IF YOU BUILD IT: How YOUR ideas helped create first pro soccer team in Naples

To see every FC Naples home match in person, or to pick the matches of your choice, click now to get your tickets! The home opener is March 8.

As the first professional soccer team in Southwest Florida took to the pitch for the first time, Bob Moreno told me he couldn't help but watch in awe at his team.

"We're bringing professional sports to Collier County in Naples and that's just so exciting," Moreno said.

A lifelong soccer fan, Moreno always wanted to own his own team in the United Soccer League. In 2022, he finally got his chance. Naples was one of four cities to receive an expansion franchise from the United Soccer League.

Andy Cunningham

"It all starts with identifying the right location," said Moreno. "And really, I mean, what better place than Naples?"

He had a location, but not much else. No players, no team logo, not even a name for the team. But that's where the team's connection to its community really comes through. Moreno said every design you see with the team, came from ideas from their neighbors right here in Naples.

WATCH: FOX 4 Senior Reporter Ryan Kruger asked Moreno and his head coach how they built a club from the ground up:

"This is part of the listening sessions we did, right?," Moreno said. We asked the community 'what do you want your team to be called?' And every single person said 'Naples!'"

Matches will be played at the Paradise Coast Sports Complex, a taxpayer-funded complex that opened in the middle of the pandemic in 2020.

Collier County Commissioner Rick Le Castro says this is exactly what the county had in mind when this facility was first built.

"The saying is if you build it, you know, they will come," Le Castro told me. "Well, we didn't have Professional sports team, but you know now that we do."

Next came the need to find a coach, and there just so happened to be a former international soccer player who has called Collier County home for more than a decade.

Andy Cunningham

"When I came in, we didn't have a single soccer ball, didn't have a single soccer cone, didn't have any staff on the sporting side, no players, and so literally we built everything from the ground up," said Matt Poland.

Raised in Minnesota, Poland played internationally in Finland. He said he used connections to build a team of players consisting of 12 different nationalities to wear the FC Naples kit.

I asked him what it's been like as the head coach, the past few months.

"A lot of recruiting, hours of phone calls with agents, negotiating deals, watching teams play all across the world to try to figure out the best possible team to to represent us."

They'll now be representing Naples and all of Southwest Florida all season long — and even playing home matches live on FOX 4 and its family of channels! That includes the opening match at home on Saturday, March 8, live right here on FOX 4.