MLS is expected to announce plans for a 30th team on Thursday in San Diego, according to Yahoo Sports. Mohamed Mansour, a British-Egyptian billionaire, is reportedly set to buy the franchise for $500 million. The club, which would begin play in 2025 at Snapdragon Stadium, will be owned by Mansour and the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation. The total investment into the organization could top $700 million.
Major League Soccer coming to San Diego was supposed to be the dream come true for all lovers of the beautiful sport, especially for those of us who remember (and were involved in) the Soccer City versus SDSU West battle for the hearts and minds of San Diegans in 2017 and 2018. Now we have an ownership group coming in, at least so far, as popular as the Glazer family is with Manchester United fans. So, let’s go over some potential scenarios when this move does happen and is officially announced.
Scenario 1: Everyone gets along
In this scenario, the words of San Diego Loyal co-founder and former president Warren Smith are proven true when he famously said, “I truly believe that San Diego is the capital of soccer in North America.”
This means both the MLS and USL Championship clubs get enough cross-fan support and are able to tap into the sense of local pride so they can co-exist peacefully and benefit from each other’s success in their respective leagues. Based on some of the present input on social media, sports radio shows, and local television outlets, this scenario seems tenuous at best especially considering the worry from many in the supporters’ groups like Chavos de Loyal and The Locals. One of the main worries so far is that there will be no community outreach or engagement by the MLS club (at least not to the degree that San Diego Loyal has since announcing its arrival in 2019).
Scenario 2: Lord of the Flies sequel
This scenario involves a scorched earth strategy by the MLS club ownership where San Diego Loyal and its supporters are not only seen as a nuisance that is not worth engaging with but also as something akin to the dislike and mistrust we see when the LA Dodgers come to town and San Diego fans can’t wait until they’re gone. This scenario involves drowning out San Diego Loyal in every platform by garnering all the attention using their deep pockets in combination with the MLS brand in hopes that San Diego Loyal goes the way of the Dodo bird.
We’ve gotten a taste of this by how media outlets at the national, and some at the local level, have neglected what the likes of Albion San Diego and the San Diego Sockers have accomplished for decades in terms of bringing the community together around this unifying sport. If this scenario comes to be, it will quickly foster a sense of resentment among the fans of all lower division clubs whether they play in USL Championship, NISA, or UPSL that could be hard to recover from but the MLS club can probably absorb as the initial cost of doing business, especially if it has a successful inaugural season similar to what St. Louis has achieved so far.
Scenario 3: Once Upon a Time in Mexico.
This scenario comes with a disclaimer, which means it’s contingent on how strongly the previous scenario plays out. Let’s keep in mind that the MLS team wouldn’t start playing until 2025, which gives San Diego Loyal the next couple of years to gauge the temperature of how an MLS team will be received. If they are embraced with the same degree of passion and excitement that San Diego Wave Fútbol Club was, or anywhere close to that then this scenario is not only plausible but, in my mind, necessary.
I will admit that my bias has always been towards Liga MX and its club having grown up in a family where both my father and uncle played at the highest levels of professional soccer south of the border. As we all know, there are three MLS teams that are based outside of the United States (Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver), but there has never been a professional soccer team based in the U.S. that plays in a league outside the United States.
If the San Diego Loyal ownership gets to the point of seeing no financial viability versus the MLS club implementing a scorched earth strategy, why not go for the gusto and see if karma is a thing by playing in Mexico? 2025 is when Liga MX and Liga Expansion are expected to return to the traditional pro/rel format that was temporarily halted back in 2020. Based on my research, San Diego Loyal meets all the requirements for joining Liga Expansion except for playing in a stadium that seats a minimum of 15,000 fans. There is also nothing that I have seen in the current Liga Expansion bylaws that prevent a team outside of Mexico from competing in its league.
I know it’s thinking outside the box, but just imagine a scenario where San Diego Loyal pulls a 2012 Xolos de Tijuana when soon after being promoted they come away lifting the Liga MX trophy (I don’t know the feeling myself but San Diego Loyal midfielder Alejandro Guido does since he played with the Xoloitzcuintles when they reached the pinnacle that year). San Diego Loyal would carry the mantle for all the U.S. teams in Mexico along with galvanizing the supporters it has in Tijuana to jump on board and root them on.
The sticking point is still the stadium requirements, but there are ways around that too. Estadio Caliente has a capacity of just over 27,000 and has had a very productive working relationship with San Diego Loyal over the years. Sharing stadiums has never been a big deal in Mexican soccer either, I still remember when Atlante, Cruz Azul, and Club America all shared Estadio Azteca for years and it worked out fine for all parties involved. It also doesn’t hurt to have a name like Landon Donovan in the mix, even if he is no longer the head coach, to make sure all Liga Expansion road games are filled with booing fans who still haven’t gotten over the 2002 world cup and his “Dos a Cero” blasphemy.
Anyway, those are just my thoughts, talk among yourselves and maybe we get to see a San Diego Loyal against Xolos de Tijuana Liga MX final in the near future… and by Xolos de Tijuana, I mean Chivas de Guadalajara.
