San Diego Expansion? (NGR)

Mr. Boyce, this is a nice little story that broke in the San Diego Union-Tribune weeks ago. The reality is that it will never happen in San Ysidro on the land being talked about. Have you seen the property they are talking about developing. Have you talked to any school board members about this because I have. What's in it for the community? How are you going to get wealthy white folks to drive that far south to attend games when they won't go to the Coors concert venue which is better located near the freeway. Who would ever drive in southbound I-5 traffic on a weeknight, ever, if they didn't live down there. A 30,000 seater? Where would they park the cars, on the side of the mountain? Really?! This is pure fantasy land.

A more likely scenario is John Moores building a 30-40K seat venue for SDSU football once the Chargers have moved to Oceanside and then getting an MLS or even a WUSA-II tenant to share the space.

Thanks for the breaking news. I'll be keeping my Galaxy season seats for a while.

 

I don't really care one way or the other if San Diego gets added, but San Ysidro is a terrible place for a stadium if they are hoping to get Sandy-Agans to show up. Yes, San Diego technically has 1.2 million. So does the San Fernando Valley. San Diego is massive and spread out. Plus, having lived in San Diego for years, I can tell you two things -

1) People will want to drive to San Ysidro like people from LA would want to drive to Valencia for a Galaxy game. It's Central to NO ONE.

2) I don't like painting with such a broad brush, but there are two San Diegos, and the WHITE one won't really be thrilled with driving there for a game.

I'd rather have San Jose back. The NorCal/SoCal rivalry is too sweet.

Vergara has said that if he was going to put a team in San Diego, he would just put it in Tijuana. I don't think it's an option. They'd do better in Pomona.

Totally. With 12 Million between LA, Orange, and San Diego counties (that's just a guess) in a Soccer-friendly area, you could put 4 or five if you spaced them out and gave them distinct areas/personalities (think New York baseball in the 30's)

 

Good point. I can attest first hand how difficult it is to get to the HDC from Pasadena. But more to the point, it's deterred me from going to more games.

I think Temecula would be a great place, equidistant from LA and San Deigo. The town is going gangbusters right now. People are coming in droves. Used to be a bedtime community, but not anymore. Plus it really is a beautiful valley.

 

What did New York in the 30's have that L.A. , the Valley, the I.E., and San Diego don't have? That's right: public transportation.

On the other hand, the problem of driving and traffic is a bit overstated. I would think, and have experienced, that driving on the weekend is one of the few times when the situation on the roads isn't completely insane.

 

What does LA have that New York in the 30's have?

About 6 times the land-mass.

Having a team in the SF Valley, a team in the San Gabriel area, a team Downtown, and a team in Carson would attract wildly different crowds from different areas.

 

The ethnic pandering of Chivas Lite obviously failed, so let's try it again, only a bit closer to Mexico!

 

When LAGs were thinking of a new home I emailed them suggesting the Whittier Narrows parks in the cross section there of I-19 (Rosemead Blvd) & the 60 fwy. There are HUGE blank canvases there of parks and lots of soccer fields. It could easily have been redeveloped with a 30k seat stadium and soccer fields all around. Easy access near the 605, 60, 10, 5 and 710 fwys. in a mostly hispanic area with Pico Rivera, El Monte, San Gabriel, Rosemead, etc all right there. Not to mention its not that far from the Rose Bowl so old fans would still make most of the games and new fans would easily be born.

Obviously it never happened and I miss the Rose Bowl still (im 5 minutes away!)

 

Chivas won't survive in San Ysidro. Thats Tijuana Toros territory......lol

But seriously, I think having Chivas move to the Pomona would be a great idea for Vergara. Pomona is very centrally located and accessible to the SGV/IE population. I know there are lots of Chivas stickers & flags flying in the area and its a good 45 minute drive to Carson w/o traffic...........

 

Perfect place for the Goats...Get them the heck our of OUR stadium!!!! with plenty of room to graze...

 

I think you should go into a sports bar in San Diego and say "what's the point of having separate teams, isn't everything out here just a suburb of LA?" It would be hilarious.

They are completely different places, and San Diego has no affinity for Los Angeles. If anything there's a resentment coming from being the smaller city.

Whether or not there's a "strong" fan base for anything in San Diego is another situation , but the problem with San Diego sports fans not showing up for games is not because they're busy rooting for LA teams.

I'm from SD, and I now live in LA, and I think the perspective is different depending on where you grow up. I'm just curious, do you live in LA or San Diego? I get a kick out of the corresponding digs each city has for the other.

 

The city has had problems with stadium issues, first with the chargers threatening then getting some sweet heart deal in which unsold seats would be purchased by the tax payers?@$#@WTF. Then the 'dres somehow get a 500 million dollar stadium by the water?? when was the last time they did anything? We all saw how even usa vs mexico was not THAT well attended down there and we shall never mention that mls all star game (other factors did hurt it though) San Diego would be a failure 100% positive. The market is too weak to even support their BIG 2 half of the time.
I lived in San Diego for a few years and now live in the 909 but I only follow the Galaxy and the Red Sox (its a family disorder). I have NO bias against SD sports, I even spent 200 dollars on sox vs 'dres tix for the upcoming summer series and Im excited to go down there!! The city CANT support mls though.

