Connect with us

Published

on

SAN DIEGO — Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber announced Thursday that the city of San Diego has been handed an expansion franchise, thereby increasing the league to 30 teams.

The news was revealed during an event at Snapdragon Stadium, which is set to be the 35,000-capacity home for the San Diego franchise when it debuts in 2025. MLS’ latest expansion team will be owned by Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Mansour, the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation (now the first Native American tribe to co-own a U.S. professional soccer team) and San Diego Padres star Manny Machado.

Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (U.S.)

“We are thrilled to welcome San Diego to Major League Soccer as our 30th team,” Garber said in a Thursday news release. “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.”

“I am grateful for the opportunity to join the San Diego MLS ownership group,” added Machado in the press release. “I continue to plant roots in this amazing community that means so much to me and build upon my connection with the incredible fans.”

Additional owners include the Zephyr Partners’ Brad Termini and the Right to Dream’s Tom Vernon and Dan Dickinson. Controlled by Mansour’s London-based Man Capital firm, the Right to Dream is a Ghana-based academy that also owns the Danish top flight’s Nordsjaelland. MLS players including the New England Revolution’s Emmanuel Boateng and FC Dallas’ Ema Twumasi are products of the Right to Dream academy.

Additional Right to Dream locations have been built in Denmark and Egypt, with plans for a San Diego-based academy in the future.

“We look forward to introducing Right to Dream’s unique developmental approach and unparalleled soccer expertise to San Diego and MLS by delivering tangible benefits to the community as we look to open doors and identify and nurture talent from across the county and beyond,” said Mansour, who has stated that seven Right to Dream academy graduates took part in the 2022 World Cup.

Tom Penn, former president of LAFC, has been named as CEO for the new MLS franchise, with a name and crest to be revealed at a later date.

The San Diego project recently surpassed Las Vegas in the race for the league’s 30th team. In February, Garber stated that both cities were “the most likely opportunities for 30.” By last month, ESPN reported that San Diego’s group had gained more momentum. According to The San Diego Union-Tribune, the expansion fee for the MLS franchise “is in the $500 million neighborhood.”

San Diego will begin playing in MLS nearly three decades after former league commissioner Doug Logan noted in 1996 that the city was a “prime candidate” for expansion. Since then, an increasingly long list of rumors and reports have emerged regarding interested groups that wanted to bring the top flight of the sport to the Southern California city.

In 2018, one year after the Chargers moved from San Diego to Los Angeles, San Diego State University won a local election to redevelop the Mission Valley space that the Chargers once occupied into an extension of its campus that included the soon-to-be developed Snapdragon Stadium. A competing “SoccerCity” measure, led by U.S. men’s national team icon Landon Donovan, aimed to lure the next MLS franchise but ultimately lost the local election.

Snapdragon Stadium was built and opened by August 2022, and it is currently home to SDSU’s football program, Major League Rugby’s San Diego Legion and the National Women’s Soccer League’s San Diego Wave. In September 2022, the Wave broke the NWSL’s single-game attendance record with 32,000 packing the stadium for a regular-season game against Angel City FC. A month later, the Wave set an NWSL playoff attendance record with 26,215 watching a 2-1 win over the Chicago Red Stars at the venue.

After recently hosting a soccer friendly between Liga MX’s Club America and Club Tijuana in March 2023, Snapdragon Stadium will continue to host the sport this summer through a men’s national team exhibition between Mexico and Cameroon on June 10 and a CONCACAF Gold Cup semifinal match on July 12. On July 25, Manchester United will face Wrexham A.F.C. (owned by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney) in a friendly at the Mission Valley venue.

The San Diego Loyal, a local professional side that plays in the de facto men’s second division of professional soccer in the U.S., are reportedly not involved in the MLS project. Led by Donovan as the executive vice president of soccer operations, the team released a statement earlier this month from chairman and owner Andrew Vassiliadis that stated, “We aren’t going anywhere.”

Regarding additional expansion franchises in MLS, Garber has previously hinted that the league could go beyond 30 teams. However, he told ESPN at the event on Thursday that there were no immediate plans for further growth.

“We never say never to anything because, you know, our plan evolves as the market evolves. We never thought we’d be at 24, we never thought we’d be at 26,” he said.

