For Chester, call it Splendor in the Grass

I’m learning more about soccer each day.

That’s because soccer is about to become a very big player on the Delco sports landscape.

The Philadelphia Union started play this year in Major League Soccer.
Their name says Philadelphia, but their home is in Chester.

We were at Turbine Hall in the restored old Peco Power Station Saturday for a job fair being held by the Union to fill jobs at their new home, PPL Park.

The stadium is under construction under the Commodore Barry Bridge on the city’s waterfront.

Yesterday we went inside PPL Park.

For those of you – like me – who didn’t know it before, the playing surface in soccer is not called a field. It’s called the pitch. Don’t ask me why.

Yesterday they started installing the sod on which some of the best soccer players in the world will soon compete.

In Chester.

Many of the 18,500 seats are already in place. There’s no mistaking it, a major league franchise will soon be playing its home games in Chester.

Unfortunately, their first appearance is still more than two months away.

The Union has played “one” home game at Lincoln Financial Field. They will play one more game there. But most of their early schedule will feature road games.

They will not play a game in their new home in Chester until June 27.

But make no mistake. There is a stadium in Chester that is nearing completion. Almost 20,000 people will flock there to watch soccer.

In Chester.

For a city that spent a lot of years down on its luck, but is now in the midst of a renaissance, you might call it Splendor in the Grass.

Or the Perfect Pitch.

Chester is a major league city again.

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