Sarasota’s Pro Soccer Team Is Leveling Up

“My dream,” says Sarasota Paradise owner Marcus Walfridson, “is that the community all hangs out at the games, throwing scarves up in the air and chanting, ‘We are Paradise!’”

By Lauren Jackson May 5, 2025 Published in the May 2025 issue of Sarasota Magazine

The team competed against FC Naples on its new home field in March.

Image: Everett Dennison

Marcus Walfridson traveled from Sweden to Sarasota in 2018 to visit an old buddy and quickly came to a realization: Sarasota needed a soccer team.

“I wanted to build something that could be a community asset,” he says. “Where I’m from, soccer is neighborhood-driven and gives that neighborhood a thing to cheer for.”

In this case, that neighborhood is Sarasota—and a few years after Walfridson’s visit, the Sarasota Paradise were born. Now the team is making major moves by relocating its home games to Lakewood Ranch’s massive Premier Sports Campus and joining a higher tier of United Soccer League teams.

In the U.S., professional soccer is dominated by Major League Soccer (MLS), which has 27 domestic teams and three Canadian teams, all sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation. (Orlando’s Orlando City team is the nearest to our area.) The United Soccer League (USL) is often considered the second tier of American soccer, but it’s catching up quickly. There are multiple USL team levels. At the top, there are Championship squads like the Tampa Bay Rowdies, followed by League One and League Two teams. The Paradise, who have played as a League Two team in recent years, are slated to level up and join the USL’s League One roster next year.

Walfridson, 44, hopes that as the USL continues to grow, it will introduce a system of relegation and promotion, in which teams move in and out of leagues based on their performance from season to season. He also understands that the rules can be confusing.

“Honestly, I recommend people new to soccer watch Ted Lasso,” Walfridson says, and he’s only half-joking. “I think the show has done a lot for our country to understand the game.”

Before the team’s move to Lakewood Ranch, the Paradise hosted games at Sarasota High School, where turnout reached as high as 1,000 fans, the maximum capacity for the school’s bleachers. By moving from Sarasota High to Premier Sports, the team will have space for 3,000 fans. “Our main target is to get people out to hang out together, to feel like they’re part of something,” says Walfridson. “Of course, we want to win,” he adds. “I mean, that’s the whole point.”

The Sarasota Paradise’s Travis Ward battles defenders during a recent game.

Image: Everett Dennison

According to Walfridson, the move to Premier Sports has been an easy transition for the team thanks to the complex’s 23 FIFA-sized soccer fields and well-appointed locker rooms. A press box will also open in the near future. “We’re planning for a beer garden with lots of shade, too,” he says.

As the Paradise and USL continue to grow, Walfridson wants to add a local women’s team to the mix, too. “We’re here to make this place better in all ways,” he says.

Ultimately, it’s all about having a good time. “My dream,” Walfridson says, “is that the community all hangs out at the games, throwing scarves up in the air and chanting, ‘We are Paradise!’”