 

if any of you remember way back in 1999 MLS has their ALL STAR festivities in San Diego in hopes of placinga team down there. The interest wasn't there. I don't know what has changed. the Chargers adn Padres only draw when they are winning titles The Clippers and Gulls have packed up, one left town the other just went away. I don't see the fans showing up to support a MLS team.

The 45 minute drive to HDC has caused me to miss several games as recently as the Open Cup game. wanted to go just didn't want to deal with the 2 hrs of driving.

 

Why not bring back the San Diego Sockers? There is a huge market in San Diego. I am one of thousands of San Diegans who regularily drive up to see Galaxy games and would love a team closer to home. The USD campus would work nicely as it has for USA matches.

 

I guess its been a while since we've beaten this dead horse but San Diego is not on anybody's MLS short list.

Yes, its near the Mexican border, so what! MLS needs a much broader fan base than the Hispanic market which still supports the Mexican teams or wherever they are originally from, Honduras, El Salvador, Argentina, wherever.

There is no venue and there isn't one on the horizon. Yes, you could rent Qualcomm (too big) or USD (too small, no parking) but you must have your own stadium these days and that absolutely will not happen until the Chargers and then SDSU football solidify their futures.

Even the you need a committed owner/operator and we don't have one of those either. Yes, MLS is courting John Moores, but it is unrequited love right now. Vergara might be dumb but he isn't stupid and he won't come down here any time soon. And this horse manure about the ex-DC guys is exactly that.

Finally, this fickle town just won't support soccer. Yes, the TV ratings for the World Cup were off the charts, but college soccer is ignored, the Sockers weren't supported nearly as well as folks here would have you belive and the WUSA showed that maybe 5000 people cared about pro soccer of any kind here. Before you tell me those are different markets let me tell you that the same people I saw for years (26 to be exact) at the Sockers, Flash, Spirit, etc. are the same people I see today at USD/SDSU games. Galaxy games and Nats events.

This town will support the Chargers and Padres whe they are winning, but for the most part the vast majority of the 3 million county residents are from somewhere else and support someone else in every other sport. When you throw in the vast number of lifestyle sports like cycling, running, surfing, etc. what you end up with is a small number of folks willing to plunk down money for season seats to ANYTHING.

Now as many of you know I was born and raised in LA which fuels much of my love for the Galaxy. Many San Diegans despise LA and its teams. Expansion will not work in my estimation and moving an existing LA based team here won't help either. The league would be much better off adding three teams in SJ, Portland and Seattle. It would help with travel and you would have some built in natural rivalries that wouldlast for years. Imagine an eight-team Western Conference with LA/SJ, Port/Sea, RSL/Col and Dal/Hou. What about Chivas you ask? Who the ********** needs 'em! If Vergara wants a homegrown, single nationalty roster concept that would work, let him move to STL and just build a team of local boys there. A) they could compete and B) the public there (and on a national level too) would buy into it.

In the meanwhile I'll keep making the 100+ mile one-way trip to the HDC, especially if I get more games like Tuesday night's thriller.

 

I can see the next team expansion team going to San Jose.

 

Not until they get their stadium situation sorted out........

 

When was the last time you were in San Diego?

Must have been a while, or you would know that the trolley goes right next to The Q and Petco, and that the line leaving the games are long. People in San Diego use the mass transit system heavily for the games.

 

More misinformation on San Diego.

There were 23,227 fans at the 1999 all star game and that is well inline with the rest of the all star games except for the 1996 game which was a double header and everyone came for the Brazil vs World game. DC only had 21,378 for the 2004 all star game, are you going to tell me there isn't fan interest in DC?

The Padres have been drawing steadily for the last 12 years. They averaged 25,062 in 2003 when they lost 98 games compared to 31,554 in 1998 when they won 98 games and went to the world series. Attendance numbers are great for them in their new park.

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/teams/padratte.shtml

The Chargers averaged 54,182 in 2000 when the went 1-15. That's 77% of maximum capacity.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/attendance?year=2000

The Clippers were a god awful franchise that got the support they deserved. Donald Sterling is an a-hole. The Gulls were supported just fine until the team was dismantled and dropped out of the IHL into the WCHL which was a 4th rate minor league one step above amature.

San Diego will support MLS if it comes here and I'm fully aware of the need for strong ownership willing to build a top flight facility. I'd just appreciate it if people had their facts straight.

 

I went to a few Flash and Spirit games and the level of play was so far below MLS it was unbearable, same with college soccer. We support soccer but not at absolutely every level. How many MLB fans care about minor league baseball? There's no comparison.

The outdoor Sockers did draw well in San Diego until indoor took top priority. Look at their attendance numbers for 79, 80, and 81 in the other San Diego thread.