Sean Keeler: Why does Denver deserve a women's pro soccer team? A sold-out USWNT crowd on Saturday said it all.

COMMERCE CITY, Colo. — Still looking for a reason to give Denver a women’s pro soccer team? Ben Hubbard can give you 19,000. And change.

“We have hundreds of ambassadors now, around the state, who (were) organizing watch parties, tailgate parties (Saturday),” said Hubbard, co-founder of For Denver FC, nodding at the shoulder-to-shoulder jam on the concourse at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park for the USWNT’s 4-0 thrashing of South Korea.

“(We’re) really active on social media, but they’re self-organizing now. So this thing has taken on a life of its own. As any good fan base does.”

The fans here aren’t just good. They’re committed. Knowledgeable. Hungry. No, starving. Dick’s seats roughly 18,350 for MLS games. The Stars & Stripes on Saturday drew 19,010. For a friendly.

“Yeah, you walk around here, there’s people in the youth soccer community and schools, they all know each other,” said Hubbard, whose For Denver FC is bidding to join the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL). “And so you know, all of that is going to be on full display (here) as we put together a bid. And we’re really excited about showing everybody what this market has.”

It’s got spunk. It’s got loyalty. It’s got grass-roots power, grass-roots dollars, grass-roots juice. Tickets. Time. Merchandise. Whatever. Mothers and sisters and fathers and daughters who asked themselves the same questions that Hubbard, CEO of Parsyl, asked himself at a match here two years ago: Why not us? Why not here? Why not now?

“I was at the stadium with my now 11-year-old daughter, and for two years in a row, she was just like, ‘I don’t understand why we can’t watch women (play professionally),’ ” Hubbard recalled. “And it’s just … it’s a fair question, right?

“And I didn’t have a good answer.”

So he’s been working on one for more than a year now.

“I just got curious – like, ‘Why,’ and ‘What’s changed?’ And ‘Maybe we can change that,’ ” Hubbard continued. “And I really, truly have been so blown away by the groundswell. We lit a spark and there’s just truly a groundswell and it’s self-energizing, at this point.”

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