Could soccer be the key to success for Paterson's Hinchliffe Stadium?

PATERSON — About 7,000 zealous sports fans jammed Hinchliffe Stadium on Sunday, filling the rebuilt grandstands with what was by far the largest crowd since the historic ballpark reopened last May.

The huge turnout wasn’t for either of the two sports that most people associate with Hinchliffe — baseball, which gave the stadium its national landmark status, or football, which evokes the nostalgia of Thanksgiving morning high school rivalry games.

The throng of people wearing yellow and black who descended on Hinchliffe on Sunday came to watch a $65-per-ticket soccer game between the Unisamba team from Paterson and the Barcelona Sporting Club, and the most successful squad in Ecuador.

Unisamba was the home team only in terms of geography, with a few hundred supporters in the crowd.

In contrast, its opponent, hailing from a South American city almost 3,000 miles away, drew most of the 7,000 fans, as Ecuadorians and Barcelona backers came from New York, Connecticut and Virginia.

The Barcelona fans were boisterous and thirsty. Hinchliffe’s concession stands ran out of beer during the first half of the game, officials said.

The packed stands for the soccer match contrasted sharply with the sparse crowds at Jersey Jackals minor league baseball games.

More from Paterson Press: Questions loom over Hinchliffe Stadium’s finances: Was it profitable in 2023?

'Soccer is a no-brainer'

“In a place like Paterson, with so much diversity, soccer is a no-brainer,” said the city’s former economic development director, Michael Powell, who oversaw the Hinchliffe redevelopment project.

Assemblyman Benjie Wimberly, the city’s recreation coordinator and former high school football and baseball coach, agreed. Wimberly said the city hasn’t hosted a sports event that drew 7,000 fans since the 1980s.

“Our demographics tell you that soccer would be automatic,” Wimberly said. “I think it’s really exciting. I hope we’re able to bring even more events like this to Paterson.”

Baye Adofo-Wilson, the developer overseeing Hinchliffe’s ongoing operation, said several international soccer teams have expressed interest in playing “friendly matches” at the stadium.

Mayor Andre Sayegh last year talked about the possibly of getting a minor league soccer team to make Hinchliffe its home. But that has not happened yet.

Sunday’s Barcelona game was last-minute, a contest scheduled five days before it happened. Alfred Serrano, the president and owner of Unisamba, said Barcelona was looking for a game and knew the local Paterson team had played a highly regarded club from Peru to a 2-2 tie in 2022.

The Peru game was at the high school stadium in Passaic and drew about 350 fans, Serrano said. He said the Barcelona club was successful in marketing Sunday’s game on social media, generating the big crowd.

The out-of-town Barcelona fans came to North Jersey for the weekend, boosting the local economy, Serrano said. They also did a little pre-game scouting. About 500 Barcelona backers went to Paterson’s Pennington Park on Saturday morning to watch Unisamba, their next-day opponent, practice.

'Well, it was worth it'

Councilman Michael Jackson saw the big turnout at the soccer game as a reason to revive his criticism of Sayegh’s use of the state tax credits that have been earmarked for several projects in Paterson, including Hinchliffe, a national park visitor center and a new parking garage near the train station.

The owners of Center City Mall had asked for tax credits to build an indoor soccer arena on top of the shopping center but were denied. Jackson said the attendance at the soccer game showed the arena would have been successful.

“This just proves that soccer would have been viable,” Jackson said. “This was another poor choice made by the mayor that I did not support.”

Councilman Luis Velez said seeing the packed crowd at Sunday’s match reaffirmed his faith in the $108 million Hinchliffe project, which also included a senior citizen apartment building.

“When I saw that,” Velez said of the filled grandstand, “I said, ‘Well, it was worth it.’ Little by little, we’re catching up. “We got a map yesterday, for other people to come in and do events like this one, especially soccer.”

Community leader Roger Grier said he was glad to see so many people turn out for the soccer game. But he wondered about the finances for a stadium owned by the Paterson Board of Education.

“Who gets the revenue from this?” Grier asked. “Is anything going to go to Paterson schools?”

The Hinchliffe lease requires that the school district get 50% of the net revenue from the developer running the stadium. The developer said Hinchliffe’s audit for 2023 has not been completed, but he said he doesn’t expect the stadium to generate a net profit for its first “abbreviated” year after opening last May.

Many people had wondered how Hinchliffe would handle a large crowd in terms of parking and traffic. Back when the stadium renovation was approved, Councilman Shahin Khalique repeatedly criticized the lack of a traffic study.

Khalique was at Sunday’s soccer game and said the congestion was what someone should expect from a large event attracting thousands of fans. He said there wasn’t a critical parking shortage.

“I saw a lot of people walking to the stadium from all sections of the city,” he said.

Joe Malinconico is editor of Paterson Press. Email: editor@patersonpress.com

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Paterson NJ: Hinchliffe Stadium plays host to major soccer event