MLS’s Newest Team to be in San Diego

MLS’s Newest Team to be in San Diego

Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber announced San Diego as the location for the MLS’s newest team on Thursday. The team will begin playing in 2025, and the announcement of San Diego brings the total number of teams in the MLS to 30.

“We are thrilled to welcome San Diego to Major League Soccer as our 30th team,” said Garber, via statement. “For many years we have believed San Diego would be a terrific MLS market due to its youthful energy, great diversity, and the fact that soccer is an essential part of everyday life for so many people.”

The new San Diego team will play its home games in Snapdragon Stadium, a 35,000-capacity stadium that currently serves as the home of the San Diego State Aztecs college football team and the San Diego Wave NWSL team. The club will be owned by Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Mansour, the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation and Manny Machado of the San Diego Padres.

Brad Termini, the co-founder of Zephyr Partners, and Tom Vernon and Dan Dickinson of Right to Dream are additional owners.

Sycuan Ownership:

With its involvement in the MLS’s newest team, the Sycuan Tribe is the first Native American Tribe to have ownership in professional soccer at any level in the United States. The tribe is one of 12 Kumeyaay Nation tribes in San Diego County and is involved in other local community ventures. These include involvement with the San Diego Padres, San Diego Symphony, Children’s Hospital and hundreds of local non-profits.

Right to Dream:

Right to Dream (RTD) is a group of elite global soccer academies. The group, also owned by Mansour, is mainly based in Africa and has produced numerous world-class players. RTD also has a youth partnership and program with top-tier Danish club FC Nordsjaelland that is admired globally. Seven graduates of the academy represented Ghana and Denmark during the 2022 World Cup.

“We look forward to introducing Right to Dream’s unique developmental approach and unparalleled soccer expertise to San Diego and MLS by delivering tangible benefits to the community as we look to open doors and identify and nurture talent from across the county and beyond,” said Mansour.

The Name of the Team:

No name has been decided upon for the new team. Tom Penn, the CEO of the club, said it will likely be named FC San Diego or San Diego FC. The club’s colors and crest will also be announced either later this summer or in the fall.

What it means for San Diego:

The MLS’s newest team marks a return to the highest level of soccer in the U.S. for San Diego. The last time the city had a first-division men’s soccer club was in 1984, when the San Diego Sockers were part of the historic NASL. The Sockers still exist but are now a professional indoor team.

San Diego does also have two other professional soccer teams, the San Diego Loyal and Albion San Diego. The Landon Donovan-owned Loyal plays in the USL Championship, the second division of soccer in the U.S.

Albion San Diego plays in the third-division NISA league and has a large youth system in San Diego.

It is unclear what will happen to these two existing clubs with the new MLS team. San Diego Loyal chairman Andrew Vassiliadis made it clear that his team is going nowhere. Albion San Diego has a large youth base to fall back on for support and funding. Still, the new MLS team will garner more attention and fans than the other two clubs, potentially putting their futures at risk.

While it is uncertain what will happen to the other clubs in San Diego, the addition of the MLS’s newest team is a positive for both the local soccer community and the city of San Diego. RTD’s involvement will provide youth players with training and a development program yet to be seen in the U.S. The team should also boost the local sports and sports tourism economy.

What it means for MLS:

The decision to award San Diego with MLS’s newest team has now brought the league to 30 teams. There are currently 15 teams in the Eastern Conference and 14 in the Western Conference. The addition of the San Diego team will even the number of teams in both conferences.

San Diego also beat Las Vegas to obtain the newest expansion slot. While it is unclear if further expansion will occur, there is still clear interest despite rising expansion fees. San Diego paid a $500 million expansion fee to become the MLS’s newest team, $300 million more than what St. Louis SC paid to join the league in 2019.

Soccer is rapidly growing in popularity and will continue to do so in the lead-up to the 2026 World Cup. There is also still interest from markets such as Las Vegas, so it will be interesting to see if the MLS stops at 30 teams or if it tries to capitalize on soccer’s growing popularity and pushes for future expansion.

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