Republic FC breaks own USL season attendance record

Republic FC announced Wednesday that it has set a USL attendance record by selling out the Sept. 19 regular-season finale against Arizona United SC at Bonney Field.

With that sellout, Republic FC will have an announced total of 158,516 for its 14 USL regular-season home matches. That breaks the USL attendance record of 158,107 Republic FC set last season.

Sept. 19 marks the second-year franchise’s 26th consecutive regular-season sellout.

Republic FC’s only non-USL sellout was on May 3, 2014, when 17,414 attended a match against the Orange County Blues FC at Hughes Stadium. That was the team’s second of four matches at the 20,000-seat Sacramento City College stadium before the club moved to Cal Expo. Bonney Field seated 8,000 fans last year and was expanded to 11,242 this season.

Reno to join USL – Republic FC will have a new USL rival two hours away with the addition of a franchise in Reno in 2017. An official announcement will be made Sept. 16.

The Reno team will be owned by Herb Simon, co-owner of the Triple-A Reno Aces baseball team and the NBA’s Indiana Pacers. The team will share the 9,000-seat Aces Ballpark with the Pacific Coast League team.

The current 24-team USL already has announced expansion franchises for Cincinnati, Lehigh Valley of Bethlehem, Pa., and Rio Grande Valley of Edinburg, Texas, for next season.

Orlando City SC, a former USL member now in Major League Soccer, also announced in late June that it will place a team into the league next season.

This story was originally published September 9, 2015 at 4:29 PM with the headline "Republic FC breaks own USL season attendance record."