Princeton Tigers Soccer (Ivy League) @ Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium (Princeton, NJ)

A visit to a college football landmark - for association football

*This trip occurred on October 18, 2025.

Princeton University is one of America’s oldest colleges and a member of the famous Ivy League. I won’t get too deep into the school as they have a LONG alumni list (being the fourth oldest college in the United States will do that¹), but I will mention that their football team is technically tied with Rutgers for being the oldest football program in the United States - after all, SOMEONE had to be the opponent for the First Ever College Football Game™.

However, historical records indicate that said game was more akin to what is now association football (or soccer if you're in the United States) rather than gridiron football. Despite that, Wikipedia's page on Princeton's men's soccer team states that the program was started in 1906 - which actually makes them older than Football Club Internazionale Milano (or Inter Milan if you know them better by that name). Also, the only two American-born managers in the history of the Premier League both went to Princeton (Bob Bradley and Jesse Marsch)².

Normally, I typically start working on these posts months in advance of the actual game, as I tend to come up with these trip ideas way in advance. However...this post is different for one major reason:

I ended up deciding to go to this game THE MORNING OF.

Part of that was due to something I saw online that had Princeton ranked as #1 in some NCAA ranking, but apparently said ranking isn't the main poll used to rank teams: that poll had Princeton at #5 (still good though!). However, the biggest reason I decided to go: both admission AND parking were free - something a bit surprising for the Ivy League IMO!

As for the stadium, it's got a somewhat interesting history: it's the SECOND Roberts Stadium Princeton has played soccer in. The original Roberts Stadium was in a different location, but was moved closer to Princeton's other athletic facilities (and its parking garage) in 2022. To help explain where various landmarks in this stadium are located, I'll use the cardinal directions each side of the stadium is on to demarcate things (as it was VERY easy to tell which side is which). The photo below was taken from the south stand, which is the most basic as it only features bleacher seating.

On the west end of the stadium is its "main" entrance and press box above. This area also features a merchandise area (more on that in a bit) and a ticket booth, as some games (i.e. playoff games) are ticketed events. Below this is the bench/tunnel area; there are no bleachers above the benches/tunnel, so if you want to watch the game here (at the midfield line), you do have to stand.

Opposite the press box on the east end is a concessions stand plus a smaller entrance. Concession prices here are fairly in line with what you'd expect from a sporting venue, but there's a bit of a loophole if you feel they're a bit steep (though remember: you're getting free admission AND parking for most games)³.

Finally, the north end of the stadium features a video scoreboard, a grassy hill, and some terraces intended for fans to stand on (though I saw most people sitting here). This also provides the closest access to the field itself, as the bleachers on the other three sides end a few feet above the field (similar to most American football stadiums).

There was a decent crowd on hand for this one; most of them were on the west side of the stadium as the sun was a bit strong (and made it EXTREMELY hard to watch from the east stand), but it also seemed like quite a few people left rather early. The team on the field felt like they were a bit flat at times, and came VERY CLOSE to giving up an equalizer to their opponents (the Columbia Lions), but seemed to snap to life in the second half once Columbia lost a player to a red card, and ended up walking out with a 2-0 win.

I'll end with a few notes on college soccer itself (as it's a little different from "regular" soccer):

• Like professional soccer, the game is played in two 45 minute halves. However, the clock typically counts DOWN from 45:00 to 0:00 and is somewhat continuous but can be stopped by the referee for various reasons. Once the clock hits 0:00, the half ends right then and there - marked by a horn attached to the scoreboard which is near impossible to hear unless you're right next to it.
• It felt like there were a CRAZY amount of substitutions during this game. Part of that may be due to NCAA rules on substitutions (each team can make as many substitutions as they please at one time, but are limited to doing this six times per match), but it may also be because I THINK the rosters were much larger than your standard soccer game.

MERCH

There's a small merchandise area under the press box (on the west side of the stadium). It's got a bunch of your standard "school" stuff like shirts, hats, hoodies, and various novelty items, but did not feature jerseys.

I will also note, however, that Princeton has two stores which feature school merchandise: one in a building on campus and another a short walk away on Nassau Street (Princeton's "main street"). I visited both of them after the game, but didn't find much of interest at either store...at least on this trip.