Opinion: Will San Diego prove it’s a sports city with the arrival of an MLS team? San Diegans weighs in.
San Diego the perfect place to play football
We needed more professional sports teams in America’s Finest City. The San Diego Football Club announcement marks a historic day for San Diego.
There is no other city in the country that has weather like ours that is perfectly suited for an outdoor sport like football. It’s unbelievable that it took an MLS football team this long to settle in San Diego. Besides the weather, we have an incredible youth football scene that is second to none. The fan base will be passionate and will be drawn from two countries.
This unique regional environment in which we live ensures the future growth and success of the club. I can’t wait to become a subscription holder. I will support and encourage our new home team with vigor and passion.
Cho Chomjinda, Mission Valley
It’s a child’s dream to have a new team
I am extremely excited. San Diego is one of the best football markets in the country.
It is also a child’s dream to be able to have a top professional team with an academy in the city.
I think it’s going to be a huge success on and off the pitch. We’ve waited many years for this to happen and it’s finally here. We can’t wait for 2025!
Timothy Roty, Rancho Penasquitos
Football has always been a hard sell here
Can football compete in San Diego against the Padres, Aztecs and even the renegade Chargers? I think the answer is a resounding no! Baseball has been the national pastime for 120 years. Little boys and girls have been playing pickup games, little league and high school games for years. Football also has a strong following. Football is a johnny-come-lately. I don’t think even Ted Lasso can start a fire for sports here in San Diego. Here’s why.
The game doesn’t seem to have the same appeal here that it has around the world. The majesty that the sport generates in other parts of the world does not seem to foment here. I realize that there has been a recent increase in participation in soccer as a youth sport, but there is not the passion that baseball or football generates. How many little boys or girls have posters of Aaron Judge or Fernando Tatis Jr. or Manny Machado on their walls? Compare that to MLS stars. Really no comparison, is there?
And the place? Snapdragon Stadium is a parody. No shadow suggests heat stroke for young and old.
I fear that this company does little to encourage people to adopt a sport that really does not have its roots in this country. I also don’t think cricket or rugby have much of a future in America’s Finest City. We are a football and baseball city. Just ask the NBA’s San Diego Rockets and San Diego Clippers how easy it was to thrive or even survive in San Diego.
Go Pads and Aztecs!
Jack Keane, San Carlos
San Diegos want a championship team
San Diego therefore receives the 30th team of the MLS. What took so long?
Football will work in this city because people love football and want to be loyal to a team that strives to entertain its players’ abilities to the best of their ability.
Fans entered the San Diego Sports Arena as the Gulls and Rockets arrived. Crowds of 14,000 watched the Rockets after drafting Elvin Hayes. Some 13,000 fans packed the doors to watch Willie O’Ree and Fred Hilts skate for the Western Hockey League Gulls. The Chargers, when they were the San Diego Chargers, drew huge crowds to Jack Murphy Stadium. True baseball fans follow the Padres from the Pacific Coast League and Westgate Park. San Diego has some of the best sports fans in the world, and without a few greedy owners, America’s Finest City would still have representatives of sports bigger than baseball.
When I was growing up in San Diego, the only place a fan could see football was on channel 12 or 6, the Tijuana stations. Today, football is the most popular sport in the world. Football is everywhere, in person and on television. Football will thrive here in a city that is so ready to support a Championship team of any type. I have never attended a professional football game. I can’t wait to visit Snapdragon Stadium in 2025 to watch, with 35,000 rabid football fans, the San Diego Osprey, or whatever name the owners choose.
Jim Valenzuela, Poway
