August 25, 2023 • 45 mins
San Diego’s men’s soccer team — San Diego Loyal of the United Soccer League — announced this will be their final season.
In May, a coalition of investors bought into Major League Soccer and had their own announcement: a new team is coming to town. They have squeezed out San Diego Loyal.
This week, KPBS's Andrew Dyer — a local soccer nut and host of the San Diego Loyal Locals podcast — joins us to review the recent history of local soccer. We take it back to 2018 and the failed Soccer City project, discuss highlights of the Loyal’s legacy and how San Diego State University steered local soccer to where we are now.
Plus: Hurricane Hilary. The latest in the Nathan Fletcher lawsuits. And a new "Song of the Week."
Join us for our next live podcast and more at vosd.org/events
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
S1 (00:10):
Welcome to the Voice of San Diego podcast in partnership
with Newsradio 600. I'm Andrea Lopez Villafane, managing editor at
Voice of San Diego. And I'm joined this week by
reporter Jacob Mcwhinney. What's up, Jacob?
S2 (00:22):
Hey, Andrea.
S1 (00:24):
How are you?
S2 (00:24):
I'm.
S1 (00:25):
Your voice was so smooth.
S2 (00:26):
Was it? Hey, Andrea.
S1 (00:28):
Okay. Uh, we're also joined by our producer, Nate John. Yo.
S3 (00:34):
Weird, right?
S1 (00:35):
Yeah, super weird. Love it.
S2 (00:37):
Though. The man behind the throne. Man behind.
S1 (00:39):
The show. Coming up on the show this week, San
Diego Loyal is calling it quits. Their chairman announced that
the second Division men's soccer team will fold after the season.
This comes months after the announcement of a new San
Diego soccer club. We have Kpbs Andrew Dyer here to
explain the drama in San Diego's recent soccer history and
(01:01):
an update on the case against Nathan Fletcher. The former
supervisor was accused of harassment and assault this year. Now
there's a legal battle over the DMS between him and
his accuser. We'll share the latest. Plus, Jacob brings us
his song of the week. It's going to be a
good show. Stay with us.
S3 (01:27):
But first, we have a lot of events coming at
you real soon. We have our schools guide workshops happening
throughout the next few weeks featuring Jacob and other smart people.
They'll be answering your questions about schools, education, our schools
guide that we furnish every year. It's a digital and
print magazine to help inform San Diegans about schools and
making good choices for their children. So you can check
(01:49):
that out and the events that are coming up and
PolitiFact is happening.
S1 (01:53):
Wow.
S3 (01:53):
Again, I'm I'm not ready personally.
S2 (01:56):
Yeah, I have PTSD. Yeah.
S1 (01:58):
It's gonna be great. It will.
S3 (01:59):
Be good. It's our annual politics summit. It's happening October
6th and October 7th. There will be one event in
Imperial Beach, another at USD, a full day of public
affairs and politics. It will be good. It's just scary
for us personally.
S1 (02:13):
Yeah. Organizing events and.
S3 (02:15):
Finally Brews and News is back. Our live podcast recording
will be at Original 40 in North Park, a really
cool venue that I've been checking out. Tickets are available
now for that September 6th event. You can find that
event and all the tickets for all of our upcoming
events and some past stuff. Two at storage slash events.
You can get your tickets and we'll see you there.
S1 (02:40):
So we can't really go on this show without talking
about this because it happened.
S3 (02:47):
It did happen.
S1 (02:48):
Did it? No, not really. I don't know. Um, so
Hurricane Hilary.
S2 (02:54):
So I'm gonna jump in here real quick. Uh huh. Remember,
my whole thing about it's going to blow.
S3 (03:01):
Oh, my gosh. I was just looking at that.
S2 (03:03):
So it's gonna blow. Hilary is another. It's gonna blow. Wow.
We always think things are going to be big in
San Diego, and they just. They never are.
S3 (03:11):
They really hyped it up to. Yeah.
S1 (03:13):
You know what would be a good merge like Voice
of San Diego merge like it's going to blow And
then a list of all the things that we're going
to blow but never blew.
S3 (03:22):
That's primo tote.
S1 (03:23):
Bag. But then how would we add to it? I
guess you'd have to leave blank spots. So then, like
voice of San Diego fans could fill in the blank spots.
S3 (03:31):
Dude, you with the merch. I know you got to
talk to the merch about that.
S1 (03:35):
Okay, well, Hillary happened or didn't happen.
S3 (03:38):
It was very much. It's going to blow energy. Yeah. Yeah.
S1 (03:41):
How did you guys prepare? Did you guys prepare?
S2 (03:43):
Um, no. If.
S1 (03:46):
If Jacob.
S2 (03:47):
If it would have blown, I. I would have. I
would have died. Yeah, I would have been on the
losing end of whatever thunderdome post-apocalyptic madness that.
S3 (03:56):
Seemingly a lot of people were prepped for. Costco reportedly
was an insane place. My house at times was very tense.
S1 (04:04):
It was a single grocery store had pulled out like
water bottle, water bottles, what are they called? Pallets or.
S3 (04:12):
Whatever? Oh, yeah.
S1 (04:13):
Like every single grocery store I saw.
S2 (04:15):
Had people.
S1 (04:16):
Pulled them out so they could see them.
S2 (04:18):
People doing too much that you're doing the most. Yeah, I,
I by the time the storm hit, my phone was
at like 15% and I was like, I should probably
plug this in.
S1 (04:28):
Oh, my.
S3 (04:28):
God, you have your minimalist approach.
S1 (04:29):
I do not want to be with you in case
of an emergency.
S2 (04:32):
I mean. Well, to be fair, this wasn't an emergency.
S3 (04:35):
In contrast, I would love to be with Jacob in
an emergency. Our phones are at 0%, and we're just watching. Nope.
S2 (04:40):
Or something like. There you go, dude. Yeah. Watching Pontypool.
S1 (04:44):
Yeah, it was interesting. I mean, I like, I thought, okay,
the worst that can happen is the lights go out. Yeah.
S3 (04:53):
Or maybe like a little bit. Maybe a little bit.
Most maybe five hours maybe.
S1 (04:57):
Yeah. Or like our backyard often gets, like, pretty muddy.
And so I just expected that that would happen. My
worst case scenario was that our neighbor has a eucalyptus
tree and it hangs right over like half of it
hangs right over our house. And so that was mainly
my concern.
S2 (05:17):
Scott would hate your neighbor.
S1 (05:18):
I know he totally lied. So I was kind of like, well,
hopefully the you know, the big branches don't fall on
top of our house or the tree doesn't topple over.
But I think that was my main concern. Also running
out of my Sephora makeup. I, um.
S3 (05:32):
Yeah, you got to tell the people about that. You
shared with us in our in our Zoom meeting. It's embarrassing.
S1 (05:37):
Don't judge.
S4 (05:38):
Me.
S1 (05:39):
I don't know what it says about me. I don't
want to know.
S3 (05:41):
So as your partner was stashing weapons and chili and
any kind of.
S4 (05:47):
Like, water bottle or whatever, water bottles.
S2 (05:49):
Like purchasing a generator, whatever.
S1 (05:51):
Was it? Yeah, it was like a little it was
a solar, like a solar charger. And it would charge,
it could charge your laptop. I think you could plug
in your fridge for a little while. It was intense.
S3 (06:01):
So he's channeling Ron Swanson Energy. And on the.
S4 (06:04):
Other side of the house, he's so.
S1 (06:05):
Ron Swanson. So the day before he said, Hey, like
we're out already. You know, we're going to be in
the house all day Sunday. Is there anything we need?
Are there any stores you want to go to today
while we're still out? And I was like, Yeah, I
really need to go Sephora. I just it was an
option of places where he was going to drive me to.
(06:27):
I wasn't thinking like, Sephora is an emergency. I just,
you know, while we're out and while you're driving because
you know I don't like driving.
S3 (06:35):
While some people are arm wrestling for toilet paper at Costco,
you're like, Hey.
S4 (06:38):
I'm heading up for some venture.
S2 (06:40):
I mean, to be honest, it was it probably would
have been a good time to go to Sephora.
S4 (06:45):
Yeah, you're not wrong.
S2 (06:48):
You know, just go get the most kind of frivolous
thing then. The line is not long.
S1 (06:52):
There's no line.
S4 (06:53):
Yeah.
S3 (06:54):
You probably get like a walk in tattoo appointment or
something at that time that.
S2 (06:58):
That would have been.
S3 (06:58):
Good.
S2 (06:59):
Can I tell you that's how I should have prepared,
you know, like gotten a really fearsome face tattoo. I
didn't get any water, but I got something that'll make
me look scary.
S4 (07:08):
True.
S3 (07:09):
Can I tell you guys a preparation that my household did? Which.
It's very Voice of San Diego. Okay, interesting. So as
we were preparing, like the rice and the beans and
Abby was making chili Abby, my partner, and we're like
downloading like, all of the Disney content so our child
can watch TV in the case of a power outage.
Abby was also like, Hey, we should really fill up
(07:30):
our bathtub with water. So we have all the water
that we need. I was like, But if it's in
the bathtub, I don't know if we're going to drink
it or like, why would, why would we do that?
And she's like, in case the power goes out, like
toilets work if the power goes out. But then they
brought out.
S1 (07:46):
I can't believe you're asking your partner all these questions.
S4 (07:49):
Like.
S3 (07:49):
It's nothing but questions. It's a whole thing. We have
to be very clear about everything that's happening.
S2 (07:53):
See the.
S4 (07:54):
Water?
S1 (07:54):
Someone was questioning what I wanted to do. I would
be very upset.
S4 (07:58):
The water? Well, I'm the.
S3 (07:58):
One who's filling up the water and filling up my
gas tanks and going to 7-Eleven to get more water.
I have to ask questions.
S2 (08:03):
Well, the water in the bathtub doesn't strike me as
very voice of San Diego. But all the questions about
the water in the bathtub. Yeah, this is basically.
S3 (08:10):
So this all led them to a post that was
created in the year 2011 by none other than Scott Lewis.
The headline reads.
S1 (08:19):
You can't get rid.
S4 (08:19):
Of that guy.
S3 (08:20):
The power went out in the city, pooped itself, which
is a great headline.
S4 (08:24):
Oh, my God.
S3 (08:25):
Full stop.
S4 (08:26):
Great headline. I have to find this.
S3 (08:27):
Yes, you do. And it was furnished because you may
remember in the year 2011, there was that huge power
outage that affected much of the city of San Diego.
S2 (08:36):
Have a good story about that.
