Lionsbridge

Three Newport News residents, Mike Vest, Kevin Joyce and Dan Chenoweth, gave the city a team of its own and announced it on June 9, 2017. They named it after the Lions Bridge in Mariners' Museum Park and let supporters vote on the crest. Chris Whalley was appointed the first head coach on February 14, 2018, and is still in the job.

Lionsbridge won the Commonwealth Cup in its first season, and in 2019 it was named USL League Two Franchise of the Year. Its home games are at TowneBank Stadium on the Christopher Newport University campus, which holds 4,200. From 2019 the club went 41 home games without a defeat. Charlottesville Blues FC ended that run in May 2024.

Virginia Beach United is the main rival. Their meetings, the "757 derby" (after the area code of the Hampton Roads region), decide the Coastal Virginia Challenge Cup. Lionsbridge has taken the cup in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2026. The 2022 edition drew 3,547 spectators, the biggest crowd in the club's history.

The Chesapeake Division title came in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2026. The 2022 side also won the regular-season title. In 2023 the club won the Eastern Conference and reached the national final in Seattle, where Ballard FC beat it 2-1 with the decisive goal in the last seconds. Sam Hall, who arrived in 2022, holds the club records for appearances (78) and goals (32).

The club also produces players for the professional game: 28 had made that step by early 2026, among them Ricky Louis, who signed with FC Dallas in Major League Soccer (MLS).

The playoffs have not gone the way the league seasons have. In 2025 Vermont Green FC beat Lionsbridge in the Eastern Conference Final, and this year Asheville City SC knocked it out in the quarterfinals despite another division title. The national championship that slipped away in Seattle is still to be won.