Sporting Jax hosted their kickoff party on Friday, July 25, at James Weldon Johnson Park in Jacksonville. The event gave fans a chance to meet the members of Jacksonville’s first professional women’s soccer team.
Soccer has been missing from Jacksonville’s sports scene since 2017 when the North American Soccer League (NASL) ceased to exist, which took the Jacksonville Armada out of the equation. Steve Livingstone, president and CEO of Sporting Jax, believes the First Coast is the perfect place to bring professional soccer.
“We’ve got a market here that is ready for pro football,” said Livingstone.
Sporting Jax has been in the works since 2017 and was finally established in 2020 after it gained the United Soccer League (USL) franchise rights. Besides the women’s team, Sporting Jax is also launching a men’s professional USL Championship club and USL Youth Academy in Northeast Florida. The men’s season will start in March 2026 and run through November 2026.
“There will be professional soccer year-round at a high level, and we believe the market is ready for that,” said Livingstone.
Stacey Balaam, head coach of the women’s team, could not be more thrilled about her role within the organization.
“It’s a dream come true to know that the game has evolved so much for women,” said Balaam.
Balaam played soccer at the University of Montevallo (UM) in Montevallo, Alabama. She also spent some time assistant coaching at UM and eventually ended up assistant coaching in the SEC at Vanderbilt, which prepared her to run the women’s program at Sporting Jax. She is thrilled with what she has seen from her players thus far.
“They have been locked in every single day and the attitude towards representing this team and representing this city has been amazing,” said Balaam.
Zara Siassi is one player to keep a close eye on. Siassi spent five years playing at the University of North Florida (UNF) and quickly became a fan favorite. She was named to the United Soccer Coaches (USC) Scholar All-American First-Team and is only the second player in the program to earn the honor. She also won ASUN Defensive Player of the Year at the end of her senior season.
Sporting Jax will play their first home game on Saturday, Aug. 23, at UNF’s Hodges Stadium, and no one knows that field better than Siassi.
“It will definitely be a very surreal moment for me, but this is what I’ve dreamed of for a long time so to see it come to fruition means a lot to me,” she said.
Sporting Jax has already sold more than 6,000 season tickets and the First Coast is buzzing with excitement as they usher in this new era. Balaam and her team are ready to take the soccer world by storm.
“The journey has just begun, and we are about to write our own story,” she said.