S3 (08:37):
Like half a day, maybe a full day. I don't
really remember. I was smoking a lot of weed in college. Um,
but it talks essentially about how San Diego gets and
processes its water for the entire city, and some of
that is generated by electricity, some of it natural gas.
But electricity is what moves the water in the city.
So if the power goes out, we will not get
more water, Our toilets will still work, but we won't
(08:58):
get the water. So Abby, read that post and that's
why I filled my bathtub up with water and I
just had water sitting. Abby came.
S4 (09:06):
Back.
S3 (09:07):
Wow. That's what they do.
S2 (09:08):
You know, I actually. I filled my bathtub up with
water that night, too, but it was because I took
a bath.
S4 (09:14):
As you're.
S3 (09:14):
Like, smoking a cigar and drinking your red wine.
S2 (09:17):
I wish it would have.
S4 (09:18):
Happened at.
S1 (09:18):
15%.
S2 (09:20):
I wish I would have had a cigar kicker.
S3 (09:22):
What's your power outage story?
S2 (09:24):
I'm curious. Okay, so, uh, at the time, I worked
at a movie theater. Nice. And I hope my old
boss or anybody. I'm not going to say I'm not
going to say the movie theater, but my old boss.
S3 (09:36):
Was it AMC, though?
S2 (09:37):
It was not. It was not. My old boss was
was dating my roommate at the time and I was
housesitting for my grandparents. And they have this beautiful pool
over by San Diego State. And I was working that day.
Power went out and I'm sitting there like, Oh man,
this really sucks. I want to let go and swim.
(09:59):
And my boss called in and said, Hey, you know,
you can go to a skeleton crew, just send Jacob home.
And by the time I got back to the to
the apartment or to the house, my boss was there
with my roommate and she had just like, let me
go home because she wanted to go swimming, too. It's
pretty great.
S4 (10:16):
Yeah.
S3 (10:17):
There are perks.
S4 (10:18):
Yeah, yeah.
S2 (10:19):
Yeah.
S3 (10:21):
Also, maybe I might this might include this. But I
think that even though voice of San Diego's main purpose
is not weather coverage, we did a really good job
having a lot of good weather related stories that fit
in our various niches ahead of Hillary. I thought that
was pretty solid of us. Mostly you.
S4 (10:36):
Good job. Thanks.
S1 (10:37):
Thanks. I think we've hired a freelancer, Rob Kier, and
he's amazing. I was kind of just following him on
Twitter and Scott mentioned like, we should see if he
would be open to doing freelance and yeah, it was great.
I mean, super popular post, but I think it just
helped make people or it just helped people make sense
(10:59):
of what was happening.
S3 (11:01):
And like the places that are going to flood story
by Will and Jacob.
S1 (11:05):
The top five places.
S3 (11:06):
That was a great line in there that I really loved.
S4 (11:09):
Uh, Mission.
S3 (11:10):
Valley is the crown jewel of flooding in San Diego,
something like that.
S1 (11:13):
It really Jacob was like.
S2 (11:14):
You're welcome too.
S1 (11:15):
Much. I was like, It's just enough. So we've been
talking a lot about the race to replace Nathan Fletcher
on the Board of Supervisors. Indeed, if you remember, he
resigned this year following allegations that he sexually harassed and
(11:40):
assaulted an employee while he was the chair of the board.
Now there's a big legal battle brewing. Fletcher says his
relationship with the MTS employee her name is Gracia Figueroa,
was consensual. She's suing because she says it wasn't. And
this week we learned that Fletcher's lawyers are trying to
(12:02):
get all of the Instagram DMS between Fletcher and Figueroa,
and Figaro. S team is trying to stop that effort.
S2 (12:12):
So I'm curious, why can't Fletcher just show all of
his DMS?
S3 (12:20):
I actually know the answer to this. I'd say probably
because of your story and through sitting through lots of
hours of podcasting, I believe Fletcher specifically told Figueroa and
himself said that delete as you go. This is like.
That's right. Nothing in our histories type situation. Yeah. So
he doesn't have them.
S1 (12:39):
Yeah so in her lawsuit she claims and there's a
section in it where she claims that he wrote to
her saying, quote, Can you do me a favor and
delete our chats? I would hate for someone to grab
your phone. My staff has access to my account, so
delete as we go. You're good to be 100% discreet.
Question mark, end of quote. And so I have a
(13:01):
lot of questions about Instagram, DMS, because, I mean, I.
S3 (13:05):
Thought you would have the answers about Instagram DMS.
S1 (13:07):
Well, yeah, but I have questions about what's going on
because I believe that there is a way for you
to get deleted messages because I have tried, um, deleted
messages from your Instagram and basically you have to like,
it's kind of complicated. You put in a request and
then Instagram will email you like your entire conversation.
S4 (13:28):
Um, interesting.
S1 (13:29):
Yeah. I don't know if there's a, some sort of like, time,
you know, requirement or time that it holds your own messages.
S3 (13:39):
Or time that they would like a lot like a
window of time where they would allow you to retrieve it.
In that way. We're stored in a server like somewhere else.
Far away. Exactly. Exactly.
S1 (13:48):
Yeah. So it happened is in July, Fletcher's attorney served Meta.
S3 (13:53):
The parent company of Facebook and Instagram. The whole.
S4 (13:56):
World.
S1 (13:57):
The whole world with the subpoena for photos, Instagram records.
But her attorneys argued that the subpoena was too broad
and it would include private information like her passwords, her
location and made it metadata. So, you know, there were
sort of talking with Fletcher's attorneys and Figaro's attorneys. In August,
(14:21):
Fletcher's attorneys offered to ask Meta not to include personal information.
So basically they were saying like, all right, we've put
out the subpoena to this company. Yeah, but we'll tell
that company not to include that. But they weren't changing
anything in their subpoena. And so Figaro's attorneys were like, no, no, no,
like you. Why won't you just, like, change something?
S3 (14:43):
So if Mehta did relinquish the records, that doesn't mean
that they are making it public so that the public
can then see it. They would just be relinquish it
to the attorney team, right? Like the legal.
S4 (14:52):
Team, right.
S1 (14:53):
Yeah.
S3 (14:54):
So there's essentially like this back and forth, this like
subpoena arm wrestling where Fletcher's team wants to get more records.
Vigorous team is saying it's too broad. You have to
narrow it down and be more specific maybe or just,
you know, stop the request altogether. Is that kind of
the vibe that we're at right now.
S4 (15:10):
For the story?
S1 (15:11):
That's the vibe. But I think another vibe for us
personally is why was she fired? I think it's you know,
Scott wrote a story about this back and forth about
the Instagram DMS, but like he pointed out big questions
Why was she fired? MTS has yet to provide proof
(15:32):
or documentation to support the claims that they said were
related to why they fired her. We try to do
with performance issues. They've yet to release any sort of
formal investigation. And so I think those are some of
the big questions that we're still kind of wondering what happened.
S3 (15:49):
Yeah, because everything around her firing seemed was maybe kind
of iffy or it was kind of difficult to ascertain,
like why exactly she was fired, especially considering that there
were no like. Performance improvement actions are like a track
for her to improve her performance or any records to
indicate that she wasn't doing well at her job before this.
S4 (16:09):
Happened that.
S1 (16:10):
We know of. I mean, her her side. And what
she has said is that her being fired was really
shocking and that, no, she wasn't put on any sort
of performance review plan or issued warnings about her performance issues, which,
like as employers, anyone who's had a job, if you
have had issues with your performance, that's typically something that
your employer does.
S4 (16:32):
Works in a.
S3 (16:33):
Bureaucratic place like the Metropolitan.
S4 (16:34):
Transit.
S1 (16:35):
Yeah, you would assume. I don't know. So we'll keep watching.
UU (16:40):
I am suffering by a couple. Tell me just so
you'd have me. Capturing.
S2 (17:00):
You were just listening to Angel by the local band
Moon Daddy. It's what I chose for this week's Song
of the Week, something we've been including in the Morning
report every week. And I. So what do you guys think?
What are the thoughts?
S3 (17:14):
I really liked it. I thought it was dreamy, which
I don't want to overuse that descriptor from your last
song of the week that you chose. But there's like
kind of a soundscape going on that feels very light
and floaty and kind of dreamy. It's pretty refreshing. It's.
It's nice.
S2 (17:28):
Yeah, for sure. No, and I've been a big fan
of Kara Parker for a while. She's the songwriter behind
Moon Daddy. Her previous project, Whisper Girl, was also very cool.
But this this comes from Moon Daddy's new album, Poet Lies,
that just dropped last week on one of my favorite
local labels, Volar. And listening to this, I had an
(17:50):
idea that I wanted to include something from Moon Daddy
as the Song of the Week because the whole album
really kicks ass. But you know, as I was giving
the whole album a listen this weekend, this one really
jumped out at me as something that's really dynamic and
showcases her beautiful voice. And, you know, it starts off
(18:10):
as this kind of sparse, dreamy, as you said, synth
pop song as it changes. It does halfway through the song.
It does. It morphs into something that's that feels much
larger and and feels more kind of engrossing and encapsulating. Trust.
(18:39):
And it's one of those songs that I it's just
been in my head since I listened to it. So I,
I definitely recommend you checking out Moon Daddy's album, Poet Lies.
You can pick up a vinyl copy on on their
Bandcamp and, you know, give them a listen. Give them
give them a like. You can keep up with all
(19:01):
of the songs of the week with the Morning Report.
We've been doing them on Thursdays, but I think we're
gonna switch to Wednesdays, a sort of hump day treat.
And so definitely, um, give them a listen. Shoot me.
S1 (19:16):
Any ago where you come for on.
S4 (19:18):
Monday treats.
S2 (19:20):
Uh, give them a listen and shoot me an email
at Jacoby at org. If you have a song that
you think we should be jamming to.
S1 (19:35):
We're going to take a quick break. Stay with us.
So speaking of brews and news, where you get to
meet the cool podcast crew live, the last time we
were live, if you guys were there or you listen
to that episode, you might remember that we were joined
(19:57):
by Ricardo Campos. He's the president of the San Diego
Loyal Soccer Club. And when Ricardo was with us, that
was the week that MLS announced that San Diego would
host its next soccer team. But Campos, which we agreed
was all kind of awkward having him there at the
same time that this announcement was coming out. It was.
S3 (20:17):
Awkward, but I feel like that's kind of what made
it fun.
S4 (20:18):
And fresh. Yeah, it was a great show.
S1 (20:19):
I mean, it was awkward for him, but maybe great
for us.
S3 (20:21):
It was a good show.
S1 (20:22):
Yes. But he said it was all good for the sport.
Here's what he said.
S5 (20:26):
We're talking more about soccer. Right. And so for us,
it's about growing the game in many ways in a
market that has been underserved from a professional level. So
having the wave here has been great, has been great.
