Portland Hearts of Pine staff place the final board for the Allagash Brewing sign that reads "From Maine, with Love" at 2:53 p.m. From left are, Stephanie Stockbridge, Tadhg Lake, Ike Doiron, Annalise Keenan and Doiron's father, Mike Doiron. (Daryn Slover/Staff Photographer)

PORTLAND — Tents, banners and bright colors. Food in every corner. Drinks and good cheer.

When the Portland Hearts of Pine host soccer matches at Fitzpatrick Stadium, the staid old high school stadium is transformed from functional to a festival.

When the game is over, workers break it all down and put it all away until the next match. The 15 food vendors and assorted beverage setups are driven out the gate. Ninety minutes after a match, Fitzy is once again a blank canvas.

“You walk in here Monday through Friday, and it looks like an ordinary, run-of-the-mill high school stadium, and they transform it into a proper football grounds,” said Hearts of Pine coach Bobby Murphy. “It’s almost like a Formula One pit crew now. They get it in and get it out. Listen, all the people in the red T-shirts, they do a remarkable job, and I can’t thank them enough.”

It takes over 50 dedicated game-day staffers — the red T-shirt crew — who join with Hearts of Pine full-time employees 4 to 5 hours before a game to decorate and adorn Fitzy with the proper vibe.

The first few games in the inaugural season of 2025 was a frenzied buzz of activity, with staff not exactly sure what needed to be done when, and how much time certain tasks would take.

Mike Doiron of Wilton and his adult son, Ike Doiron of Portland, work on a group responsible for installing most of the large signs all around the stadium. They were on the crew for the first match at Fitzy. The biggest sign advertises Allagash Brewing and says “From Maine, With Love.” Made with multiple panels of heavy Plexiglas, it stretches across the back of four center sections in the visiting stands.

“The first time we did it took two days,” said Ike Doiron. “We worked from 4 to 9 p.m. on a Friday and said we have to call it a day, and came back and finished it on Saturday.”

How long does it take them now?

“Oh, it’s a little slow today,” says Jared Viaya, glancing at his watch as the last panel is hoisted and screwed into a vertical 4×4 board. “We’re at 18 minutes.”

WHY TEAR IT ALL DOWN?

Fitzpatrick Stadium is owned by the city of Portland and is also the primary home for Portland High athletics, as well as many other group and individual users.

Just like other groups that rent the facility — say, the Maine Principals’ Association for its football and lacrosse playoffs — the Hearts can bring their own banners, tents and game-day advertising, and they contract for food and beverage vendors. But the field and stadium are not to be permanently altered without city approval.

The Hearts of Pine have invested approximately $3 million in upgrades and improvements, including new field turf ahead of the 2025 season, improved lighting and sound systems, repairs to the press boxes that had begun to look like abandoned buildings, and two semi-permanent locker room trailers.

As a way to offset the Hearts’ private capital improvements, the men’s team has a 10-year rent-free lease agreement with the city. The yet-to-be-named women’s pre-professional team, planned to start in 2027, will pay the regular Fitzy rental fees for games and practices at the site.

Rock ‘n roll roadies and summer fair carnies would appreciate the way the game-day staffers complete their organized builds and tear downs on match day. The tasks are now embedded in repetitious memory.

Portland Hearts of Pine staff place the final board for the Allagash Brewing sign that reads “From Maine, with Love.” From left are Stephanie Stockbridge, Tadhg Lake, Ike Doiron, Annalise Keenan and Doiron’s father, Mike Doiron. (Daryn Slover/Staff Photographer)

The activity is coordinated by Hannah Sirois, the Hearts of Pine’s vice president of operations, and Dom Moffo, a full-time employee. The set up/tear down staff is divided into several smaller groups, each with specific tasks. Within those groups are directors and captains, assigned as team leaders. Their primary tools are their hands, some battery-operated screw guns, and zip-ties.

“Zip ties, Velcro and tents,” Moffo said. “That’s what holds this place together.”

Grace Golay, 17, and a 2026 graduate of Falmouth High is captain of the Bissell Beer Gardens. She’s been working Hearts games since the inaugural home match. She returned for a second season because “everyone is so nice and it’s a community focused place.”

There is a group responsible for putting up the advertising sponsor boards that surround the playing field. It is a physical job, with lots of 25-pound sand bags to be lifted and placed to keep the signs from toppling.

The “signage” group makes the changes that most prominently signal Fitzy has transformed from high school field to pro sports stadium.

In addition to the Allagash sign, they also raise and attach a 66-foot long tarpaulin banner to the face of the press box. “Portland Hearts of Pine The Soccer Club of Maine” covers up the permanently affixed “Portland High Home of the Bulldogs.”

Add in several more temporary signs for sponsors and/or the club, and Fitzy gets covered with a blanket of color and words. Game-day staffer Adam Sausville said that’s what makes the normally no-frills landscape feel “tucked in and cozy.”

BENEFITS OF THE JOB

The Hearts of Pine will host 20 matches this season. The work schedule is irregular, with games on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Most of the workers will put in an eight-hour shift with some in-game responsibilities, like ball boy on the sidelines, stadium ushers, working in the Kids Zone, or assisting in premium seating areas.

The pay, according to several staffers, is in the minimum wage range of $16.75 to $18 an hour.

But there is one big perk: getting paid to watch the team that sells out every game and has a season-ticket waiting list approaching 7,000.

“The atmosphere here is incredible,” said Mason Nguyen, 16, of Portland. He works on the field board crew with Tobey Fremont, 17, also of Portland. Both are ball boys.

“It’s minimum wage and there is a lot of lifting, but I do it to get into the games,” said Fremont, who is a soccer goalie at Waynflete School.

Portland Hearts of Pine staff briefly pause before tackling their next job. Pictured from left are Cece Fremont, Grace Golay, Cora Berry, Vasco Salomao, Will Winter and Kai Holloway.  (Daryn Slover/Staff Photographer) 

As Hearts of Pine players begin their post-match autograph session with fans, Fremont, Nguyen and almost all of the other game-day staffers start breaking down. The field boards and their sand bags, chairs, tables and mats for covering up television cables are loaded onto carts and stored under the visiting grandstand. The 14 tents are folded up, most going into one of three box trucks. Three on-site storage boxes are used.

The Allagash sign is dismantled. Portland High’s sign on the press box is uncovered.

And Fitzpatrick Stadium is once more a functional no-frills facility for the community to use.

Until it’s time for the next soccer dress-up party.