Yep. If MLS are having talks with SDSU the big question is who are the investors on the MlS side. Because I can’t see them having the discussions absent someone who wants to bring in a team.
It is my guess MLS owners would like to award and have the 30th club on the field before the 2026 World Cup. The soccer "Don" has always coveted having San Diego as a part of MLS, due to it being an underserved soccer hotbed, along with a rival location which he doesn't want to lose to Liga MX. Therefore, the prefect situation for a perspective ownership group to have a partnership with SDSU, which sounds similar to the partnership that the Galaxy have with Cal State -Dominguez Hills, that makes lots or sense. The possibility exists that Andrew Vassiliadis (principle owner of the USL Championship Loyal), who has the deep pockets in his own rights, would spearhead a local ownership group along with MLS legend Landon Donovan, to bring along, SDSU supporters Steve Altman and Peter Seidler (former members of the FS Investors group) for a bid for an expansion club for San Diego.
Also wonder if Burkle may be involved in some way. He wants his NWSL expansion rights transferred from Sacramento to San Diego and he lives in La Jolla. One of his objections to staying the course in Sacramento was rising stadium costs.
God I hope not. Burble has dangled the carrot twice in Sacramento and then run away. Don’t need him doing it again.
I doubt Altman or Seidler get involved (actually maybe Seidler) but I think Altman and SDSU aren't the best of friends. If anything I could see Vassiliadis hit up the Seals owner (Tsai) and have him as the majority owner.
I could see the Padres guys getting involved. But Tsai is an interesting potential since his NBA dreams appear on ice.
Speaking of Aztec Stadium, the potential MLS team's would be home, she's humming right along on the web cam. Looks like the first deck is well underway with the forms at least there and the decking up on the west side already. The speed it's going up is impressive. https://oxblue.com/archive/f29b7d685c0bbad28f9aeb66ad2fe4ae/current.jpg
I'm posting this in all the San Diego related "expansion" threads that I've seen having San Diego Loyal comments since we do have a USL team now and it would be nice to consolidate discussion on the Loyal. A new SD Loyal Superthread can be found here: https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/san-diego-loyal-sc-superthread.2116085/
Wonder if an investor can be found to take the Loyal to MLS and play in SDSU’s stadium in a profitable yet mutually agreeable way with the university.
I mean we've got one coming to town with his NWSL team, Ron Burkle, who worked with Warren Smith before on Sacramento's aborted MLS move before Warren moved south. And by some accounts Burkle wasn't the one who derailed the Sacramento bid but rather the minority partner Nagle, who wanted full control of the team on someone else's dime.
From what I understand, the "Soccer Don" really wants to see the 30th expansion club in San Diego for many reasons. The biggest being not sure how well MLS clubs will be maintained during the summer months in the Phoenix and Las Vegas desert climates. Also, both markets seem to be close to being over extended for the sports entertainment dollar. My prediction is that MLS will wait till just before the Quatar World Cup to announce the 30th club to begin play in 2024 or 2025 at an expansion fee of $300M. I believe that San Diego has a ownership group working low key in the background working on an agreement between SDSU, the Loyal ownership group (with additional investors) and MLS. As too the Loyal MLS ownership group, I see them as Andrew Vassiliadis, Landon Donovan, Warren Smith, DeAndre Yedlin, and Ron Burkle. So here's hoping and routing for the Loyal to join MLS.
I hope so! I'd love to visit San Diego for an MLS match. Im not so excited to go to Phoenix, LV, Sacramento or Detroit.
Well the likely MLS stadium is humming right along. The upper deck superstructure is in place, as are the light standards. It's not hard to see what she's going to look like. And she'll be a great soccer friendly stadium.
The current Loyal ownership can be minority owners for sure but they still need a big money person to be able to meet the MLS requirements. It makes sense to link Burkle but I am not sure he is on board to be honest. My guess would be Tsai or someone from Qualcomm
I mean it might be Burkle, Tsai, or the guys that were behind the Soccer City plan until they lost their vote to SDSU. There's options that have all expressed some level of interest in sports ownership in SD. Which is frankly a welcome change.
The reason Burkle dumped out of Sacramento was the lots of money that he lost with his investments during COVID-19, additionally the cost of building a stadium. In San Diego that is a non issue with the new stadium under construction. Also with Burkle living in the area and committed to a NWSL club in San Diego it would make sense for him to be involved someway with MLS in San Diego. The Soccer Don has stated he has no issues with Burkle either. In fact he was hoping to do business in the future with him.
That's one theory. Another is that Nagle has continued to want to assert primary control of the team on someone else's dime. Remember Sacramento and Burkle were awarded an MLS team 6 months before COVID hit and cut into everyone's holdings (which in most cases have since recovered for people like Burkle and then some). The contracts were never signed for him to actually own the team way back then and he never cut a check, again before COVID hit. So I'm doubting COVID was the driving factor. Since Burkle's investments are primarily in tech, agro, and media, all of which are humming right along, I'd be shocked if Burkle isn't worth more in 2021 than he was in 2019. That's why the Nagle angle makes more sense to me viewing from the outside. Luckily for San Diego, Nagle is 400 miles away and not involved.
Yes, I have heard the stories about Nagle also. Nagle was taking advantage of Burkle's pocket book, so Burkle didn't have his heart in the Sacramento bid, so he dragged his feet as long as he could, before dropping out.
First new article I've seen regarding MLS expansion prospects in a while: https://www.voiceofsandiego.org/top...es-standing-between-san-diego-and-an-mls-team
Nothing really new there. MLS may be interested in Aztec Stadium depending on the deal the university is willing to cut with any potential MLS team on revenue. That's been the case since Soccer City failed and reportedly the university is open to accommodation far beyond most non-team owned venues.
If sounds like unless SDSU is willing to share the ownership of the stadium, chances of Aztec Stadium seem to be slim. But this doesn't mean that a soccer specific stadium couldn't be built through private investment elsewhere. As part of the NWSL granting an expansion club to Burkle he promised to build a new stadium by 2023. Additionally, the Loyal are looking to built a 10,000 to 15,000 soccer specific stadium. Perhaps they both could work together with the San Diego Unified School District to build the on the site of Balboa Stadium.