That game that they that they were they broke the
record for 30,000 their home opener at Snapdragon. We also
sold out the same day. Yeah so it's for us
the more the better and it continues to grow the
(20:48):
game at every level. There's a lot of kids here
who grew up and have left San Diego. Joe Corona
is a great example who left, went to play for us,
went to play for America because he didn't have a game,
a team to play for here. So being able to
bring him back and play for us was a dream
come true for him in many ways. And there are
a number of players who continue to leave because they
didn't see that. So it's wonderful that there's more pathways
for these kids to develop and become professionals.
S3 (21:10):
So it like boosts like the love of soccer for
everyone in San Diego, all around warm vibes. And then.
S2 (21:17):
When your girlfriend gets another boyfriend.
S1 (21:19):
Warm by, it just.
S2 (21:20):
Boosts the love in that room, right? Yeah.
S1 (21:23):
But this morning.
S6 (21:25):
Four years ago, Landon Donovan, myself, and our group of
investors started on a journey to bring professional soccer back
to San Diego. I'm very proud of what we have
accomplished in the first three seasons from enduring a pandemic
to making a make it into the playoffs to then
making it a playoffs here for our first ever home
(21:46):
game in Torreira Stadium and now in our fourth season
looking to make the playoffs once again. Over the last
six months, myself, Ricardo Campos and a small part of
my team have been looking at all viable options up
and down the coast for us to find solutions for academy,
for training facilities, for stadiums from Oceanside down to the border.
(22:09):
We've looked at everything and left no stone unturned. Unfortunately,
after looking at all of that, I've come to the
conclusion that this will be the last season for San Diego. Loyal.
S1 (22:21):
They're calling it.
S4 (22:21):
Quits. Yeah.
S1 (22:22):
When I. When? Well, actually, I only heard about this
when you guys were talking about it during our Zoom
meeting earlier today on Thursday, because, you know, I'm not
a sports person, but.
S3 (22:32):
It was in the group Slack Channel.
S4 (22:33):
In the group Slack Channel.
S2 (22:36):
But she's not a slack person.
S1 (22:37):
Slack person either, especially like before 9 a.m..
S4 (22:40):
It was a rough morning.
S1 (22:41):
It was. So in the studio, we have Andrew Dyer,
a Kpbs reporter, long time soccer lover, host of the
Loyal Locals podcast, a show dedicated to the San Diego
Loyal Soccer Club. But I thought of Andrew because Andrew
has the greatest takes. I mean, I think you can
get him started on public agencies that tweet out photos
(23:02):
of cute animals, but we'll save that.
S4 (23:04):
For another day. Do it.
S2 (23:05):
In like a.
S4 (23:06):
Fake dog voice. It's got to have.
S2 (23:09):
It's got to be.
S4 (23:10):
Like.
S2 (23:11):
I feeling pod.
S7 (23:12):
Tastic today. Like, that's that's what really does that.
S3 (23:15):
You like that or you don't like.
S4 (23:17):
That doesn't like.
S7 (23:18):
It. I do.
S4 (23:18):
Not. Oh interesting.
S2 (23:19):
You don't find it endearing when Balboa Park tweets about
like a dog day and they say we had a
possum time at the park today.
S7 (23:26):
No, I don't. And especially whenever they're drooling.
S3 (23:28):
Over these dogs.
S7 (23:29):
And sometimes they like, attribute it as if the dog
is the one tweeting like they'll do it in like
first person.
S2 (23:37):
No, I think pet accounts are we should have left.
S7 (23:41):
Them back in. I blocked.
S2 (23:42):
20 tens.
S7 (23:42):
I blocked the Wii rate dogs years ago years ago.
S3 (23:47):
Animal stuff aside, that's Andrew Dyer of Kpbs, military reporter
who loves football stuff or soccer stuff?
S4 (23:53):
Sports?
S7 (23:55):
Yeah, I go by either one, soccer or football. My default.
S3 (23:59):
Was football because football club.
S7 (24:00):
I like I like football too. But people who are
very pedantic will tell you that it started as soccer
in England and then when the US adopted soccer, they
went back to football.
S4 (24:11):
Because Oh really?
S7 (24:12):
I mean, I'm not, I'm not a historian.
S4 (24:15):
Okay.
S3 (24:16):
But you imagine had feelings when you learned of this
news this morning.
S7 (24:20):
Oh, it's it's devastating for fans of San Diego. Loyal
for sure.
S1 (24:25):
One thing, have you been a fan?
S7 (24:27):
Oh, I mean, since the club began. Since it was announced.
S3 (24:32):
What was that like right before the pandemic ish?
S7 (24:34):
Well, it was 2019.
S3 (24:35):
Oh, really?
S7 (24:36):
Whenever it kind of started. So if we. To go back.
Just this all kind of came out of the ashes
of soccer city. There was the referendum and it was defeated. Right.
The Landon Donovan men's soccer icon, maybe the greatest American
player ever, wanted to bring an MLS team to San Diego.
(24:59):
MLS has long targeted this market, but it was defeated
at the ballot by that was 2018 ish.
S3 (25:05):
Yes. Okay.
S7 (25:07):
Defeated by San Diego State? Yeah, it's a different investment group,
but Landon Donovan is part of this one. Out of
the ashes of that came San Diego Loyal. And a
lot of the people, the fans who were previously involved
in Soccer City just naturally kind of pivoted to San
(25:31):
Diego loyal. So you have to understand about about soccer,
unlike other sports like baseball, where there is a minor
league or the NBA where there's this G League soccer
doesn't work like that. It's a it's a pyramid. So
MLS is at the top of the pyramid. They're the
the first division. And then the USL championship is the
second division. But it is in no way a minor league.
(25:54):
These are professional soccer players. Many of them have spent
time in MLS, many of them have spent time in
Europe and in Mexican clubs.
S3 (26:01):
So they would like play at the highest level and
then go down to this division, not down, but then
also play at this division. It's not like an all
roads lead to MLS, correct thing, Correct.
S7 (26:08):
Right. So there are a lot of players, players like
Alejandro Guido and Joe Corona, who are homegrown. Guido is
from Chula Vista, Joe Corona's from National City Sweetwater High School.
These are players who played in MLS, played in the
Amex and who because of loyal and, you know, maybe
they haven't been able to maintain either due to injury
(26:31):
or age to stay at those top levels. They've been
able to continue playing professional soccer for their hometown team.
So it's been it's a great experience for fans because
these are these players are so accessible. You know, they
will talk to you. They'll stay long after games are
done signing autographs. They're very down to earth and it's
(26:55):
a very intimate fan experience. So losing that is, you know,
it's really affecting San Diego loyal fans today.
S2 (27:04):
And it seems like the Loyal really worked hard to
create kind of a community around the club and kind
of prided themselves on on not only speaking to the
concerns of the community, but also just kind of embracing
several aspects. I mean, is that something that that you
saw and that you experienced?
S7 (27:22):
Yeah. So I want to take you back to to 2020.
During the pandemic when we couldn't go to these matches,
there were no fans in the stands. San Diego Loyal
was in a playoff fight, actually. And there had been
an incident with one of the players on the team.
(27:43):
Somebody called him a racial slur during a game called Who?
The Elijah Martin, one of the San Diego loyal players.
So many a.
S2 (27:53):
Player from another team called him.
S7 (27:55):
Yes. Wow. And the club made a statement about it.
This doesn't belong in our game. You know, football in Europe.
And there's this long problem with racism and all kinds
of troubling behavior from fans. And, you know, globally, football
has tried to stamp out a lot of this stuff. So, yeah, sure.
And then the next week, Loyal was playing in Phoenix
(28:15):
against Phoenix Rising, a team that is kind of like
our rival that we we we don't love to hate them.
We just kind of hate them. Right.
S4 (28:23):
And um.
S7 (28:25):
A player on Rising used a homophobic slur against Colin Martin,
who is an openly gay soccer player. He plays midfield
for San Diego Loyal. And instead of just calling attention
to the the referee or waiting for after the game
to have the, you know, the players suspended or whatever,
(28:47):
the loyal they walked off the field and ended up
forfeiting the game.
S3 (28:51):
Walked off the. Yes.
S7 (28:52):
Oh wow. And forfeited a game. A game that they
were winning. And had they won, they would have earned
their first ever playoff berth. But when the player was
not removed from the field or ejected from the game,
the entire the players on the field and the head
coach at that time, Landon Donovan, made the decision to
walk off the field and forfeit the match. So the
(29:15):
club from the beginning kind of established this kind of
values system that really spoke to its fans and really
endeared the club to its fans. It's been very you know,
they had a Black Lives Matter jersey that year that
said Black Lives Matter. On the back of it. They've
got they do pride month they had a their latest
(29:36):
Jersey release this season is a. A pride jersey with
rainbow colors on the collar and a very cool kind
of topographic rainbow pattern on it. So the club has
done a lot value wise to to speak to its fans.
And I think I talked to Steve Brock. He's the
president of the locals. I talked to him today and
he was saying that, you know, that moment when they
(29:57):
walked off the field is when he stopped being just, okay, yeah,
that's my club. That's I'm a fan of this club
to being like, this is my club. This this club
represents me and I want to represent them. So it
was really one.
S3 (30:09):
Of those kind of like getting at that soul connection
vibe that you were talking about with some English teams
that they have where they're trying to actually build into
the community.
S7 (30:17):
And soccer is very different from other professional sports. You
don't really I mean, there are passionate baseball fans and
passionate football fans.
S3 (30:24):
Passionate pickleball players, you.
S7 (30:25):
Know, but with with soccer specifically, you have these supporter groups.
And for loyal it's a few groups travels to loyal
the locals rainbow loyalty and the the fiends but everybody
is in the same section behind the goal and there
are songs, chants and drumming.
S3 (30:46):
Like all these different support, San Diego loyal support groups,
kind of all band together in the same part of
the stadium. Yes. Why are there so many? Why isn't
there just one like power in numbers? You know.
S4 (30:56):
It's.
S7 (30:57):
Partly cultural. Some people like certain design aesthetics for their
scarves and some people want to do their own scarves
or their own stickers. But it's all kind of for
the same purpose, getting together at these matches and, you know,
supporting the team through drums, chants and songs. And it
goes from the beginning of the match to the end
of the match without yeah, without pause.
S4 (31:19):
And so it's.
S3 (31:20):
Athletic event for.
S4 (31:21):
You to win or.
S7 (31:21):
Lose. Yeah. And it's for these fans and for the
rest of the fans in the stadium. It creates a
very fun soccer atmosphere that you're not going to get
at most other clubs in the US all championship especially.
