Penn FC to go on hiatus in 2019, join new USL third division league in 2020

With only two matches to go in the 2018 USL regular season, Penn FC dropped a bombshell about where they’ll be playing soccer going forward. Their official plan is to join USL League One (briefly known as USL Division III) in 2020. As a prelude to that change, they also announced that they will be going on hiatus for the 2019 season. It’s a depressing situation for a team that was looking like they could sneak into a playoff spot just one month ago.

This result is similar to the situations faced by other old school USL sides like the Richmond Kickers and the Rochester Rhinos. Richmond has City Stadium ready and available to play in, so they will be able to join League One next season. Meanwhile, Rochester has been struggling with money and stadium issues. They plan to be on hiatus for another year before also joining League One in 2020.

The subtext of the announcement (which can be found here and also here) is that the team needs to use this time off to secure a new soccer specific stadium for themselves somewhere in the Harrisburg region. Securing a stadium of their own, or at least making solid plans to build one, will finally resolve the issue that has been dogging them since the 2016 season.

From the team’s founding in 2003 until 2015, the then Harrisburg City Islanders played at the Skyline Sports Complex on City Island. It wasn’t going to win any beauty contests, but most people agreed that Skyline was an enjoyable place to relax and watch some soccer. But with the USL looking to make improvements starting in 2016, Harrisburg needed to find a new home and fast.

So since then, Harrisburg/Penn FC has been playing at FNB Field on City Island and splitting time with the Harrisburg Senators. And in 2016 they even played a few games in Lancaster at Clipper Magazine Stadium. This provided a nice change of pace at first, but in the long term, this arrangement has been less than ideal for several reasons.

For starters, scheduling at FNB Field has always revolved around the Senators. That meant that soccer had to be squeezed in when the baseball team was on an extended away trip. So Penn FC would be forced to play two matches with short rest over every home weekend. And as the schedule has expanded, its been even harder to find the time to squeeze in all the matches. That’s what contributed to this season’s nine match Homestretch for Penn FC to end the season.

In addition, leasing space from another team meant that Penn FC had no control over many other aspects of the game day experience. For example, they couldn’t alter the concessions at FNB Field the same way they could at Skyline. In addition, much of the seating locations and atmosphere made more sense for baseball than they did for soccer.

All of those issues are resolved by Penn FC building and controlling their own stadium. Unfortunately, that will be difficult to accomplish on City Island. Skyline is owned by the City of Harrisburg, so Penn FC would be making major renovations to a facility that they wouldn’t control. There was a plan put forward several years ago, but that hasn’t really been brought up since.

So the new home of the former City Islanders might be a ways away from their original namesake. But owner Eric Pettis, who has been an owner since the Harrisburg City Islanders were originally founded back in 2003, has hope for the future.

For those who want to catch Penn FC before they hit this hiatus, the team will be playing NYRB II at home on Tuesday at 6:30pm before their season finale against Toronto FC II on Saturday, October 13th at 7 p.m.