Caleb and Samantha Ginsberg didn’t play soccer in college; they preferred baseball and tennis. They now have two young children at home that keep them plenty busy.
They’re also embarking on an adventure: a mission to start a professional soccer club in New Hampshire.
The Portsmouth couple co-founded New Hampshire Soccer Project. Over the last 10 months, they’ve taken this nugget of an idea and explored it far and wide.
After a run last year, Caleb turned to Samantha, then seven months pregnant, and said, “Wouldn’t that be really cool if there were a stadium there?”
She laughed it off at first. After some time discussing the idea with friends and people they knew in the soccer world, they received only positive feedback. That’s when she knew Caleb might be onto something.
Since then, they’ve hosted multiple World Cup watch parties that served as listening and engagement sessions. After speaking to hundreds of people around the state, the gears have really started to turn. From Bethlehem down to Portsmouth and into Manchester, they’ve only just begun.
“There’s lots of incredible soccer happening across the state, but to my mind there hasn’t been really anything that’s statewide, right, that is truly all New Hampshire,” Caleb Ginsberg said.
When the U.S. men’s soccer team was knocked out of the World Cup by Belgium in the round of 16, it was a deflating blow to soccer fans hoping to grow the game more. Yet the Ginsbergs think New Hampshire has an opportunity to be a catalyst and ride the soccer wave.
The World Cup was the perfect moment to bring the community of soccer fans and newcomers together. It was an opportunity to listen and learn what people want to see for the sport’s future here. They launched a website and social media accounts and worked to set up their first events before the World Cup began.
The Ginsbergs have seen how similar ideas elsewhere sputtered out or failed because they rushed. They instead want to take it slow and get to the core of the soccer community in New Hampshire.
“We wanted to create an environment to bring people together, and for those people to really express their love for the game and for their community,” Samantha said.
The pathway
The idea is nothing new to New England. The history of professional soccer in the region goes far, far back to the early 20th century with the Fall River (Mass.) Marksmen and others.
In the modern soccer-scape of the region, Major League Soccer’s New England Revolution is still the biggest around. Other amateur/pre-professional clubs include the United Soccer League Two’s Epping-based Seacoast United SC, Black Rock FC of Nashua and Burlington’s Vermont Green FC, which also fields a team in the USL Women’s League. To the south, Boston Legacy FC is playing its inaugural season in the National Women’s Soccer League.
Portland Hearts of Pine in Maine probably comes to mind first for its local impact. The team’s launch, branding and consistently sold-out Fitzpatrick Stadium made headlines this past year. Seeing Portland grow was a big reason why the Ginsbergs wanted to start something here in New Hampshire.
In Maine, the Hearts’ success is, in part, thanks to Caleb’s work. He became quick friends with the Hearts’ founder, former Dartmouth College defender Gabe Hoffman-Johnson, while he was working as an attorney. He later joined the club as advisor and outside general counsel for the team.
In combination with Caleb’s expertise with the Hearts of Pine, Samantha worked as a brand manager for Reebok and project manager for Adidas up until 2024. She’s been involved in other non-profit sports work and businesses.
They know the ins and outs of working in sports and are now embarking on their own path while raising their young family.
“You haven’t earned people’s fandom and their attention and their time, and so true community-rooted clubs, I think they take as long as they take, because you’re building them with the community,” Caleb said.
The future
To be the next Portland Hearts of Pine is a long journey. The Ginsbergs don’t know what league the teams would play in, where they would play out of or any of the granular details yet.
The N.H. Soccer Project lists four main objectives: to launch both women’s and men’s clubs competing at the highest levels; create a true home atmosphere and gathering space for the state year-round; build a club that welcomes and represents everyone; and “make New Hampshire proud to fly the flag.”
Samantha noted how diverse the state is — the cultural shifts from region to region in the state, the interests and activities in which people participate, the mountains, the seacoast, the cities. They want the club to feel like it captures some of all of that.
Even in Portland, Caleb said, most fans of the team didn’t start as huge soccer fans. It took time to prove how a soccer club can become a hub for community that bridges social capital.
The Ginsbergs have received very positive feedback, especially from people new to the sport. The watch parties in the streets were huge successes.
“People that are soccer fans are not always loud and proud about it, but I think through this process, so many of those people have been like, ‘Yes, I love soccer, I want to be part of this, I would love to see this in our state,’ ” Samantha said.
Now that the World Cup has come to an end, the work has only begun.
They’ve been working with local filmmakers and creatives to expand their brand and document soccer around the state. They’ve reached out to soccer clubs and teams, like Seacoast United and Manchester’s Beech Street FC.
On Saturday, they will host the first annual N.H. Street Classic in partnership with Concord’s Samba X. Samba X will take the success of its Friday night Keach Park street soccer to the seacoast at Portsmouth’s South Mill Pond Recreation Complex. There will be live music and food trucks as well.
The event will feature a youth tournament starting at 1 p.m., for kids between third and fifth grade and middle school players. The adult/high school tournament will start in the afternoon around 4 p.m., with only one team taking home the cash prize. Spectators are highly encouraged for the adult session, and team sign-ups are free. More information can be found at newhampshiresoccerproject.com.