11/7/2026
Philadelphia Union (Major League Soccer) @ Subaru Park (Chester, PA)
MLS Decision Day on the Delaware
James Calingo
Tags:First Visit, Football, Major League Soccer, Major Leagues, Outdoor Sports, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Soccer
2026: New Venue #33
Philadelphia Union is one of Major League Soccer's older expansion teams. They were founded in 2008 and debuted in 2010, but their story predates that by quite a bit: efforts to get a team in the Philadelphia/South Jersey region date back to 2001 - but none were successful (including a team/stadium in Trenton getting shut down by the MetroStars) In fact, the team's main supporters' group - the Sons of Ben - actually predates the club: they were founded in 2007 amid talks about the league expanding to Philadelphia, and was a BIG reason why the Philadelphia area got the Union in the first place.
There is one caveat to this, however: I said the "Philadelphia area" and not the "city of Philadelphia" because the stadium is in Chester, PA - one of the "not so great" suburbs. Much like a host of other cities I've been to on this blog, Chester is a former industrial town that hasn't recovered from its industry dying out, and the stadium is right on the banks of the Delaware River and immediately adjacent to one of the bridges between New Jersey and Pennsylvania, which adds to the "come for the game and then GET THE HECK OUT" feeling...
That aside, what is now Subaru Park was opened in 2010 (the same year the team debuted) - but wasn't ready at the start of the season, so the team played a few games at Lincoln Financial Field (the home of the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles). It WAS supposed to be part of a revitalization project for Chester, yet it seems many of the boons it was supposed to bring haven't materialized (though there is a nearby casino).
To be fully honest, Subaru Park is a fairly "simple" stadium. The main concourse is at ground level, but what's (mildly) interesting is that the seats are ABOVE the concourse; therefore, almost all fans enter at the bottom of their sections and walk up to their seats. Also, one end of the stadium is "partially disconnected" from the rest of the seating bowl; this end is the one closest to the Delaware River and is where the club's supporters' are situated, and underneath it are the tunnels the players and officials use (as in they walk THROUGH this part of the concourse to get to the field/changing rooms). There's also an "upper" area at the top of the seating bowl (i.e. where the photo above was taken), but there's not much here if you don't have suite tickets.
One thing that is VERY unique at this stadium: an Esports center! It's a room full of PlayStations that anyone can access, and you get fifteen minutes to play (or at least that's what I got during this match). There was a fairly wide variety of games available on the console, but as a soccer stadium, they of course had several soccer games: EA FC (as EA is no longer allowed to use the "FIFA" name), Konami's eFootball (formerly known as Pro Evolution Soccer), and one of my personal favorite esports (which I've actually mentioned on this blog before): Rocket League1!
This trip has been "in the works" since March of 2026 (when the team was still pretty bad) - mainly as I remembered the team existing while looking at MLS jerseys on this site. Due to Chester's (lack of) reputation along with it being quite far from me (as it's south of Philadelphia proper), I figured that if ever I were to come here, it would HAVE to be a day game2. My original idea was to go on the 17th of October (a 2-2 draw), but having been in DC for two games the weekend prior, I felt I needed to NOT have two long drives on back-to-back weekends (not to mention me going to a Flyers game the weekend after). This game is on the "border" of being a day/night game at 4 PM (i.e. late afternoon), but I felt that 4 PM was still okay, plus I ended up landing THIS seat:
DO-DOOP DOOP DOOP DO-DO-DOOP DOOP DOOP
(Translation: the Union just scored in front of me)
I realize I didn't talk about the team's performances ON the field earlier, but in all honestly...there's not much to say: they've won the MLS Supporters' Shield (i.e. the award for best regular season) twice, but have yet to win MLS Cup (losing their only appearance in the final in 2022). The second of those Supporters' Shields was last year (2025), but the team started poorly this year, there was a scandal involving a high ranking club official, and then the team...got HOT: they've lost only two games since the World Cup break (though those two losses came in the three games preceding this one), and have VAULTED up the standings into a playoff position.
