It had the potential to be the darkest moment in the history of Orange County SC – and maybe even the end of the club as people had come to know it.

What it turned into was a galvanizing moment for the club and the fans that had embraced it since it first kicked off at Championship Soccer Stadium in 2017.

“We came within a week of losing our stadium,” OCSC President Dan Rutstein told me this week. “And if we had, possibly the club, because we just don’t know what that would have looked like. I think for the front office, there was this realization of what this club means to the fans.

“Sometimes you don't realize what you’ve got until somebody threatens to take it away from you.”

On Saturday night, Orange County SC will host Miami FC in its home opener on CBS Sports Golazo Network (10 p.m. ET) before a sellout crowd. It will be the eighth consecutive Saturday night sellout the club has welcomed to a venue it was almost forced to depart less than two years ago.

At the center of the moment was a planned potential agreement that would see the LA Galaxy II move into the facility and leave Orange County out in the cold. When news of the potential move became public in August of 2022, local fans were quick to rally around their club.

They showed up in their droves to city council meetings when the matter was on the agenda to voice their support for a club they had become part of, patiently waiting for their chance to speak.

For County Line Coalition supporters group member Carlos Reyes, it was a sign of the community that had been built year-by-year around the club.

A native of Anaheim himself, Reyes has been a supporter of OCSC longer than it’s had its current branding, introduced in 2016 following the acquisition of the club by owner James Keston. The diversity of the county and the way those communities come together and interact has been reflected in the group, which has grown in number each year and now provides a vociferous presence at the north end of the stadium.

According to Reyes, the organic nature of the group has seen members develop strong relationships away from gameday, and even resulted in marriage and children among its members. That community was reflected before the City Council meetings, where familiar faces packed into the council hall to let their voices be heard.

For Rutstein, who admits it’s strange to think about now, the meetings when the club’s future was in peril was in some ways the launching point for where OCSC is now as an organization.

“The outpouring of love and support and that feeling of real strength in the community came from our fans during the period when we were fighting to save the club,” said Rutstein, now in his fourth year with the organization. “Hundreds of them were turning up to sit through council meetings, people were bombarding politicians on social media, the fans really came out – in fact, they did all over the country – but particularly our fans, they really came out and told us what the club meant to them.”

Since then, the club has gained momentum. After securing a one-year extension on its lease initially, Orange County SC last October announced its had secured a 10-year-agreement to call Championship Soccer Stadium its home. That has increased the opportunity for more sponsorship agreements, including a recent five-year extension of the partnership the club holds with local healthcare provider Hoag as its front-of-jersey sponsor.

On top of being able to call Championship Soccer Stadium its home, under its new agreement Orange County SC can add its own branding to the venue, adding visibility for the thousands that visit the Great Park each week. When it faces Miami, the stands will be filled by fans in their new merchandise, including the County Roads design the club released earlier this month in tribute to and collaboration with its supporters.

With Saturday’s home opener already sold out – and the expectation of more to come this season – the brightest days in Orange County SC’s history seem yet to come.

“We just sold-out our season opener,” said Reyes, “and if you had asked me if that had been possible when we first opened up [at Championship Soccer Stadium], or even 10 years ago at Fullerton College and UC Irvine, it’s just really great to see.

“It’s really a reflection of just how far we’ve come.”