The battle to bring Major League Soccer to San Diego intensified when the leaders of San Diego State University (SDSU) abruptly ended the negotiations with FS Investors, the group behind the franchise. Previously, they had seemed set to launch a joint initiative to use the land around Qualcomm Stadium, abandoned by the San Diego Chargers who had left the city.
An unpleasant war of words conducted through the media ensued thereafter with the leaders of SDSU representing the views of the University.
To ascertain how representative their hostility to the Soccer City plan was, some students went out and canvassed the opinions of the student body.
They took in the opinions of over 1200 students with between 1020 and 1220 recording votes on a set of questions related to the issue.
The polling exercise began with setting up tables around campus which students could voluntarily approach. That produced a imbalanced demographic, skewed towards the younger demographic, so the organizers subsequently restored a representative age balance by going into upper division courses and handing out the survey directly to upperclassmen.
Balancing it in terms of gender proved more difficult according to the survey organizer Will Griffith:
“We tried to make it as gender equal as possible, but it came out to roughly 750-450 male vs female.”
It is not easy to ascertain whether this skews the results in any particular direction. Given that women tend to play more soccer than they do football, this shortage of female representation may not necessarily have assisted the Soccer City case.
Graph showing soccer interest of SDSU students
The overall results of the survey though showed that SDSU students are not as hostile to the MLS bid as their leaders are suggesting.
The survey started off with the most basic question of trying to ascertain whether there was any interest in soccer at all among the students.
They asked respondents to grade their passion for soccer from 1 (not being passionate at all) to 5 which represented being a soccer fanatic.
Of the 1020 respondents, 669 (65.6%) were in the top two most pro-soccer groups. Only 55 (5.4%) listed themselves as having no interest at all, meaning 94.6% had at least some interest in the sport.
This passion is not just for the US National Teams, male and female. or for their early morning dies of English Premier League.
Astonishingly for a city with no team, 85.6% of them had watched an MLS game before.
This seems to be in line with the claims of the FS Investors that Major League Soccer already has a strong foothold in San Diego, in most cases superseding markets who already have an MLS franchise.
[See: Nick Stone: San Diegans watch more MLS than even the cities with clubs in the league]
Thirdly, the survey asked if students thought ‘that there should be a professional sports franchise in Mission Valley now that the Chargers are gone?’
67.5% said yes, 25.4% said no and the remainder voiced no opinion either way.
There was a fear that only people sympathetic to soccer and not interested in Aztecs football were approaching their canvas table. To see how representative their respondents were of the student body in general, the survey asked the students how many home SDSU Aztecs games they had attended.
Of the 1020 respondents, 812 had physically showed up to cheer on the Aztecs, representing 79.6% of the survey. 62% had watched the Aztecs more than once.
This may put the lie to the claim that the San Diego battle pits fans of one code of football against the other.
Clearly, a large number those interviewed have time and passion for the Aztecs’ efforts but are also soccer fans. There is an argument, albeit anecdotal, that the anti-soccer venom which Landon Donovan alluded to, is generational, with young people more likely to welcome MLS to San Diego.
Most of the respondents were also SDSU Aztecs fans
But, at least according to this survey, it is not a war between fans of different sports with different cultural leanings.
In a side question about enthusiasm for a stadium with a reduced capacity, 84.8% said they would attend a game at a smaller stadium than the current Qualcomm.
An Encouraging Number or Commisisoner Garber
Perhaps the most amazing revelation, though probably the least relevant to the current debate was the final question. Respondents were asked if they would prefer the NFL San Diego Chargers or a new MLS franchise at Qualcomm Stadium.
By 640 (52.5%) votes to 580 (47.5%), the undergraduates voted for Major League Soccer over NFL. This is a headlining figure for advocates of soccer although it is also fair to argue that the Chargers have won few friends recently in San Diego, and the numbers may be a backlash to that, rather than a reflection of overall views about the NFL.
Still, it is a finding that will bring joy to the corridors of MLS power in Manhattan, and do no harm to their desire to locate a franchise in San Diego is the stadium issue can be settled.
Students narrowly prefer an unnamed MLS franchise to having the Chargers return to Qualcomm
The next hurdle for the soccer franchise is a San Diego Budget meeting on Monday June 5 where the city council will vote on the 2018 budget submitted by the Mayor Kevin Faulconer. There will be a vote among nine Councilors whether to permit a special election this November. Mayor Faulconer has already earmarked $5m for the election but opponents of the MLS bid are trying to stop the ballot entirely.
Their argument is that the matter can wait until 2018, although that would end all prospect of MLS allocating a franchise to San Diego this December. A further vote on whether to allow the Soccer City initiative on any November 2017 ballot will be held on June 12.
After that, it is up to the voters in the City of San Diego to approve the initiative on November 7.
If that passes, the future of soccer in San Diego will be decided in Manhattan when Commissioner Garber and his colleagues decide which two of the 12 bidding cities are awarded the two latest expansion slots.
[INTERVIEW] Nick Stone: San Diegans watch more MLS than even the cities with clubs in the league
[VIDEO] Landon Donovan: I wanted to be an owner not a player
San Diego MLS Supporters Group launched
Donovan jokes about coming out of retirement to play for San Diego in MLS
