Forward Madison FC

History

In January 2018, Big Top Events, which owns the Madison Mallards and has operated Breese Stevens Field since 2015, announced plans to bring a soccer franchise to Madison for early 2019. The plan included $2 million invested into renovating the stadium, pending a contract renegotiation with the City of Madison. Big Top Events wanted a longer-term lease, an increase in concerts, more employees, and $1.6 million from the city for facility upgrades. On May 15, 2018, the Madison City Council approved a new ten-year contract with Big Top Events, agreeing to pay $1.3 million toward facility improvements, including an expansion of the stadium for a seating capacity of 5,000.

On May 17, 2018, Madison was officially announced as the fourth founding member of USL League One, a third-division league that began in March 2019. Madison became the first team based in the Midwestern United States to join the league, and is the only current outdoor professional soccer team in Wisconsin. Peter Wilt was appointed managing director; Wilt had previously helped launch teams like Chicago Fire and Indy Eleven. In June 2018, a 'Name Your Club' online voting contest was held, with names ranging from 'Madison United FC' to 'Holsteins', 'Madison Curds', and '77 Square Miles SC'.

On July 16, the final vote was between 'Forward Madison FC/SC' and 'AFC Madison'. Forward Madison FC was announced as the official name on November 18, 2018, along with the logo and team colors. 'Forward' is the state motto of Wisconsin. On September 27, 2018, Daryl Shore was announced as the first head coach and technical director; Shore had previously worked with Peter Wilt at Chicago Fire and served as interim coach of Real Salt Lake in 2017.

Don Smart was the team's first player signing, announced on October 24, 2018. On December 7, 2018, the club announced a one-year affiliation agreement with Minnesota United FC of Major League Soccer. Following the inaugural season, Peter Wilt left to take a position with the league, developing supporters groups and assisting teams with fan engagement. On March 5, 2020, Forward Madison announced a one-year affiliation agreement with the Chicago Fire FC of Major League Soccer.

On December 1, 2020, Carl Craig was announced as head coach and technical director; Craig had previously served as head coach of NASL club Minnesota United. Following a 9th-place finish in 2021, Craig was dismissed. Leading up to the 2022 season, Matt Glaeser was hired as head coach and technical director. COO Conor Caloia confirmed that Glaeser would return for the 2023 season.

Stadium

The team plays their matches at Breese Stevens Field in Madison, which was expanded from a grandstand capacity of 3,740 to 5,000. The stadium was built in 1925 and is the city's oldest sports park. It is owned by the City of Madison and has been operated since 2015 by Big Top Events. The venue has been designated as a city landmark since 1995, and in 2015 was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The stadium hosts the East High School soccer and football teams, the Madison Radicals ultimate team, as well as other sport competitions, concerts, and community events. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the club moved its 2020 USL League One season games to Hart Park in Wauwatosa, seventy-five miles away. Forward Madison FC's inaugural 2019 season saw an average home attendance of 4,292, the highest in USL League One.

Uniforms

The team's logo features a flamingo, as the city's official bird is the plastic flamingo lawn ornament. It was designed at Madison-based graphic design firm Planet Propaganda. The club's light blue color comes from the Madison flag, as does the white sash. At the bottom of the badge, Roman numerals spell out 608, the city's area code.

Forward Madison FC has become known for creating 'bold, interesting jerseys year after year'. In their inaugural season, Forward Madison earned twice as much from shirt sales as the rest of USL League One combined. In 2021, team COO Conor Caloia revealed that 20 percent of the club's gross revenue comes from merchandise, as compared to 8-10% for most other teams. Home jerseys feature a sky blue field with white sash, a reference to the city's flag.

A sublimated flamingo design appears on the home shirt, and sublimated pink flamingos dot the club's inaugural white away jersey. On March 14, 2020, Forward Madison unveiled its second-ever change shirt, featuring diagonal pink stripes with names of 900 season ticket holders in the white space between, designed by members of the supporters group The Flock in what is believed to be a first for professional sports. The club's original pink-patterned third jersey, worn in U.S. Open Cup appearances, was selected as the best world soccer jersey in SiriusXM FC's 2019 'Kit of the Year' competition, defeating the Chicago Red Stars home kit with over 200,000 votes.

A new third kit, the 'Drip Kit', featuring a swirling pattern of navy blue, sky blue, and pink, was unveiled on May 23, 2020, inspired by team designer Cassidy Sepnieski's experiments with hydro dipping. On June 23, 2021, Forward Madison unveiled a new third kit for 2021, including a fully reversible jersey. Dubbed the 'Beach/Club' jersey, it is black with hot pink flamingos on one side, and pink with a hand-drawn Aloha shirt-style design on the other featuring flamingoes, palm trees, and the Wisconsin State Capitol.

They wore the shirt at their next match, playing in the black side for the first half and reversing it to the pink side for the second half. The team believes this was the first time such a change had been pre-planned for a competitive match. The gimmick had been cleared with the USL ahead of time, after the league consulted the Laws of the Game and found no prohibition against it. Later that year, Forward Madison held an unveiling ceremony in Madison and London for the release of an additional shirt to be worn only for friendlies, known as the 'Friends With Benefits' shirt, also designed by Cassidy Sepnieski, covered with checkers of team colors pink, sky blue, and dark blue in fading gradients, with one square being a QR code that fans away from Madison can scan to purchase a beer.

Supporters

Forward Madison FC has an international membership program, Mingos Worldwide, that includes a scarf with the slogan "The World's Second Favorite Team." The alternative rock band The Racing Pulses created the song "Go, Forward!" for the club, and its official music video, shot at Breese Stevens Field, features Mandela Barnes.