You do get it in MLS. There are some great
supporter groups in MLS, but in the championship, people among
(31:44):
the supporter community like to think that that they in
San Diego do it better than any other of the
US all clubs.
S4 (31:51):
Oh interesting.
S1 (31:52):
What were your thoughts when you heard that an MLS
was coming to San Diego?
S7 (31:56):
So listen, this is a question with two completely different
answers because.
S1 (32:00):
So where did that really weird? So you can tell
that I don't do sports?
S7 (32:03):
No, it's really valid because in the grand scheme of
things with with soccer, right? Because San Diego Loyal is
a relatively smaller club. They do not have a professional
academy for the youth.
S3 (32:18):
Right. Do you mean smaller in terms of like their
budget or like the organization size?
S4 (32:23):
Both.
S7 (32:24):
Yes. So MLS, that is a whole other ballgame. So
right now, the top youth soccer prospects in San Diego,
if they want to be a pro, the best pathway
for them is for real Salt Lake to sign them
to their academy or lafc to sign them to their academy.
(32:45):
And they move and they are part of this academy.
And this can happen as young as 12 or 13
years old. Wow. So that does not exist in San Diego.
And it really couldn't exist with San Diego. Loyal because
it's expensive to run an academy. So our best young
talent are every year kind of siphoned off by MLS clubs. Now,
(33:08):
there are exceptions, of course, most notably C.J. Fodor, who
was part of Loyal Select. They do have a select
team that plays at the kind of the academy level.
Fodor then left and played at San Diego State for
a year and then was drafted in the top ten
in the MLS draft. He is now at Austin. FC.
(33:29):
So Loyal did provide kind of that professional pathway for
for C.J., but by and large that that professional pathway
was a little more difficult to navigate for San Diego
soccer players. So with the MLS Club coming and its owner, Mansour,
has already, you know, said they are going to build
(33:49):
an academy, this they are going to have a proper
you know, he's affiliated with this right to Dream Academy
that they have in other locations. So there will be
a proper developmental academy in San Diego, which is really
good for those players here that have the talent and
the desire to become professional players. It just makes that
(34:12):
path much clearer. You can see the road map, whereas
now that doesn't exist. So in that case it's good.
I'm glad MLS is coming. Miles Well, I said the
top prospects.
S1 (34:26):
Mike Oh, I mean, he's a.
S7 (34:28):
Great he's a great player.
S1 (34:29):
I'm Andrew's son.
S4 (34:31):
They didn't he one.
S7 (34:33):
Of his old teammates did is one of those kids
that got pulled to the real.
S4 (34:36):
Salt Lake.
S7 (34:37):
Academy. He was not.
S4 (34:41):
But, you know, for.
S7 (34:43):
The the fan side, this is not new. Right? There
used to be a USL team in Austin. The Austin Bold,
They don't exist anymore. This has happened in other cities
that had USL and when MLS comes to town. The
USL club can't compete and is, you know, muscled out
of the market. And if you listen to Andrew Odyssey's statement,
(35:06):
you know, he he basically says that with MLS and,
you know, the economic reality of not having a home
field to play in, they've been playing in trailer stadium,
which it's very difficult to make money for the team.
There is, as I understand, you know, there's just no
economic road for the team to stay viable. So in
(35:27):
that sense, MLS did what a lot of people who
were wary about the MLS announcement were afraid would happen.
And we're seeing it.
S2 (35:37):
This is probably a basic question, but I mean, why
is there no collaboration between the US and the MLS?
I mean, why couldn't the Loyal and San Diego Football
Club sort of merge and create something that has the
sort of respect and trust of the community but but
has this bigger platform and a place like Snapdragon to play?
S7 (35:59):
You know, that's a really great question. And in Europe
that definitely does happen. They have promotion and relegation in
Europe where a club can succeed in a third or
second division and earn promotion to the next division. Up
there are these great stories of teams being promoted into
the English Premier League and and having success. You know,
(36:21):
Leicester City won the Prem and I think it was
2016 and they had been, you know, in like two
divisions down, you know, in years before that. And they
were able to play their way to the top of
the English football pyramid. And that's something that's just impossible
in the United States because we don't have a football pyramid.
We have a closed system that's dominated by MLS and
(36:45):
there is no winning the USL championship and getting promoted
to MLS. There is no finishing last in MLS and
being relegated to the USL. You finish last, you're just
last and you try again next year like in other
American leagues. So there's have been instances of MLS teams
(37:08):
either buying the USL club and kind of using that
to come up to MLS. Portland Timbers notably one of
the better like MLS franchises. So it has happened, but
it takes the MLS team to literally basically take over
(37:29):
the USL club and buy it and then keep its
branding or whatever and move it up. And that was
something that just was not going to happen in San Diego.
S3 (37:40):
Is that theoretically the cheaper option? You just see a
property that's already there and you buy it rather than
like growing your own team from scratch.
S7 (37:48):
I don't know the economics of it really. For fans,
it seemed like the obvious option because, you know, it's
a very easy transition if you're a fan of San
Diego Loyal and they are going to the new MLS
team is going to, you know, take over that branding
and whatever, it's very easy to transition to and supporting
(38:09):
the MLS team and I'm not privy to any of
the details. I know there were talks between the MLS
Investment Group and Loyal at at some level at some
time in the last.
S3 (38:21):
I feel like Campos maybe alluded to that in the
live podcast. It was obviously it was like a very
weird news rich time where you couldn't share all the information,
but that was kind of like the vibe that got there. Yeah,
maybe there were some conversations like that happening that they
couldn't necessarily divulge.
S2 (38:36):
I went back and listen to it and Scott asked,
you know, will the Loyal be involved with this MLS team?
And he basically said there need to be two sides
that are willing to collaborate. Yeah. Which I mean and
has that possibility is it there's no chance of it
happening now it's too late I mean.
S7 (38:55):
Well I think that. You know, no chance. I mean,
you know, this, you know, Egyptian billionaire, this Tory, he's
a British Tory. I don't he could decide to open
the chequebook and buy loyal today and say, you know what,
forget it. This will be.
S4 (39:12):
For him, you know.
S7 (39:14):
But I don't I don't think that's going to happen.
Of course, I haven't talked to him. I haven't talked to.
S3 (39:20):
You don't have his digits. You can't just text up Mansoor.
S7 (39:22):
But it it just it my opinion, if that were
going to be the road forward, it would already be
the road forward. And the fact that.
S3 (39:32):
If it got to this point where the announcement was
made this morning, it wouldn't happen if all these other
things proceeded.
S7 (39:37):
Right now, tomorrow, they could announce it. And I look,
you know, like I really don't know what I'm talking.
That's what everything is for. Andrew But yeah, um, it's
just a matter of does the investment group even see
value in loyal its branding and the IT as a property?
My understanding is that, you know, apart from the, the
(39:59):
fan base, you know, maybe there wasn't the value there.
S3 (40:05):
The thing that I that kind of struck me in
the announcement by.
S7 (40:09):
Andrew.
S3 (40:09):
Vesalius yeah Vesalius He had the announcement this morning. The
thing that he was saying in the announcement kind of
struck me was they were just like looking all up
and down the coast for like a place where they
could potentially, I guess, like grow in the future or
kind of like be. How is it that MLS like
impact is so great that they couldn't just like move
(40:29):
to Oceanside or Chula Vista or somewhere else, like in
the region and still have enough space for both of
those markets?
S7 (40:36):
Well, there's another partner in this whole thing that you're
forgetting about in that San Diego State Snapdragon Stadium. Yeah,
MLS would not be here if it weren't for Snapdragon. No,
this is the great irony. When we go full circle
to the first thing I talked about was the failure
of Soccer City. San Diego State said that the stadium
they were going to build would be capable of hosting
(40:57):
professional soccer, which.
S3 (40:59):
They've done a lot with San Diego Wave, right? Yes.
S7 (41:02):
Yes. So, you know, the existence of Snapdragon Stadium is
what opened the door for MLS to be in San Diego.
MLS has wanted to be in San Diego for a
long time. This has been a running joke in MLS
for I don't think it's been like 20 years. They
really talk about wanting to get into the San Diego
market and it was, you know, the lack of that infrastructure,
(41:24):
the lack of a stadium that was really the the issue.
And now there's a stadium. And look at look at that.
There's a team coming.
S3 (41:36):
Well and now San Diego Loyal plays at Torero Stadium
at USD. There are they're not comparable stadium sizes in
the region as far as you know is Torero really
like at that threshold of being big enough to contain them,
but not so large that it's just too big?
S7 (41:49):
Most USL teams play in stadiums of between 4000 to,
you know, 12,000 capacity, maybe some push 15,000. But the
best attended USL clubs like Sacramento. You know they pull,
you know ten maybe 12,000 per game I think Torero
(42:11):
Stadium max capacity is around 6000 and loyal has averaged
just over 5000 per game. So they've done a good
job of filling Torero. But you need a stadium that
is really kind of purpose built at that size. And,
you know, in order for the club to make a profit,
they really kind of need to control the stadium. And
(42:32):
in best case scenario, on the stadium themselves versus paying
rent at in a place like Torero was.
S3 (42:37):
Never a long term solution.
S7 (42:39):
Right? Right. It was not the there was efforts, as
the statement from Andrew Vesalius alluded to, efforts to find
a location to continue playing. And those efforts just came
to nothing. Apparently it's very difficult to get a stadium
built in San Diego County.
S4 (42:59):
You know, don't say who knew.
S1 (43:03):
Scott's like probably really upset. He's missing this episode.
S2 (43:06):
I'm relieved. It is difficult because it got rid of
those horrible chargers. I, I, I'm born and raised in
San Diego and I have always hated the Chargers and
I am so glad they are not here anymore.
S4 (43:18):
Wow.
S7 (43:18):
Yeah. You know, the psychological scars of the chargers. I mean,
that's part of the reason San Diego loyal is called
loyal because the whole kind of idea was that they
were going to be loyal to this community and they
weren't going to move away.
S3 (43:33):
They had their best season ever this year.
S4 (43:35):
I read.
S7 (43:36):
Um, well, last year they did finish in the top
of the Western Conference and earned a home playoff game.
Right now they are sitting fifth in the Western Conference
in the US championship, which is an away playoff game.
So we are not on track to host a game
and that could change their away at Rio Grande Valley
(43:58):
this weekend. And then the next home game is next
Sunday back at Torero so they could turn things around.
There's a lot of very talented players on that team
and hopefully they're able to, you know, really have a
good sendoff at the end of the season and give
the fans something to really kind of remember them by.
