Latest report on MLS expansion to San Diego

E

espola

From Voice of San Diego today --

The Two Popes of San Diego Soccer
San Diegans have been told a Major League Soccer franchise is around the corner for decades. But Charlie Brown may finally be kicking that ball.

Representatives from SDSU (whose Snapdragon Stadium could host a team), the investment partners (which includes the Sycuan tribe and an investment group helmed by an Egyptian billionaire) and MLS officials are set to meet in San Diego this week. The U-T reported that an announcement of a deal could come later this month. The partners may have to pay an expansion fee of as much as $500 million.

How it works: People don’t own MLS teams. They pay the fee to own a piece of the MLS itself, a company.

Not so loyal: The news seems to have left out San Diego’s existing professional soccer team, San Diego Loyal Soccer Club, which plays in the USL, the United Soccer League. The USL is the Division II league, the lower level below MLS. It’s long been speculated Loyal’s leadership hoped to eventually buy into the MLS and promote the team to that level.

The new investment group appears to not be interested in partnering with Loyal, however. And that has left some local soccer fans pretty salty.

MLS is undoubtedly exciting to soccer fans but some have spent a lot of time building a community around Loyal.

“They’ve spent the last 4+ years of their lives dedicated to San Diego Loyal and you’ll have to give them some reason that they’re gonna leave the club that they’ve really fallen in love with,” said Darren Smith, a sports talk show host with San Diego Sports 760.

This isn’t Europe: In other parts of the world, soccer teams can move into higher leagues by performing well. But USL teams can’t move into the MLS. It has happened before, but only after major investments.

A statement tweeted out on Wednesday by the Loyal seems to confirm that dream is in jeopardy. “We have become aware of an independent ownership group that intends to launch their own club in San Diego,” the tweet read, referencing the investment group in talks with the MLS.

Still, as the name would suggest, the team wrote that that isn’t giving up on San Diego. “Our unwavering commitment is to the vision of growing soccer in this city … We aren’t going anywhere.”
 
I say we get an MLS team that plays half of its games in SD and half in TJ.

This would be exciting for both sides of the border + if they made things easy it would give me a reason to go to TJ again.
 
Carlsbad7 said:
I say we get an MLS team that plays half of its games in SD and half in TJ.

This would be exciting for both sides of the border + if they made things easy it would give me a reason to go to TJ again.
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Love it. Put the stadium across the border with the centerline right on the border...!
 
focomoso said:
Love it. Put the stadium across the border with the centerline right on the border...!
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That might be tough, having to wait two hours before crossing the "border",

"Do you have anything to declare?"
"Just this ball."

More practical might be partitioning the stands so that one side is in each country -- sort of like how some European stadiums segregate the two sides' supporters.
 
espola said:
That might be tough, having to wait two hours before crossing the "border",

"Do you have anything to declare?"
"Just this ball."

More practical might be partitioning the stands so that one side is in each country -- sort of like how some European stadiums segregate the two sides' supporters.
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Nah... it'll be easy coming back. Just say you have Covid, a suitcase of Fentanyl and voted for Biden. They'll carry you across, Fudd.
 
VanMan said:
A couple of thoughts...

How pissed are LD and the rest of the Loyal ownership group?

$500Million is a big effin number for an MLS franchise. St Louis paid less than half of that.

Will be interesting to see how this plays out.
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I was hoping they could come to some accommodation with Loyal. And let's not forget the Sockers, who have carried the soccer flag in San Diego since the '70s. I lost track of how many ex-Sockers players who are coaching in San Diego County.
 
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espola said:
I was hoping they could come to some accommodation with Loyal. And let's not forget the Sockers, who have carried the soccer flag in San Digo since the '70s. I lost track of how many ex-Sockers players who are coaching in San Diego County.
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Hoping, but not holding my breath. If I'm Loyal I'm considering a move closer to the border or up the 15.

And an amen on the ex (sometimes current) Sockers and their roles as coaches throughout the local clubs.
 
Not sure how I feel about all this yet. On one hand it is cool that SD is finally getting an MLS team. On the other hand, I feel like Sockers, Loyal, and everyone who has been putting in the work to build the sport in San Diego just got stabbed in the back.
 
The official announcement was made today, for play starting in 2025.

I don't know how they did it, but there is already a huge billboard advertising the team on Main St. in El Cajon.
 
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It might help keep some of the best SD youth players in SD rather than going to play for MLS academies in LA/SLC/Austin. Be cool if they developed an academy like the Union with a real education, instead of some half-ass on-line program.

How long before SD Surf becomes an affiliate of the SD MLS club? Of course, they'd have to abandon ECNL on the boy's side.
 
focomoso said:
Further reducing the Galaxy fanbase...
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Got comp tickets to the San Jose game. Dignity Health was a ghost town....maybe a 1/3 occupied, and the supporters still mostly boycotting. Hard to see how in the immediate future the Galaxy fanbase can be further reduced.

watfly said:
It might help keep some of the best SD youth players in SD rather than going to play for MLS academies in LA/SLC/Austin. Be cool if they developed an academy like the Union with a real education, instead of some half-ass on-line program.

How long before SD Surf becomes an affiliate of the SD MLS club? Of course, they'd have to abandon ECNL on the boy's side.
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The MLS for Miami, St. Louis and Austin made entry conditional on setting up an academy program. Supposedly they've done the same and won't just be able to affiliate with Surf unless surf bows wholesale to the MLS. The entire LAFC-SoCal thing was a way for LAFC to get behind an established girls program without having to build one, and they kept the ECNL boys, but that was ostensibly permitted because LAFC-SoCal is an affiliate and not LAFC itself.
 
Scrub It Kook said:
Wonder if any current SD MLS Next Teams get assimilated or if they create their own through their Academy
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They'd have to get assimiliated wholesale as opposed to the LAFC-Real SoCal affiliate deal, which means losing their lower level teams and girls leagues (unless the girls academy happens before then).
 
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