For Collier County, FC Naples’ inaugural season proved to be a heavy hitter, with lessons learned.
With the professional soccer team’s second season already underway, Collier commissioners heard an after-action report detailing the first year’s results at a regular board meeting on May 26. The team, based at the county’s Paradise Coast Sports Complex in East Naples, packed an economic punch in 2025.
James Hanrahan, the county’s Parks and Recreation director, detailed the numbers in his presentation. Here are some of the numbers he shared:
Counting away games, more than 120,000 fans attended FC Naples’ games last year, Hanrahan said. Elaborating, he said, 28% of single-game ticket buyers and 10% of season ticket holders came from outside of the county.
More telling numbers about the impact of FC Naples
Other telling numbers in the report include: 53 ESPN+ commercial airings and about 5,100 average viewers per each home broadcast for the games last year.
Additionally, digital content drew more than 12.4 million views across all platforms during the 2025 season, reflecting the broader reach of the team and its following, Hanrahan said.
He shared survey results from attendees in the first season, including a 71% excellent rating for the overall match day experience and a 68% excellent rating for the match day atmosphere. Those ratings show the county, along with the sports complex’s managers, has succeeded in creating a family-friendly environment and in generating community pride and engagement, Hanrahan said.
“For the first season, we’re happy with the results and we’re going to work on them to improve them for season two,” he said.
One area in need of significant improvement: Food and beverage services. In surveys, only 24% of game goers rated those services as excellent, with 48% seeing them as good and 28% as neutral.
Food and beverage choices have improved this year
This season, there is a greater variety of menu choices, and a focus on improving the quality of “certain items,” Hanrahan said.
Those certain items include the hamburger and hot dog buns, which didn’t go over well, and now are of a better quality, he said. To that, Commissioner Chris Hall said: “Ain’t nobody got time for bad buns. Good job.”
New menu choices for games include more sweets.
“One of the things I’ve noticed this year is Nothing Bundt Cakes is now an option for the suites, which is a wonderful dessert option,” Hanrahan said.
Sports Facilities Companies, which manages the sports complex, has worked with county staff and the Collier County Sheriff’s Office to improve the parking and traffic circulation for games this season, too, he said.
He noted that banners for FC Naples are now displayed at every major park in the county, as a way to promote the games and build on the community engagement.
County commissioners suggest other enhancements
After hearing the presentation, Bill McDaniel, who serves as the county commission’s vice chairman, asked for more signage at the complex, especially for events.
“We have to treat that facility like you’ve never been there before,” he said.
Other commissioners agreed better signage is needed, with Rick LoCastro describing some of it as looking “a little homemade.”
McDaniel also suggested that the county provide “VIP tenders” when people and organizations are being honored at events held at the complex.
Sports complex a “far greater success” than expected
Commissioner Burt Saunders described the complex as a “far greater success than any of us could have anticipated.”
“At the very beginning, we knew that this would draw a lot of people, it would create a tremendous facility for our kids to use, our families to use, and be a meeting place for literally hundreds of thousands of people over the years,” he said.
He commended county staff, Sports Facilities Companies and FC Naples for “really stepping up” to make the complex a place that “we can all be very proud of.” He said he’s looking forward to the planned enhancements at the complex, including more fields in the future.
FC Naples made the playoffs in their debut season, adding to the momentum.
Study approved to identify more operational improvements
As part of his presentation to commissioners, Hanrahan also touched on plans for an outside assessment of the sports complex’s operations overall, aimed at optimization for the benefit of the county and its residents.
Commissioner LoCastro requested the broader study, and it was unanimously supported by all commissioners during a recent board meeting.
The goal of the study is to see how things can be done better, faster, cheaper and smarter, treating it like any good business owner would to improve operations, especially with the county looking to make the complex bigger, LoCastro said.
“I mean, it’s a huge investment,” he said of the complex. “So, I don’t see how we could not do any of this. I think this is a requirement.”
He added: “We’re trying to operate it as a profitable business, so we can roll those profits back into the county in various different ways.”
With the motion to accept the review of FC Naples’ first season, commissioners also gave the green light for county staff to proceed with a purchase order for the operational study of the sports complex with Raftelis, which specializes in consulting work for local governments. The cost of the study is estimated at about $100,000.
The assessment is anticipated to start in July and to conclude in November, with a presentation of the final findings and recommendations to the county commission.
An early readout of the results is expected to be out by September.
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This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: FC Naples inaugural season brings big economic win
Reporting by Laura Layden, Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News / Naples Daily News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