This match is part of something known in Major League Soccer as "Decision Day": the final day of the regular season where every team is in action, with standings implications on the line. This isn't unique to the United States (England's Premier League does it for example), but due to how big the US is (versus places such as England, where all the games kick off simultaneously), it's a bit different: half the games (which all involve Eastern Conference teams) start at 4:00, and the other half at 7:00 (both are Eastern time). However, the Eastern Conference playoff picture was largely set by the time this game started - with Philadelphia locked into a playoff position (though there was SOME positioning things to sort out).
Philadelphia more or less dominated this game - cruising to a 4-1 win against a Toronto FC side already eliminated from the playoffs (and that's with TWO goals being disallowed). Also, I should mention that the team's catchphrase (which is all over the stadium) is "DOOP"; it's from the song they play after goals, which probably WILL get stuck in your head (especially when the team scores six four goals).
I don't like giving my personal opinions on this blog, but I do have to admit: this was probably the most fun soccer game I've been to this year. The atmosphere was WAY better than either New York team AND Leeds/Sunderland, and I think a lot of that is the fact that the supporters' section here is MUCH bigger than what either New York club has (though we'll see how things change once NYCFC get out of the baseball stadiums). One last thing I wanna mention: I've been using SeatGeek as my "secondary market" for a fair number of these major league games, but it's also a primary ticket provider (i.e. the box office) for some venues, such as Subaru Park. Parking is also available on SeatGeek to "pre-book" from the team itself, but there's a convenience fee which, in my opinion, is only worth it if you know you're arriving late (like, say, within 45 minutes of kickoff). I didn't prebook parking and was still able to park in what I THINK is one of the stadium lots - though getting out of it was kinda rough...
MERCH
A very, VERY long time ago, I actually bought a Philadelphia Union thing from a Marshalls or TJMaxx. I can't remember if it was a non-jersey shirt, a jacket, or even a pair of pants (though I'm pretty sure it was a jacket), nor do I know if I still have it (as I've gone through several "closet cleanings" in the past).
The same night I started thinking about going to this match, I decided to check which Dick's Sporting Goods within a 100-mile radius of me had Union stuff (and obviously, none of them were close by). Coincidentally, I checked the DSG website again a few days before this match, and they had seemingly run out of Philly's home jersey (both online and in-store).
Those two stories aside, Subaru Park features a team store which is honestly a bit larger than I expected - and can be accessed before the game via doors outside the stadium (there was a tailgate and a pre-game plaza). It did have a fairly extensive selection of things (i.e. the usual: jerseys, clothing/hats, and a few novelties), but surprisingly, no soccer balls - mini or regular sized (though I recall Citi Field ALSO not having soccer balls). Around the corner from the main store are a small stand which offers jersey customization as well as another merchandise booth (there's also merch at a "tailgate area" across the street controlled by the team and I WANT to say there was one more merch booth somewhere else inside the stadium, but I don't fully remember).
It is also worth noting that this trip was almost NOT my first visit - I had thoughts about coming to watch the PLL back in August, but it rained on the day I would have come. Had I done that, my gut feeling is that the team store probably would have been closed based on the limited number of sections available when I looked at getting tickets (as only half the seats were available) as well as the Red Bulls store only being open for the Red Bulls match I went to (versus the other three events - two of which were soccer games).
ON DECK
I mentioned yesterday that Seton Hall's men's basketball team plays its games off-campus, but they're not the only Big East school to do so; there's actually a fair number of Big East schools that play their basketball games in bigger, off-campus arenas. For example, Georgetown (a university in Washington DC) plays at Capital One Arena, Providence hosts games in downtown Providence (a few miles from its campus), UConn splits games between its campus and Hartford (both men's and women's), and tomorrow, I'm going to check out perhaps the most famous example of an off-campus Big East arena.
Footnotes
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I like watching Rocket League, but don't ask me about how many hours I've put into the game...mainly as I've never really had a computer/console powerful enough to play it properly. ↩
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There were two afternoon games in March, but I didn't get this idea until AFTER they had occurred. Also, I think I should mention that the team's MLS NEXT Pro side play their games here (one of seven MLSNP teams to play in their parent team's stadium), and most of their games are day games; however, I didn't think it was worth it as the stadium is over an hour and a half away, most MLS NEXT Pro games feature little to no atmosphere (or fans), and a lot of the things I'd want to do are probably not available (read: the team store). ↩