MLS is set to welcome its 30th team.
The league announced on Thursday that it will launch an expansion team in San Diego, with the new side beginning play starting with the 2025 season.
The expansion side will play at Snapdragon Stadium, which is also home to the San Diego Wave of the NWSL and San Diego State football. Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Mansour — whose Mansour Group already owns Danish top-flight club FC Nordsjaelland — will lead the new team’s ownership group, which includes the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation, San Diego Padres third baseman Manny Machado, and other local investors.
“We are thrilled to welcome San Diego to Major League Soccer as our 30th team,” said MLS commissioner Don Garber. “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. Mohamed Mansour and the Sycuan Tribe have an incredible vision for building a club that will inspire and unite soccer fans throughout the city and region.”
The team does not have any links with the city’s existing men’s pro team, the USL Championship’s San Diego Loyal. On May 10, that club’s owner Andrew Vassiliadis released a statement saying that the Loyal “aren’t going anywhere.”
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that the expansion fee required to join MLS is “in the $500 million neighborhood,” which would by some distance constitute a new league record. In 2020, Charlotte FC was widely reported to have put $325 million up to become MLS’s 28th team.
Garber had mentioned San Diego and Las Vegas as frontrunners back in February, while also making mention of Detroit, Phoenix, Sacramento, and Tampa Bay at a February event launching their new Apple TV broadcast studio.
Solid prospects for MLS in San Diego
MLS has figured out a lot about expansion best practices. Every league newcomer from 2015 onward has, from an attendance, exposure, and business perspective, been a healthy addition at worst. Los Angeles FC and Atlanta United in particular stand out as two of the best expansion teams in league history.
The 17-month runway San Diego has before they’ll have to start doing things like making draft picks and conducting a preseason is enough time for them to build a club infrastructure. That is undoubtedly the hard part, as expansion teams like FC Cincinnati and Charlotte FC have discovered.
There are other potential stumbling blocks. Snapdragon Stadium’s full dance card (they also host pro rugby) will be particularly difficult in the fall, when the college football season begins. As D.C. United and the Washington Spirit have found while sharing Audi Field with the XFL’s D.C. Defenders, football is very rough on a soccer playing surface, and unlike that groundsharing situation, the San Diego State Aztecs are the stadium’s primary tenant.
Beyond the competition for soccer fans existing with the new MLS side, the Wave, and the Loyal, there is also at least some history of San Diego having affinity for Liga MX. To some extent, locals have adopted Club Tijuana, whose Estadio Caliente is just 24 miles south of Snapdragon Stadium.
That said, between MLS’s ability to bring new teams online in recent years and the deep pockets behind this San Diego expansion franchise, it stands to reason that the new team will enjoy a launch similar to that of the Wave, who despite being in only their second season hold the top two spots for single-game attendance in NWSL history.
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