Expansion, No Promotion Necessary.

Take a break from normal commentary for an out of the way sports thread.

www.mlssoccer.com...

MLS Commissioner Don Garber will speak at a special press conference on Thursday, May 18 at 1:45 pm ET/10:45 am PT to make a major announcement about the future of soccer in San Diego.

Businessman Mohamed Mansour, representatives from the local Sycuan Tribe, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, and additional guests will also feature at the event from Snapdragon Stadium.

Thank you, random Egyptian billionaire. Thank you, rich indian tribe. And with that, we are getting awarded a top flight franchise on the US Soccer pyramid.

For reference, The US/Canada Pyramid has no promotion/relegation and is about equivalent in talent (at the top) to The EFL Championship. Smack between the English Second Tier, Danish league, and Austrian Bundesliga in most coefficient rankings.

It's way better than it was 20 years ago. Far better watch nowadays.

I'm excited. I love following an EPL team vicariously (Whose name will be omitted out of shame), but even 21 years on I feel like a phony because I'm not from London. Just picked a team to support and became a rabid fan. There is just something more exhilarating about being a founding fan of an expansion team in your home city. From the start.

Can't wait. This city needs other professional sports. And this is the world's #13 highest grossing sports league.

We have the next World Cup with Canada and Mexico, here's hoping our top flight league at least rivals Liga MX by that point. A few rankings behind them currently.

Really excited. The Women's Top Flight team here set an attendance record, so here's hoping our first MLS game in a few years is just as successful.

And yes, this is WAY more important for the city than cleaning up the homeless encampments.

originally posted by: Degradation33
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And yes, this is WAY more important for the city than cleaning up the homeless encampments.

That's a sad indictment of society.

The entertainment of 'the masses' is more valuable to you than the dignity and the welfare of the few.

Modern day professional football (soccer) is yet another scam that takes from the average working schlub and enriches the few at the very top.

I'm not saying it shouldn't happen, but if you're trying to improve an area surely it should be balanced rather than just adding a sparkly bit to distract from the horror show behind the scenes.

Also ... what's with "MLSsoccer.com" ... Major League Soccer soccer ... that's a bit like saying PIN Number!

a reply to: AllAnIllusion

Lol.

Well, "Soccer", like in Australia, is only used for disambiguation purposes. Our team will be called San Diego FC. Pretty much all the recent teams are more European named. The league has a "Real", an "Inter" and more FC's than SC's.

Sports are great. I don't care how greedy the owners are because they fill my life with entertainment. The distractions are awesome.

They turned a botched failed attempt to keep The Chargers into a gold mine by building San Diego State's new stadium to be soccer dominant. The old stadium is gone and they turned a mausoleum shrouded in the tears of NFL fans into a multi-billion dollar development site.

For all the failings, this distraction does highlight an unfortunate situation managed right. A smaller, better stadium with 4 permanent tenants.

Now it's just just waiting 22 months for the inaugural game. If it's any indication, there's already thousands of reserved season tickets for a team 4 hours old, and without colors or a crest.

Sports are like the one time people that normally hate each-other cheer together too, so there's much good it does.