S1 (44:26):
Thanks for listening to the Voice of San Diego podcast,
the most popular public affairs podcast in San Diego. Don't
forget about our events, brews and news, politics and more.
Check everything out at stores, slash events. We're excited to
see you. I'm André Lopez, managing editor at Voice of
San Diego. Jacob is our education reporter. Nate John is
(44:47):
our producer. Special thanks to Andrew Dyer for joining us.
Thanks for listening. We'll talk to you next week.
Welcome to the Voice of San Diego podcast in partnership
with Newsradio 600. I'm Andrea Lopez Villafane, managing editor at
Voice of San Diego. And I'm joined this week by
reporter Jacob Mcwhinney. What's up, Jacob?
S2 (00:22):
Hey, Andrea.
S1 (00:24):
How are you?
S2 (00:24):
I'm.
S1 (00:25):
Your voice was so smooth.
S2 (00:26):
Was it? Hey, Andrea.
S1 (00:28):
Okay. Uh, we're also joined by our producer, Nate John. Yo.
S3 (00:34):
Weird, right?
S1 (00:35):
Yeah, super weird. Love it.
S2 (00:37):
Though. The man behind the throne. Man behind.
S1 (00:39):
The show. Coming up on the show this week, San
Diego Loyal is calling it quits. Their chairman announced that
the second Division men's soccer team will fold after the season.
This comes months after the announcement of a new San
Diego soccer club. We have Kpbs Andrew Dyer here to
explain the drama in San Diego's recent soccer history and
(01:01):
an update on the case against Nathan Fletcher. The former
supervisor was accused of harassment and assault this year. Now
there's a legal battle over the DMS between him and
his accuser. We'll share the latest. Plus, Jacob brings us
his song of the week. It's going to be a
good show. Stay with us.
S3 (01:27):
But first, we have a lot of events coming at
you real soon. We have our schools guide workshops happening
throughout the next few weeks featuring Jacob and other smart people.
They'll be answering your questions about schools, education, our schools
guide that we furnish every year. It's a digital and
print magazine to help inform San Diegans about schools and
making good choices for their children. So you can check
(01:49):
that out and the events that are coming up and
PolitiFact is happening.
S1 (01:53):
Wow.
S3 (01:53):
Again, I'm I'm not ready personally.
S2 (01:56):
Yeah, I have PTSD. Yeah.
S1 (01:58):
It's gonna be great. It will.
S3 (01:59):
Be good. It's our annual politics summit. It's happening October
6th and October 7th. There will be one event in
Imperial Beach, another at USD, a full day of public
affairs and politics. It will be good. It's just scary
for us personally.
S1 (02:13):
Yeah. Organizing events and.
S3 (02:15):
Finally Brews and News is back. Our live podcast recording
will be at Original 40 in North Park, a really
cool venue that I've been checking out. Tickets are available
now for that September 6th event. You can find that
event and all the tickets for all of our upcoming
events and some past stuff. Two at storage slash events.
You can get your tickets and we'll see you there.
S1 (02:40):
So we can't really go on this show without talking
about this because it happened.
S3 (02:47):
It did happen.
S1 (02:48):
Did it? No, not really. I don't know. Um, so
Hurricane Hilary.
S2 (02:54):
So I'm gonna jump in here real quick. Uh huh. Remember,
my whole thing about it's going to blow.
S3 (03:01):
Oh, my gosh. I was just looking at that.
S2 (03:03):
So it's gonna blow. Hilary is another. It's gonna blow. Wow.
We always think things are going to be big in
San Diego, and they just. They never are.
S3 (03:11):
They really hyped it up to. Yeah.
S1 (03:13):
You know what would be a good merge like Voice
of San Diego merge like it's going to blow And
then a list of all the things that we're going
to blow but never blew.
S3 (03:22):
That's primo tote.
S1 (03:23):
Bag. But then how would we add to it? I
guess you'd have to leave blank spots. So then, like
voice of San Diego fans could fill in the blank spots.
S3 (03:31):
Dude, you with the merch. I know you got to
talk to the merch about that.
S1 (03:35):
Okay, well, Hillary happened or didn't happen.
S3 (03:38):
It was very much. It's going to blow energy. Yeah. Yeah.
S1 (03:41):
How did you guys prepare? Did you guys prepare?
S2 (03:43):
Um, no. If.
S1 (03:46):
If Jacob.
S2 (03:47):
If it would have blown, I. I would have. I
would have died. Yeah, I would have been on the
losing end of whatever thunderdome post-apocalyptic madness that.
S3 (03:56):
Seemingly a lot of people were prepped for. Costco reportedly
was an insane place. My house at times was very tense.
S1 (04:04):
It was a single grocery store had pulled out like
water bottle, water bottles, what are they called? Pallets or.
S3 (04:12):
Whatever? Oh, yeah.
S1 (04:13):
Like every single grocery store I saw.
S2 (04:15):
Had people.
S1 (04:16):
Pulled them out so they could see them.
S2 (04:18):
People doing too much that you're doing the most. Yeah, I,
I by the time the storm hit, my phone was
at like 15% and I was like, I should probably
plug this in.
S1 (04:28):
Oh, my.
S3 (04:28):
God, you have your minimalist approach.
S1 (04:29):
I do not want to be with you in case
of an emergency.
S2 (04:32):
I mean. Well, to be fair, this wasn't an emergency.
S3 (04:35):
In contrast, I would love to be with Jacob in
an emergency. Our phones are at 0%, and we're just watching. Nope.
S2 (04:40):
Or something like. There you go, dude. Yeah. Watching Pontypool.
S1 (04:44):
Yeah, it was interesting. I mean, I like, I thought, okay,
the worst that can happen is the lights go out. Yeah.
S3 (04:53):
Or maybe like a little bit. Maybe a little bit.
Most maybe five hours maybe.
S1 (04:57):
Yeah. Or like our backyard often gets, like, pretty muddy.
And so I just expected that that would happen. My
worst case scenario was that our neighbor has a eucalyptus
tree and it hangs right over like half of it
hangs right over our house. And so that was mainly
my concern.
S2 (05:17):
Scott would hate your neighbor.
S1 (05:18):
I know he totally lied. So I was kind of like, well,
hopefully the you know, the big branches don't fall on
top of our house or the tree doesn't topple over.
But I think that was my main concern. Also running
out of my Sephora makeup. I, um.
S3 (05:32):
Yeah, you got to tell the people about that. You
shared with us in our in our Zoom meeting. It's embarrassing.
S1 (05:37):
Don't judge.
S4 (05:38):
Me.
S1 (05:39):
I don't know what it says about me. I don't
want to know.
S3 (05:41):
So as your partner was stashing weapons and chili and
any kind of.
S4 (05:47):
Like, water bottle or whatever, water bottles.
S2 (05:49):
Like purchasing a generator, whatever.
S1 (05:51):
Was it? Yeah, it was like a little it was
a solar, like a solar charger. And it would charge,
it could charge your laptop. I think you could plug
in your fridge for a little while. It was intense.
S3 (06:01):
So he's channeling Ron Swanson Energy. And on the.
S4 (06:04):
Other side of the house, he's so.
S1 (06:05):
Ron Swanson. So the day before he said, Hey, like
we're out already. You know, we're going to be in
the house all day Sunday. Is there anything we need?
Are there any stores you want to go to today
while we're still out? And I was like, Yeah, I
really need to go Sephora. I just it was an
option of places where he was going to drive me to.
(06:27):
I wasn't thinking like, Sephora is an emergency. I just,
you know, while we're out and while you're driving because
you know I don't like driving.
S3 (06:35):
While some people are arm wrestling for toilet paper at Costco,
you're like, Hey.
S4 (06:38):
I'm heading up for some venture.
S2 (06:40):
I mean, to be honest, it was it probably would
have been a good time to go to Sephora.
S4 (06:45):
Yeah, you're not wrong.
S2 (06:48):
You know, just go get the most kind of frivolous
thing then. The line is not long.
S1 (06:52):
There's no line.
S4 (06:53):
Yeah.
S3 (06:54):
You probably get like a walk in tattoo appointment or
something at that time that.
S2 (06:58):
That would have been.
S3 (06:58):
Good.
S2 (06:59):
Can I tell you that's how I should have prepared,
you know, like gotten a really fearsome face tattoo. I
didn't get any water, but I got something that'll make
me look scary.
S4 (07:08):
True.
S3 (07:09):
Can I tell you guys a preparation that my household did? Which.
It's very Voice of San Diego. Okay, interesting. So as
we were preparing, like the rice and the beans and
Abby was making chili Abby, my partner, and we're like
downloading like, all of the Disney content so our child
can watch TV in the case of a power outage.
Abby was also like, Hey, we should really fill up
(07:30):
our bathtub with water. So we have all the water
that we need. I was like, But if it's in
the bathtub, I don't know if we're going to drink
it or like, why would, why would we do that?
And she's like, in case the power goes out, like
toilets work if the power goes out. But then they
brought out.
S1 (07:46):
I can't believe you're asking your partner all these questions.
S4 (07:49):
Like.
S3 (07:49):
It's nothing but questions. It's a whole thing. We have
to be very clear about everything that's happening.
S2 (07:53):
See the.
S4 (07:54):
Water?
S1 (07:54):
Someone was questioning what I wanted to do. I would
be very upset.
S4 (07:58):
The water? Well, I'm the.
S3 (07:58):
One who's filling up the water and filling up my
gas tanks and going to 7-Eleven to get more water.
I have to ask questions.
S2 (08:03):
Well, the water in the bathtub doesn't strike me as
very voice of San Diego. But all the questions about
the water in the bathtub. Yeah, this is basically.
S3 (08:10):
So this all led them to a post that was
created in the year 2011 by none other than Scott Lewis.
The headline reads.
S1 (08:19):
You can't get rid.
S4 (08:19):
Of that guy.
S3 (08:20):
The power went out in the city, pooped itself, which
is a great headline.
S4 (08:24):
Oh, my God.
S3 (08:25):
Full stop.
S4 (08:26):
Great headline. I have to find this.
S3 (08:27):
Yes, you do. And it was furnished because you may
remember in the year 2011, there was that huge power
outage that affected much of the city of San Diego.
S2 (08:36):
Have a good story about that.
S3 (08:37):
Like half a day, maybe a full day. I don't
really remember. I was smoking a lot of weed in college. Um,
but it talks essentially about how San Diego gets and
processes its water for the entire city, and some of
that is generated by electricity, some of it natural gas.
But electricity is what moves the water in the city.
So if the power goes out, we will not get
more water, Our toilets will still work, but we won't
(08:58):
get the water. So Abby, read that post and that's
why I filled my bathtub up with water and I
just had water sitting. Abby came.
