The city of San Diego will become the home of a Major League Soccer (MLS) franchise after Commissioner Don Garber confirmed the city’s inclusion for the 2025 season.
The league commission detailed that San Diego’s “vibrant youth soccer scene” and “multicultural diversity” were motivating factors for the city to gain an MLS franchise, with each piece “making sense”.
The new soccer club will play home games at the Snapdragon Stadium situated on the campus of San Diego State University, alongside NWSL’s San Diego Wave.
The MLS Commission outlined that the next several months will see the MLS San Diego club announce its official team name, crest, colourway, sporting director, head coach, foundational players, training location and more.
“We never lost our focus, we never lost hope in San Diego being a great MLS team and market,” said Garber.
“We are with a great ownership group, great facility and a business staff that’s really going to work hard to build a terrific team in this market.”
San Diego’s CEO, Tom Penn, will work alongside an ownership group that spans across several investors who helped the club achieve MLS status, alongside Penn’s history of working as LAFC’s President from 2018 to 2020.
The ownership group consists of entrepreneur Mohamed Mansour, the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation – a San Diego-based Native American tribe – and MLB All-Star Manny Machado.
Mansour noted that San Diego’s geographical potential was what attracted him to the club and alongside his company, Right to Dream, which also owns Danish club FC Nordsjælland, aims for youth culture to become the bedrock of the club’s success.
He stated: “San Diego is my dream, my new American dream. I thank you all so much for making this happen.
“With Right to Dream methodology, we’re going to be identifying and developing the best youth talent in our region and in the country so we can impact the quality of the game in North America.”