“[But] I don’t think sitting here today that we have any plan in the near future to go beyond 30 teams. We’ve got a lot of work to do to build the league to sort of capture the opportunity that we all see in front of us in the years to come, particularly through 2026, but who knows what the future looks like after that, but nothing in the immediate future for sure.”

Continue Reading

Sports

Follow live: Kings look to take 3-0 series lead vs. Oilers

Published

on

By

null

Continue Reading

Sports

Hagel suspended for Game 3 due to hit on Barkov

Published

on

By

Hagel suspended for Game 3 due to hit on Barkov

Tampa Bay Lightning winger Brandon Hagel was suspended one game by the NHL Department of Player Safety on Friday night for what it labeled “an extremely forceful body check to an unsuspecting opponent” that injured Florida Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov.

Hagel will miss Saturday’s Game 3 in Sunrise, Florida. The Panthers lead the series 2-0.

Around midway through the third period of Thursday’s Game 2, Tampa Bay was on the power play while trailing 1-0. Barkov pressured defenseman Ryan McDonagh deep in the Lightning zone. With the puck clearly past Barkov, Hagel lined him up for a huge hit that sent the Panthers captain to the ice and thumping off the end boards.

A penalty was whistled, and the officials conferred before calling a “five-minute penalty.” After review, Hagel was given a 5-minute major for interference. Barkov left the game with 10:09 remaining in regulation and did not return to the Panthers’ 2-0 win.

Lightning coach Jon Cooper said after the game that he didn’t expect Hagel to receive a major penalty for the hit.

“Refs make the call. I was a little surprised it was a five, but it was,” he said.

The NHL ruled that Hagel’s hit made “some head contact” on Barkov.

“It’s important to note that Barkov is never in possession of the puck on this play and is therefore not eligible to be checked in any manner,” the league said.

In the Friday hearing, held remotely, Hagel argued that he approached the play anticipating that Barkov would play the puck. But the Department of Player Safety said the onus was on Hagel to ensure that Barkov was eligible to be checked. It also determined that the hit had “sufficient force” for supplemental discipline.

It’s Hagel’s first suspension in 375 regular-season and 36 playoff games. He was fined for boarding Florida’s Eetu Luostarinen in May 2022.

The Panthers held an optional skate Friday. Coach Paul Maurice said Barkov “hasn’t been ruled out yet” but “hasn’t been cleared” for Game 3.

“He’s an irreplicable player,” Panthers defenseman Seth Jones said of Barkov. “One of the best centermen in the league. He’s super important to our team.”

The Lightning lose Hagel while they struggle to score in the series; they scored two goals in Game 1 and were shut out in Game 2. Tampa Bay was the highest-scoring team in the regular season (3.56), with Hagel contributing 35 goals and 55 assists in 82 games.

Continue Reading

Sports

Goalies Montembeault, Dobes leave Caps-Habs

Published

on

By

Goalies Montembeault, Dobes leave Caps-Habs

The Washington Capitals and Montreal Canadiens lost their starting goalies because of injuries in Game 3 of their first-round series Friday night.

Canadiens starter Sam Montembeault was replaced by rookie Jakub Dobes, who made his playoff debut, in the second period. Capitals starter Logan Thompson left late in the third period after a collision with teammate Dylan Strome.

The Canadiens won 6-3 to cut their series deficit to 2-1.

Montembeault left the crease with 8:21 remaining in the second period and the score tied 2-2. Replays showed him reaching for the back of his left leg after making a save on Capitals defenseman Alex Alexeyev. Montembeault had stopped 11 of 13 shots. For the series, he stopped 58 of 63 shots (.921 save percentage) with a 2.49 goals-against average.

Dobes, 23, was 7-4-3 in 16 games for the Canadiens in the regular season with a .909 save percentage. Dobes had a win over the Capitals on Jan. 10, stopping 15 shots in a 3-2 overtime win.

Thompson was helped from the ice by a trainer and teammates after Strome collided with him with 6:37 left in regulation right after Canadiens forward Juraj Slafkovsky made it a 5-3 Montreal lead. Thompson attempted to skate off on his own but couldn’t put weight down on his left leg.

Backup goalie Charlie Lindgren replaced Thompson, who had been outstanding for the Capitals in the first two games of the series, winning both with a .951 save percentage and a 1.47 goals-against average. He made 30 saves on 35 shots in Game 3.

Continue Reading

Trending