S4 (09:06):
Back.
S3 (09:07):
Wow. That's what they do.
S2 (09:08):
You know, I actually. I filled my bathtub up with
water that night, too, but it was because I took
a bath.
S4 (09:14):
As you're.
S3 (09:14):
Like, smoking a cigar and drinking your red wine.
S2 (09:17):
I wish it would have.
S4 (09:18):
Happened at.
S1 (09:18):
15%.
S2 (09:20):
I wish I would have had a cigar kicker.
S3 (09:22):
What's your power outage story?
S2 (09:24):
I'm curious. Okay, so, uh, at the time, I worked
at a movie theater. Nice. And I hope my old
boss or anybody. I'm not going to say I'm not
going to say the movie theater, but my old boss.
S3 (09:36):
Was it AMC, though?
S2 (09:37):
It was not. It was not. My old boss was
was dating my roommate at the time and I was
housesitting for my grandparents. And they have this beautiful pool
over by San Diego State. And I was working that day.
Power went out and I'm sitting there like, Oh man,
this really sucks. I want to let go and swim.
(09:59):
And my boss called in and said, Hey, you know,
you can go to a skeleton crew, just send Jacob home.
And by the time I got back to the to
the apartment or to the house, my boss was there
with my roommate and she had just like, let me
go home because she wanted to go swimming, too. It's
pretty great.
S4 (10:16):
Yeah.
S3 (10:17):
There are perks.
S4 (10:18):
Yeah, yeah.
S2 (10:19):
Yeah.
S3 (10:21):
Also, maybe I might this might include this. But I
think that even though voice of San Diego's main purpose
is not weather coverage, we did a really good job
having a lot of good weather related stories that fit
in our various niches ahead of Hillary. I thought that
was pretty solid of us. Mostly you.
S4 (10:36):
Good job. Thanks.
S1 (10:37):
Thanks. I think we've hired a freelancer, Rob Kier, and
he's amazing. I was kind of just following him on
Twitter and Scott mentioned like, we should see if he
would be open to doing freelance and yeah, it was great.
I mean, super popular post, but I think it just
helped make people or it just helped people make sense
(10:59):
of what was happening.
S3 (11:01):
And like the places that are going to flood story
by Will and Jacob.
S1 (11:05):
The top five places.
S3 (11:06):
That was a great line in there that I really loved.
S4 (11:09):
Uh, Mission.
S3 (11:10):
Valley is the crown jewel of flooding in San Diego,
something like that.
S1 (11:13):
It really Jacob was like.
S2 (11:14):
You're welcome too.
S1 (11:15):
Much. I was like, It's just enough. So we've been
talking a lot about the race to replace Nathan Fletcher
on the Board of Supervisors. Indeed, if you remember, he
resigned this year following allegations that he sexually harassed and
(11:40):
assaulted an employee while he was the chair of the board.
Now there's a big legal battle brewing. Fletcher says his
relationship with the MTS employee her name is Gracia Figueroa,
was consensual. She's suing because she says it wasn't. And
this week we learned that Fletcher's lawyers are trying to
(12:02):
get all of the Instagram DMS between Fletcher and Figueroa,
and Figaro. S team is trying to stop that effort.
S2 (12:12):
So I'm curious, why can't Fletcher just show all of
his DMS?
S3 (12:20):
I actually know the answer to this. I'd say probably
because of your story and through sitting through lots of
hours of podcasting, I believe Fletcher specifically told Figueroa and
himself said that delete as you go. This is like.
That's right. Nothing in our histories type situation. Yeah. So
he doesn't have them.
S1 (12:39):
Yeah so in her lawsuit she claims and there's a
section in it where she claims that he wrote to
her saying, quote, Can you do me a favor and
delete our chats? I would hate for someone to grab
your phone. My staff has access to my account, so
delete as we go. You're good to be 100% discreet.
Question mark, end of quote. And so I have a
(13:01):
lot of questions about Instagram, DMS, because, I mean, I.
S3 (13:05):
Thought you would have the answers about Instagram DMS.
S1 (13:07):
Well, yeah, but I have questions about what's going on
because I believe that there is a way for you
to get deleted messages because I have tried, um, deleted
messages from your Instagram and basically you have to like,
it's kind of complicated. You put in a request and
then Instagram will email you like your entire conversation.
S4 (13:28):
Um, interesting.
S1 (13:29):
Yeah. I don't know if there's a, some sort of like, time,
you know, requirement or time that it holds your own messages.
S3 (13:39):
Or time that they would like a lot like a
window of time where they would allow you to retrieve it.
In that way. We're stored in a server like somewhere else.
Far away. Exactly. Exactly.
S1 (13:48):
Yeah. So it happened is in July, Fletcher's attorney served Meta.
S3 (13:53):
The parent company of Facebook and Instagram. The whole.
S4 (13:56):
World.
S1 (13:57):
The whole world with the subpoena for photos, Instagram records.
But her attorneys argued that the subpoena was too broad
and it would include private information like her passwords, her
location and made it metadata. So, you know, there were
sort of talking with Fletcher's attorneys and Figaro's attorneys. In August,
(14:21):
Fletcher's attorneys offered to ask Meta not to include personal information.
So basically they were saying like, all right, we've put
out the subpoena to this company. Yeah, but we'll tell
that company not to include that. But they weren't changing
anything in their subpoena. And so Figaro's attorneys were like, no, no, no,
like you. Why won't you just, like, change something?
S3 (14:43):
So if Mehta did relinquish the records, that doesn't mean
that they are making it public so that the public
can then see it. They would just be relinquish it
to the attorney team, right? Like the legal.
S4 (14:52):
Team, right.
S1 (14:53):
Yeah.
S3 (14:54):
So there's essentially like this back and forth, this like
subpoena arm wrestling where Fletcher's team wants to get more records.
Vigorous team is saying it's too broad. You have to
narrow it down and be more specific maybe or just,
you know, stop the request altogether. Is that kind of
the vibe that we're at right now.
S4 (15:10):
For the story?
S1 (15:11):
That's the vibe. But I think another vibe for us
personally is why was she fired? I think it's you know,
Scott wrote a story about this back and forth about
the Instagram DMS, but like he pointed out big questions
Why was she fired? MTS has yet to provide proof
(15:32):
or documentation to support the claims that they said were
related to why they fired her. We try to do
with performance issues. They've yet to release any sort of
formal investigation. And so I think those are some of
the big questions that we're still kind of wondering what happened.
S3 (15:49):
Yeah, because everything around her firing seemed was maybe kind
of iffy or it was kind of difficult to ascertain,
like why exactly she was fired, especially considering that there
were no like. Performance improvement actions are like a track
for her to improve her performance or any records to
indicate that she wasn't doing well at her job before this.
S4 (16:09):
Happened that.
S1 (16:10):
We know of. I mean, her her side. And what
she has said is that her being fired was really
shocking and that, no, she wasn't put on any sort
of performance review plan or issued warnings about her performance issues, which,
like as employers, anyone who's had a job, if you
have had issues with your performance, that's typically something that
your employer does.
S4 (16:32):
Works in a.
S3 (16:33):
Bureaucratic place like the Metropolitan.
S4 (16:34):
Transit.
S1 (16:35):
Yeah, you would assume. I don't know. So we'll keep watching.
UU (16:40):
I am suffering by a couple. Tell me just so
you'd have me. Capturing.
S2 (17:00):
You were just listening to Angel by the local band
Moon Daddy. It's what I chose for this week's Song
of the Week, something we've been including in the Morning
report every week. And I. So what do you guys think?
What are the thoughts?
S3 (17:14):
I really liked it. I thought it was dreamy, which
I don't want to overuse that descriptor from your last
song of the week that you chose. But there's like
kind of a soundscape going on that feels very light
and floaty and kind of dreamy. It's pretty refreshing. It's.
It's nice.
S2 (17:28):
Yeah, for sure. No, and I've been a big fan
of Kara Parker for a while. She's the songwriter behind
Moon Daddy. Her previous project, Whisper Girl, was also very cool.
But this this comes from Moon Daddy's new album, Poet Lies,
that just dropped last week on one of my favorite
local labels, Volar. And listening to this, I had an
(17:50):
idea that I wanted to include something from Moon Daddy
as the Song of the Week because the whole album
really kicks ass. But you know, as I was giving
the whole album a listen this weekend, this one really
jumped out at me as something that's really dynamic and
showcases her beautiful voice. And, you know, it starts off
(18:10):
as this kind of sparse, dreamy, as you said, synth
pop song as it changes. It does halfway through the song.
It does. It morphs into something that's that feels much
larger and and feels more kind of engrossing and encapsulating. Trust.
(18:39):
And it's one of those songs that I it's just
been in my head since I listened to it. So I,
I definitely recommend you checking out Moon Daddy's album, Poet Lies.
You can pick up a vinyl copy on on their
Bandcamp and, you know, give them a listen. Give them
give them a like. You can keep up with all
(19:01):
of the songs of the week with the Morning Report.
We've been doing them on Thursdays, but I think we're
gonna switch to Wednesdays, a sort of hump day treat.
And so definitely, um, give them a listen. Shoot me.
S1 (19:16):
Any ago where you come for on.
S4 (19:18):
Monday treats.
S2 (19:20):
Uh, give them a listen and shoot me an email
at Jacoby at org. If you have a song that
you think we should be jamming to.
S1 (19:35):
We're going to take a quick break. Stay with us.
So speaking of brews and news, where you get to
meet the cool podcast crew live, the last time we
were live, if you guys were there or you listen
to that episode, you might remember that we were joined
(19:57):
by Ricardo Campos. He's the president of the San Diego
Loyal Soccer Club. And when Ricardo was with us, that
was the week that MLS announced that San Diego would
host its next soccer team. But Campos, which we agreed
was all kind of awkward having him there at the
same time that this announcement was coming out. It was.
S3 (20:17):
Awkward, but I feel like that's kind of what made
it fun.
S4 (20:18):
And fresh. Yeah, it was a great show.
S1 (20:19):
I mean, it was awkward for him, but maybe great
for us.
S3 (20:21):
It was a good show.
S1 (20:22):
Yes. But he said it was all good for the sport.
Here's what he said.
S5 (20:26):
We're talking more about soccer. Right. And so for us,
it's about growing the game in many ways in a
market that has been underserved from a professional level. So
having the wave here has been great, has been great.
That game that they that they were they broke the
record for 30,000 their home opener at Snapdragon. We also
sold out the same day. Yeah so it's for us
the more the better and it continues to grow the
(20:48):
game at every level. There's a lot of kids here
who grew up and have left San Diego. Joe Corona
is a great example who left, went to play for us,
went to play for America because he didn't have a game,
a team to play for here. So being able to
bring him back and play for us was a dream
come true for him in many ways. And there are
a number of players who continue to leave because they
didn't see that. So it's wonderful that there's more pathways
for these kids to develop and become professionals.
