I DO believe it is time for real Pro Soccer here in San Diego. I believe that the best way to do this is to use Balboa stadium *as* is to build a real club that the huge soccer community in san diego will pay to come watch and get behind because there is a good product on and off the field. I believe that the goal should be to have a club playing and *winning* in USL Pro or NASL in the stadium as it stands today and perhaps also playing some matches at USD. I believe San Diego needs to demonstrate that it has a community that will actually show up to matches on a regular basis and get behind a team with a vision and plan to get where it wants to go. I believe that a Soccer Specific Stadium that seated 25k people built on that spot would be an absolutely magnificent place to watch soccer whether it was MLS or the USMNT or Friendlies with clubs from other countries. I would look forward to every match take transit from North County to watch and spend the day at the park with my family. I believe the right model is to setup a non-profit and go the route of Nashville FC, have members elect a board, the board hire a director of football, the director of football hire a coach and the coach hire the players. Every member should have only one vote. I believe the club we should be looking to for inspiration is Sacramento Republic FC and the clubs that took this route from Portland and Seattle to Orlando as well as teams like San Antonio and Minneapolis I do NOT believe that the NYFC, LAFC, Miami if we build it, they will come model will ever happen here in San Diego. I believe it is financially feasible to do things this way with sponsorships from big San Diego firms (Stone, Qualcomm, Scripps looking at you) I believe that there are enough local San Diego players that a *winning* team could be put together inexpensively by a front office and coaching staff that had its act together. I believe that a club could be put together that united all lovers of the beautiful game from young suburban soccer playing families up in north county to all of the folks that play competitively at all of our local elite clubs and schools to the hispanic soccer playing community of all ages to the fans who show up downtown to watch premiere league at 5am when their team is playing to everyone who watches the world cup when it comes around. I believe that we could win on and off the field and be a model for other cities who want to join the US Soccer Pyramid. I believe that we can win.
Posted on: Sat, 15 Nov 2014 00:44:19 +0000