games away from home as to stave off the cold. We anticipate having the complete schedule announced in the coming weeks.

 

• MORE ANNOUNCEMENTS COMING: We are planning a major soccer partnership announcement in early December and will be announcing several more player signings in the next few weeks as well. In late October Big Top Soccer announced it has secured a pre-professional sister team to represent Green Bay and Northeastern Wisconsin in USL League Two. The team launches next May in the new Capital Credit Union Ball Park in Ashwaubenon less than a mile south of Lambeau Field. The name of the team is being voted on now at www.greenbayleaguetwo.com and will be announced next month.  

Thank you for all your support as we work together to continue to build pro soccer in Madison. Feel free to reach out to me directly with any questions by email. I hope to see you all this weekend.

Very Best Regards,

peter

Peter J. Wilt

Managing Director – Madison Pro Soccer

 

Dear Madison Pro Soccer fans,

Since my last update several weeks ago, we have been putting in the work to make Madison Pro Soccer’s launch a successful one in the lead-up to our first season. This Sunday, we enter a new phase of our existence as we reveal the team’s name and identity. Before then, I’d like to take a moment to update you on some of our progress:

• NAME AND LOGO: Almost six months ago, we put out a call for fans to submit a name for Madison Pro Soccer. This process culminates Sunday with a public celebration at the Wisconsin Historical Society on 816 State Street. The name, color selection and logo design elements were all influenced by the public as part of a community input process that exemplifies the way we aim to operate – fans and team, together as one. I hope you’ll be able to be there with us as we reveal our name, colors and crest.

 

• PLAYER TRYOUTS: More than 100 hopeful trialists have registered to compete Saturday for a few available positions in the team’s invitation tryouts Sunday and Monday. All three days of tryouts begin at 10 a.m. and are open to the public. There will also be afternoon sessions Saturday and Sunday. The majority of the open trialists are from Wisconsin, while the majority of the invitational trialists selected by Head Coach and Technical Director Daryl Shore are current professionals from around the United States.

 

• PLAYER SIGNINGS: As we move closer to Madison Pro Soccer’s inaugural season, we will continue to build our inaugural roster. In addition to our first player, veteran winger Don Smart, we have also completed the signing of several seasoned players from across the world of soccer, including one who represents his country on an international level.

 

• SEASON TICKETS: Madison Pro Soccer continues to add season ticket deposits ahead of our first season. The first 1,856 fans to place a $50 season ticket deposit, including those of you who already have done so, will become members of “Club 1856” (named for the year the City of Madison was incorporated). I’m also excited to announce that we will be hosting an Open House and Seat Selection Day at Breese Stevens Field on December 1st from 12-4 p.m. If you have already made your deposit, you’ll be able to “shop” for your preferred seats. If not, consider this an invitation to look around.

 

• USL LEAGUE ONE: Since my last update, USL League One has added several teams to compete in its inaugural 2019 season. Madison Pro Soccer will be joined by Chattanooga Red Wolves SC, Dallas/Fort Worth, FC Tucson, Greenville Triumph SC, Lansing Ignite, Orlando City B, Richmond Kickers, South Georgia Tormenta FC and Toronto FC II. Two other teams, Penn FC and Rochester Rhinos, have committed to the 2020 season and more are in the works.

 

• SCHEDULE: USL League one has announced that we will play 28 games in our opening season, starting the last weekend of March: 14 at home, 14 away. We’ve requested to play our first two games away from home as to stave off the cold. We anticipate having the complete schedule announced in the coming weeks.

 

• MORE ANNOUNCEMENTS COMING: We are planning a major soccer partnership announcement in early December and will be announcing several more player signings in the next few weeks as well. In late October Big Top Soccer announced it has secured a pre-professional sister team to represent Green Bay and Northeastern Wisconsin in USL League Two. The team launches next May in the new Capital Credit Union Ball Park in Ashwaubenon less than a mile south of Lambeau Field. The name of the team is being voted on now at www.greenbayleaguetwo.com and will be announced next month.  

Thank you for all your support as we work together to continue to build pro soccer in Madison. Feel free to reach out to me directly with any questions by email. I hope to see you all this weekend.

Very Best Regards,

peter

Peter J. Wilt

Managing Director – Madison Pro Soccer