S3 (21:10):
So it like boosts like the love of soccer for
everyone in San Diego, all around warm vibes. And then.
S2 (21:17):
When your girlfriend gets another boyfriend.
S1 (21:19):
Warm by, it just.
S2 (21:20):
Boosts the love in that room, right? Yeah.
S1 (21:23):
But this morning.
S6 (21:25):
Four years ago, Landon Donovan, myself, and our group of
investors started on a journey to bring professional soccer back
to San Diego. I'm very proud of what we have
accomplished in the first three seasons from enduring a pandemic
to making a make it into the playoffs to then
making it a playoffs here for our first ever home
(21:46):
game in Torreira Stadium and now in our fourth season
looking to make the playoffs once again. Over the last
six months, myself, Ricardo Campos and a small part of
my team have been looking at all viable options up
and down the coast for us to find solutions for academy,
for training facilities, for stadiums from Oceanside down to the border.
(22:09):
We've looked at everything and left no stone unturned. Unfortunately,
after looking at all of that, I've come to the
conclusion that this will be the last season for San Diego. Loyal.
S1 (22:21):
They're calling it.
S4 (22:21):
Quits. Yeah.
S1 (22:22):
When I. When? Well, actually, I only heard about this
when you guys were talking about it during our Zoom
meeting earlier today on Thursday, because, you know, I'm not
a sports person, but.
S3 (22:32):
It was in the group Slack Channel.
S4 (22:33):
In the group Slack Channel.
S2 (22:36):
But she's not a slack person.
S1 (22:37):
Slack person either, especially like before 9 a.m..
S4 (22:40):
It was a rough morning.
S1 (22:41):
It was. So in the studio, we have Andrew Dyer,
a Kpbs reporter, long time soccer lover, host of the
Loyal Locals podcast, a show dedicated to the San Diego
Loyal Soccer Club. But I thought of Andrew because Andrew
has the greatest takes. I mean, I think you can
get him started on public agencies that tweet out photos
(23:02):
of cute animals, but we'll save that.
S4 (23:04):
For another day. Do it.
S2 (23:05):
In like a.
S4 (23:06):
Fake dog voice. It's got to have.
S2 (23:09):
It's got to be.
S4 (23:10):
Like.
S2 (23:11):
I feeling pod.
S7 (23:12):
Tastic today. Like, that's that's what really does that.
S3 (23:15):
You like that or you don't like.
S4 (23:17):
That doesn't like.
S7 (23:18):
It. I do.
S4 (23:18):
Not. Oh interesting.
S2 (23:19):
You don't find it endearing when Balboa Park tweets about
like a dog day and they say we had a
possum time at the park today.
S7 (23:26):
No, I don't. And especially whenever they're drooling.
S3 (23:28):
Over these dogs.
S7 (23:29):
And sometimes they like, attribute it as if the dog
is the one tweeting like they'll do it in like
first person.
S2 (23:37):
No, I think pet accounts are we should have left.
S7 (23:41):
Them back in. I blocked.
S2 (23:42):
20 tens.
S7 (23:42):
I blocked the Wii rate dogs years ago years ago.
S3 (23:47):
Animal stuff aside, that's Andrew Dyer of Kpbs, military reporter
who loves football stuff or soccer stuff?
S4 (23:53):
Sports?
S7 (23:55):
Yeah, I go by either one, soccer or football. My default.
S3 (23:59):
Was football because football club.
S7 (24:00):
I like I like football too. But people who are
very pedantic will tell you that it started as soccer
in England and then when the US adopted soccer, they
went back to football.
S4 (24:11):
Because Oh really?
S7 (24:12):
I mean, I'm not, I'm not a historian.
S4 (24:15):
Okay.
S3 (24:16):
But you imagine had feelings when you learned of this
news this morning.
S7 (24:20):
Oh, it's it's devastating for fans of San Diego. Loyal
for sure.
S1 (24:25):
One thing, have you been a fan?
S7 (24:27):
Oh, I mean, since the club began. Since it was announced.
S3 (24:32):
What was that like right before the pandemic ish?
S7 (24:34):
Well, it was 2019.
S3 (24:35):
Oh, really?
S7 (24:36):
Whenever it kind of started. So if we. To go back.
Just this all kind of came out of the ashes
of soccer city. There was the referendum and it was defeated. Right.
The Landon Donovan men's soccer icon, maybe the greatest American
player ever, wanted to bring an MLS team to San Diego.
(24:59):
MLS has long targeted this market, but it was defeated
at the ballot by that was 2018 ish.
S3 (25:05):
Yes. Okay.
S7 (25:07):
Defeated by San Diego State? Yeah, it's a different investment group,
but Landon Donovan is part of this one. Out of
the ashes of that came San Diego Loyal. And a
lot of the people, the fans who were previously involved
in Soccer City just naturally kind of pivoted to San
(25:31):
Diego loyal. So you have to understand about about soccer,
unlike other sports like baseball, where there is a minor
league or the NBA where there's this G League soccer
doesn't work like that. It's a it's a pyramid. So
MLS is at the top of the pyramid. They're the
the first division. And then the USL championship is the
second division. But it is in no way a minor league.
(25:54):
These are professional soccer players. Many of them have spent
time in MLS, many of them have spent time in
Europe and in Mexican clubs.
S3 (26:01):
So they would like play at the highest level and
then go down to this division, not down, but then
also play at this division. It's not like an all
roads lead to MLS, correct thing, Correct.
S7 (26:08):
Right. So there are a lot of players, players like
Alejandro Guido and Joe Corona, who are homegrown. Guido is
from Chula Vista, Joe Corona's from National City Sweetwater High School.
These are players who played in MLS, played in the
Amex and who because of loyal and, you know, maybe
they haven't been able to maintain either due to injury
(26:31):
or age to stay at those top levels. They've been
able to continue playing professional soccer for their hometown team.
So it's been it's a great experience for fans because
these are these players are so accessible. You know, they
will talk to you. They'll stay long after games are
done signing autographs. They're very down to earth and it's
(26:55):
a very intimate fan experience. So losing that is, you know,
it's really affecting San Diego loyal fans today.
S2 (27:04):
And it seems like the Loyal really worked hard to
create kind of a community around the club and kind
of prided themselves on on not only speaking to the
concerns of the community, but also just kind of embracing
several aspects. I mean, is that something that that you
saw and that you experienced?
S7 (27:22):
Yeah. So I want to take you back to to 2020.
During the pandemic when we couldn't go to these matches,
there were no fans in the stands. San Diego Loyal
was in a playoff fight, actually. And there had been
an incident with one of the players on the team.
(27:43):
Somebody called him a racial slur during a game called Who?
The Elijah Martin, one of the San Diego loyal players.
So many a.
S2 (27:53):
Player from another team called him.
S7 (27:55):
Yes. Wow. And the club made a statement about it.
This doesn't belong in our game. You know, football in Europe.
And there's this long problem with racism and all kinds
of troubling behavior from fans. And, you know, globally, football
has tried to stamp out a lot of this stuff. So, yeah, sure.
And then the next week, Loyal was playing in Phoenix
(28:15):
against Phoenix Rising, a team that is kind of like
our rival that we we we don't love to hate them.
We just kind of hate them. Right.
S4 (28:23):
And um.
S7 (28:25):
A player on Rising used a homophobic slur against Colin Martin,
who is an openly gay soccer player. He plays midfield
for San Diego Loyal. And instead of just calling attention
to the the referee or waiting for after the game
to have the, you know, the players suspended or whatever,
(28:47):
the loyal they walked off the field and ended up
forfeiting the game.
S3 (28:51):
Walked off the. Yes.
S7 (28:52):
Oh wow. And forfeited a game. A game that they
were winning. And had they won, they would have earned
their first ever playoff berth. But when the player was
not removed from the field or ejected from the game,
the entire the players on the field and the head
coach at that time, Landon Donovan, made the decision to
walk off the field and forfeit the match. So the
(29:15):
club from the beginning kind of established this kind of
values system that really spoke to its fans and really
endeared the club to its fans. It's been very you know,
they had a Black Lives Matter jersey that year that
said Black Lives Matter. On the back of it. They've
got they do pride month they had a their latest
(29:36):
Jersey release this season is a. A pride jersey with
rainbow colors on the collar and a very cool kind
of topographic rainbow pattern on it. So the club has
done a lot value wise to to speak to its fans.
And I think I talked to Steve Brock. He's the
president of the locals. I talked to him today and
he was saying that, you know, that moment when they
(29:57):
walked off the field is when he stopped being just, okay, yeah,
that's my club. That's I'm a fan of this club
to being like, this is my club. This this club
represents me and I want to represent them. So it
was really one.
S3 (30:09):
Of those kind of like getting at that soul connection
vibe that you were talking about with some English teams
that they have where they're trying to actually build into
the community.
S7 (30:17):
And soccer is very different from other professional sports. You
don't really I mean, there are passionate baseball fans and
passionate football fans.
S3 (30:24):
Passionate pickleball players, you.
S7 (30:25):
Know, but with with soccer specifically, you have these supporter groups.
And for loyal it's a few groups travels to loyal
the locals rainbow loyalty and the the fiends but everybody
is in the same section behind the goal and there
are songs, chants and drumming.
S3 (30:46):
Like all these different support, San Diego loyal support groups,
kind of all band together in the same part of
the stadium. Yes. Why are there so many? Why isn't
there just one like power in numbers? You know.
S4 (30:56):
It's.
S7 (30:57):
Partly cultural. Some people like certain design aesthetics for their
scarves and some people want to do their own scarves
or their own stickers. But it's all kind of for
the same purpose, getting together at these matches and, you know,
supporting the team through drums, chants and songs. And it
goes from the beginning of the match to the end
of the match without yeah, without pause.
S4 (31:19):
And so it's.
S3 (31:20):
Athletic event for.
S4 (31:21):
You to win or.
S7 (31:21):
Lose. Yeah. And it's for these fans and for the
rest of the fans in the stadium. It creates a
very fun soccer atmosphere that you're not going to get
at most other clubs in the US all championship especially.
You do get it in MLS. There are some great
supporter groups in MLS, but in the championship, people among
(31:44):
the supporter community like to think that that they in
San Diego do it better than any other of the
US all clubs.
S4 (31:51):
Oh interesting.
S1 (31:52):
What were your thoughts when you heard that an MLS
was coming to San Diego?
S7 (31:56):
So listen, this is a question with two completely different
answers because.
