FC St. Pauli Las Cruces
This is the story of a FC St. Pauli supporters’ club in the American Southwest. FC St. Pauli Las Cruces is based approximately 8700 kilometers from the Millerntor in a high elevation, desert city of approximately 115,000 people. There is no professional soccer team in Las Cruces and the sport is not the most popular in our region. Though we are not exactly in the Kiez, we are striving to live Sankt Pauli values.
During the 2019-20 season, the gaining popularity and accessibility of German soccer in the United States led to a small handful of friends here in Las Cruces to become supporters of FC St. Pauli. Initially, it was a couple of people periodically meeting to watch games. Though the team was teetering on the brink of dropping to the third level while playing in empty stadiums, the conversations and excitement here centered around what St. Pauli represented off the pitch. One thing we all have in common is that members of our local club are sports fans that have all been directly affected by the greed and commercialism linked to modern professional sports.
In 2022, in response to a random joke on an English-speaking Sankt Pauli podcast, FCSP Las Cruces was formally created. Despite the formal designation of the club coming in response to a joke, our local club’s membership has surged into double digits. We are made up of astronomers, public defenders, teachers, mushroom farmers, tennis coaches, German language majors, retirees, dancers, honor roll students, and German beer connoisseurs. In addition to supporting the (now Bundesliga level) Boys in Brown on the pitch, FCSP Las Cruces is committed to improving our community and attempting to make it a fairer place. Namely, the club is involved in activism throughout our region. FCSP Las Cruces engages in serious, worthwhile activities like regularly volunteering at migrant shelters along the United States/Mexico Border. The club provides donations to the shelters like money, clothes, toiletries, and toys. FCSP Las Cruces also donates time with regular legal representation to migrants living at the shelters, consistently standing for the principle that no human is illegal. The club has also taken part in Black Lives Matter protests and women’s reproductive rights marches.
As for the future, this budding club hopes to continue to grow in our city and region. In keeping with the remote location and nature of our club, we have no social media presence whatsoever. That does not keep us from pursuing real connections. Specifically, the club seeks to work to build personal connections with the greater FCSP international community. If we are proof of anything in this small desert community thousands of kilometers away, it is that the ethos of St. Pauli can exist and even grow in any environment.