Maine's new professional USL League One soccer team based in Portland revealed its club name and logo in front of over 1,000 supporters Saturday.
The team will go by the Portland Hearts of Pine when it competes in its inaugural season in 2025. Deciding on that team name took nearly five years as club founders took insight from focus groups, town halls and soccer events to come up with an identity inspired by Maine pride and symbolism.
The Hearts also released their logo, which features several iconic Maine elements. There's a Maine pine tree -- Maine is known as the pine tree state -- with water in the background along with a Dirigo Heart paying homage to the state's Dirigo star.
"Everything we do is community-built and we knew our biggest challenge was to represent the diverse communities and perspectives across Maine," club founder Gabe Hoffman-Johnson said in a statement. "Across all corners of the state, what we heard from every community was just how proud they are to be a Mainer, and especially how much love they have for our state's natural beauty. That's what links us all, it's our heritage, and those are the symbols we leaned into to represent this club."
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Portland also gained inspiration for its nickname from centuries-old global soccer teams in Heart of Midlothian F.C. in Scotland and Accra Hearts of Oak S.C. in Ghana. The club's motto is "Lead with Your Heart."
Portland was rewarded a USL expansion team in September 2023 and will play its home games at Fitzpatrick Stadium.
NESN's Tom Caron, a native of Lewiston, Maine, is part of the Hearts ownership group.
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Featured image via Portland Hearts of Pine
