San Diego FC

First-division soccer in San Diego

San Diego's earliest professional soccer team was the short-lived San Diego Toros, a North American Soccer League (NASL) team that relocated from Los Angeles in 1968 and played a single season. A second NASL team, the San Diego Jaws, was established in 1976 from the former Baltimore Comets and played one year before moving to Las Vegas; the club returned in 1978 and was renamed the Sockers, playing outdoor matches at Jack Murphy Stadium, which was shared with the National Football League's San Diego Chargers and Major League Baseball's San Diego Padres. The Sockers had poor attendance but survived the folding of the NASL by moving to the Major Indoor Soccer League, where they won eight championships in nine seasons. The team moved to the Continental Indoor Soccer League in 1993 and folded in 1997; the name was later revived for a second indoor team from 2001 to 2004 and a third indoor team that began play in 2009. Other outdoor teams, including the San Diego Flash and San Diego 1904 FC, had played short stints in the lower divisions of American soccer in the 2000s and 2010s before folding.

Previous MLS bids

During the formation of MLS in the mid-1990s, San Diego was not among the U.S. cities to formally submit a bid for a team in the inaugural season, but expressed interest and held several meetings with the league. MLS commissioner Doug Logan described San Diego as a "prime candidate" for an expansion team, but the…