S1 (32:00):
So where did that really weird? So you can tell
that I don't do sports?
S7 (32:03):
No, it's really valid because in the grand scheme of
things with with soccer, right? Because San Diego Loyal is
a relatively smaller club. They do not have a professional
academy for the youth.
S3 (32:18):
Right. Do you mean smaller in terms of like their
budget or like the organization size?
S4 (32:23):
Both.
S7 (32:24):
Yes. So MLS, that is a whole other ballgame. So
right now, the top youth soccer prospects in San Diego,
if they want to be a pro, the best pathway
for them is for real Salt Lake to sign them
to their academy or lafc to sign them to their academy.
(32:45):
And they move and they are part of this academy.
And this can happen as young as 12 or 13
years old. Wow. So that does not exist in San Diego.
And it really couldn't exist with San Diego. Loyal because
it's expensive to run an academy. So our best young
talent are every year kind of siphoned off by MLS clubs. Now,
(33:08):
there are exceptions, of course, most notably C.J. Fodor, who
was part of Loyal Select. They do have a select
team that plays at the kind of the academy level.
Fodor then left and played at San Diego State for
a year and then was drafted in the top ten
in the MLS draft. He is now at Austin. FC.
(33:29):
So Loyal did provide kind of that professional pathway for
for C.J., but by and large that that professional pathway
was a little more difficult to navigate for San Diego
soccer players. So with the MLS Club coming and its owner, Mansour,
has already, you know, said they are going to build
(33:49):
an academy, this they are going to have a proper
you know, he's affiliated with this right to Dream Academy
that they have in other locations. So there will be
a proper developmental academy in San Diego, which is really
good for those players here that have the talent and
the desire to become professional players. It just makes that
(34:12):
path much clearer. You can see the road map, whereas
now that doesn't exist. So in that case it's good.
I'm glad MLS is coming. Miles Well, I said the
top prospects.
S1 (34:26):
Mike Oh, I mean, he's a.
S7 (34:28):
Great he's a great player.
S1 (34:29):
I'm Andrew's son.
S4 (34:31):
They didn't he one.
S7 (34:33):
Of his old teammates did is one of those kids
that got pulled to the real.
S4 (34:36):
Salt Lake.
S7 (34:37):
Academy. He was not.
S4 (34:41):
But, you know, for.
S7 (34:43):
The the fan side, this is not new. Right? There
used to be a USL team in Austin. The Austin Bold,
They don't exist anymore. This has happened in other cities
that had USL and when MLS comes to town. The
USL club can't compete and is, you know, muscled out
of the market. And if you listen to Andrew Odyssey's statement,
(35:06):
you know, he he basically says that with MLS and,
you know, the economic reality of not having a home
field to play in, they've been playing in trailer stadium,
which it's very difficult to make money for the team.
There is, as I understand, you know, there's just no
economic road for the team to stay viable. So in
(35:27):
that sense, MLS did what a lot of people who
were wary about the MLS announcement were afraid would happen.
And we're seeing it.
S2 (35:37):
This is probably a basic question, but I mean, why
is there no collaboration between the US and the MLS?
I mean, why couldn't the Loyal and San Diego Football
Club sort of merge and create something that has the
sort of respect and trust of the community but but
has this bigger platform and a place like Snapdragon to play?
S7 (35:59):
You know, that's a really great question. And in Europe
that definitely does happen. They have promotion and relegation in
Europe where a club can succeed in a third or
second division and earn promotion to the next division. Up
there are these great stories of teams being promoted into
the English Premier League and and having success. You know,
(36:21):
Leicester City won the Prem and I think it was
2016 and they had been, you know, in like two
divisions down, you know, in years before that. And they
were able to play their way to the top of
the English football pyramid. And that's something that's just impossible
in the United States because we don't have a football pyramid.
We have a closed system that's dominated by MLS and
(36:45):
there is no winning the USL championship and getting promoted
to MLS. There is no finishing last in MLS and
being relegated to the USL. You finish last, you're just
last and you try again next year like in other
American leagues. So there's have been instances of MLS teams
(37:08):
either buying the USL club and kind of using that
to come up to MLS. Portland Timbers notably one of
the better like MLS franchises. So it has happened, but
it takes the MLS team to literally basically take over
(37:29):
the USL club and buy it and then keep its
branding or whatever and move it up. And that was
something that just was not going to happen in San Diego.
S3 (37:40):
Is that theoretically the cheaper option? You just see a
property that's already there and you buy it rather than
like growing your own team from scratch.
S7 (37:48):
I don't know the economics of it really. For fans,
it seemed like the obvious option because, you know, it's
a very easy transition if you're a fan of San
Diego Loyal and they are going to the new MLS
team is going to, you know, take over that branding
and whatever, it's very easy to transition to and supporting
(38:09):
the MLS team and I'm not privy to any of
the details. I know there were talks between the MLS
Investment Group and Loyal at at some level at some
time in the last.
S3 (38:21):
I feel like Campos maybe alluded to that in the
live podcast. It was obviously it was like a very
weird news rich time where you couldn't share all the information,
but that was kind of like the vibe that got there. Yeah,
maybe there were some conversations like that happening that they
couldn't necessarily divulge.
S2 (38:36):
I went back and listen to it and Scott asked,
you know, will the Loyal be involved with this MLS team?
And he basically said there need to be two sides
that are willing to collaborate. Yeah. Which I mean and
has that possibility is it there's no chance of it
happening now it's too late I mean.
S7 (38:55):
Well I think that. You know, no chance. I mean,
you know, this, you know, Egyptian billionaire, this Tory, he's
a British Tory. I don't he could decide to open
the chequebook and buy loyal today and say, you know what,
forget it. This will be.
S4 (39:12):
For him, you know.
S7 (39:14):
But I don't I don't think that's going to happen.
Of course, I haven't talked to him. I haven't talked to.
S3 (39:20):
You don't have his digits. You can't just text up Mansoor.
S7 (39:22):
But it it just it my opinion, if that were
going to be the road forward, it would already be
the road forward. And the fact that.
S3 (39:32):
If it got to this point where the announcement was
made this morning, it wouldn't happen if all these other
things proceeded.
S7 (39:37):
Right now, tomorrow, they could announce it. And I look,
you know, like I really don't know what I'm talking.
That's what everything is for. Andrew But yeah, um, it's
just a matter of does the investment group even see
value in loyal its branding and the IT as a property?
My understanding is that, you know, apart from the, the
(39:59):
fan base, you know, maybe there wasn't the value there.
S3 (40:05):
The thing that I that kind of struck me in
the announcement by.
S7 (40:09):
Andrew.
S3 (40:09):
Vesalius yeah Vesalius He had the announcement this morning. The
thing that he was saying in the announcement kind of
struck me was they were just like looking all up
and down the coast for like a place where they
could potentially, I guess, like grow in the future or
kind of like be. How is it that MLS like
impact is so great that they couldn't just like move
(40:29):
to Oceanside or Chula Vista or somewhere else, like in
the region and still have enough space for both of
those markets?
S7 (40:36):
Well, there's another partner in this whole thing that you're
forgetting about in that San Diego State Snapdragon Stadium. Yeah,
MLS would not be here if it weren't for Snapdragon. No,
this is the great irony. When we go full circle
to the first thing I talked about was the failure
of Soccer City. San Diego State said that the stadium
they were going to build would be capable of hosting
(40:57):
professional soccer, which.
S3 (40:59):
They've done a lot with San Diego Wave, right? Yes.
S7 (41:02):
Yes. So, you know, the existence of Snapdragon Stadium is
what opened the door for MLS to be in San Diego.
MLS has wanted to be in San Diego for a
long time. This has been a running joke in MLS
for I don't think it's been like 20 years. They
really talk about wanting to get into the San Diego
market and it was, you know, the lack of that infrastructure,
(41:24):
the lack of a stadium that was really the the issue.
And now there's a stadium. And look at look at that.
There's a team coming.
S3 (41:36):
Well and now San Diego Loyal plays at Torero Stadium
at USD. There are they're not comparable stadium sizes in
the region as far as you know is Torero really
like at that threshold of being big enough to contain them,
but not so large that it's just too big?
S7 (41:49):
Most USL teams play in stadiums of between 4000 to,
you know, 12,000 capacity, maybe some push 15,000. But the
best attended USL clubs like Sacramento. You know they pull,
you know ten maybe 12,000 per game I think Torero
(42:11):
Stadium max capacity is around 6000 and loyal has averaged
just over 5000 per game. So they've done a good
job of filling Torero. But you need a stadium that
is really kind of purpose built at that size. And,
you know, in order for the club to make a profit,
they really kind of need to control the stadium. And
(42:32):
in best case scenario, on the stadium themselves versus paying
rent at in a place like Torero was.
S3 (42:37):
Never a long term solution.
S7 (42:39):
Right? Right. It was not the there was efforts, as
the statement from Andrew Vesalius alluded to, efforts to find
a location to continue playing. And those efforts just came
to nothing. Apparently it's very difficult to get a stadium
built in San Diego County.
S4 (42:59):
You know, don't say who knew.
S1 (43:03):
Scott's like probably really upset. He's missing this episode.
S2 (43:06):
I'm relieved. It is difficult because it got rid of
those horrible chargers. I, I, I'm born and raised in
San Diego and I have always hated the Chargers and
I am so glad they are not here anymore.
S4 (43:18):
Wow.
S7 (43:18):
Yeah. You know, the psychological scars of the chargers. I mean,
that's part of the reason San Diego loyal is called
loyal because the whole kind of idea was that they
were going to be loyal to this community and they
weren't going to move away.
S3 (43:33):
They had their best season ever this year.
S4 (43:35):
I read.
S7 (43:36):
Um, well, last year they did finish in the top
of the Western Conference and earned a home playoff game.
Right now they are sitting fifth in the Western Conference
in the US championship, which is an away playoff game.
So we are not on track to host a game
and that could change their away at Rio Grande Valley
(43:58):
this weekend. And then the next home game is next
Sunday back at Torero so they could turn things around.
There's a lot of very talented players on that team
and hopefully they're able to, you know, really have a
good sendoff at the end of the season and give
the fans something to really kind of remember them by.
S1 (44:26):
Thanks for listening to the Voice of San Diego podcast,
the most popular public affairs podcast in San Diego. Don't
forget about our events, brews and news, politics and more.
Check everything out at stores, slash events. We're excited to
see you. I'm André Lopez, managing editor at Voice of
San Diego. Jacob is our education reporter. Nate John is
(44:47):
our producer. Special thanks to Andrew Dyer for joining us.
Thanks for listening. We'll talk to you next week.
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