The San Diego Padres have been the only major sports team in America’s Finest City since 2017, when the Chargers moved to Los Angeles.

A baseball club seeking its first World Series title has a passionate fan base that sells out the majority of its games at Petco Park. San Diegans are emotional when it comes to the Padres. The team is on the rise, and there are a lot of expectations that come with it. The front office, players, coaches, and fans all want to see this team climb to the top.

Hopefully soon, the Padres will be at MLB’s apex.

The fans show up every day to see the Friars try to win a baseball game. The Friar Faithful are a major part of what makes the home games unique. The crowd is loud, fans are always cheering, and you occasionally participate the wave late in games. Petco Park hosts 81 magical events a year, proving to be a major reason why sports are so special in San Diego.

Snapdragon Stadium (home to 35,000 seats) opened in 2022 and replaced Qualcomm Stadium in Mission Valley. The stadium is owned by San Diego State, as the football team and occasionally men’s and women’s soccer play in it.

The San Diego Wave have called “The Snap” home since it opened, as well as San Diego FC in their inaugural season in 2025. The Wave had a few sellouts and broke the NWSL record for home attendance when they hosted 32,066 fans against Kansas City Current in 2022.

In SDFC’s first-ever home match against St. Louis City SC, the fans packed the stadium for a sold-out contest. The match ended in a 0-0 draw, but the crowd was as energetic as you could imagine.

San Diego had been rumored to own an MLS team for many years. There was no better place for an expansion team than the city of San Diego, which boasts a rich Hispanic culture that is deeply rooted in the sport of soccer (fútbol). We saw a glimpse of this with the San Diego Loyal. As someone who covered the team for East Village Times and attended 90% or more of the home matches, what Landon Donovan and Andrew Vassiliadis did by bringing the city the first-ever outdoor professional soccer team was influential for the culture. Home matches were sold out everywhere at Torero Stadium on the University of San Diego campus.

When you’re at a San Diego FC game, you’ll hear ‘fútbol’ said more often than ‘soccer,’ hence the name. The team is respecting the language. This is something noticeable when I attended the SDFC vs. Seattle Sounders match on April 5. SDFC defeated the Sounders 3-0 that night, as fans at Snapdragon Stadium were on their feet cheering all night long. The supporter groups were going wild for all 90 minutes. The match was not sold out, but a majority of the seats were occupied. NFL star Tony Jefferson was in attendance. The San Diego native currently plays for the Chargers in LA.

San Diego FC is quickly becoming a staple in the city. The performances on the field speak for themselves. The team is in first place in the Western Conference with 36 points, after beating the previous top team, Vancouver Whitecaps, on the road 5-2 last week. Escondido native Milan Iloski scored the team’s first-ever hat trick, and that was not enough. The future star scored another goal, making it four on the night and propelling the team to one of the biggest wins in team history.

Hirving “Chucky” Lozano did not play in the win but has had a spectacular season as well. That is another thing that makes this team special: they have local talent suiting up and playing for their hometown team. Iloski is on loan, but he and Luca de la Torre are from San Diego. Lozano is from Mexico City but has been a fan favorite since his signing. Many Mexican fans in San Diego consider Chucky their favorite player.

EVT’s Francisco Velasco wrote a great piece on Iloski and what he brings to San Diego.

The Padres Need To Support San Diego FC

The Padres need to recognize what San Diego FC brings to the city. Since the team’s arrival, the Padres have yet to acknowledge the fútbol club. It goes beyond just social media.

Here are examples of the benefits the alliance could bring: media exposure, increased fan engagement, marketing opportunities, a stronger identity, a better city image, and pride.

Manny Machado, the “captain” and starting third baseman for the San Diego Padres, is a minority owner of SDFC. Being part of bringing San Diego its first-ever MLS team is very important to him.

More from Padres’ star Manny Machado on San Diego FC pic.twitter.com/5sB1dn6IuH

— Chris Spiering (@Clutch__Chris) May 18, 2023

Machado loves soccer, as most Hispanic athletes do.

When San Diego FC hosted the Columbus Crew on March 15, Machado flew in some of his teammates to the game from Peoria, Arizona, while they were in Spring Training. They then went onto the field before the match and took pictures in front of a nearly sold-out crowd.

Joe Musgrove leads the charge as several San Diego Padres present at the San Diego FC vs. Columbus Crew match.@EVT_News pic.twitter.com/As3GMziTcR

— Francisco Velasco (@FranciscoEfV) March 16, 2025

Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., Joe Musgrove, Jackson Merrill, Dylan Cease, Adrian Morejon, Luis Arraez, Jake Cronenworth, Michael King, Xander Bogaerts, plus a few more, all enjoyed a night of fútbol match in America’s Finest City.

With the city falling in love with the team, there is no reason why the Padres can’t start recognizing that SDFC is here to stay. Shockingly, it has taken this long for the Padres to support them. It is hard to find the reasons for it.

Furthermore, it humors me when people want to claim that these two teams are rivals. Outside of competing for ticket sales on the same day, maybe 10 times a season, there is nothing rivaling them.

The Padres play 81 home games. Their season starts in either late March or early April. The MLS season begins in late February with matches on Saturdays and Sundays until mid-May, when some games start shifting to mid-week. SDFC will play anywhere from 36 to 40 matches a season and will not typically compete with the Padres unless they host a playoff game on the same day. These are rare occasions. You see, other cities do this almost on the regular. If you want sports in San Diego to grow, these rare moments will undoubtedly happen.

Key Points

• The Padres showed support for the San Diego Wave almost immediately. Why not SDFC?
• SDFC is a part of the community. The Padres are all about community. What is the confusion?
• San Diego is home to a large number of loyal people who love soccer; ignoring them would not be a good idea.
• SDFC and the Padres both have local talent on the team.
• Chucky Lozano and other players attend Padres games. (A rare tweet the Padres shared with SDFC). Having stars at games attracts more fans. The Padres can turn soccer fans into baseball fans.
• Lozano has 1.8 million followers on Instagram, more than the Padres. Social media traction is a big thing in today’s era. Lozano can bring a ton of fans to the Padres.
• A San Diego FC Night at Petco Park would be a great collaboration. The team has given away soccer jerseys in the past with Jurickson Profar‘s last name on them. This wouldn’t be out of left field for the Padres to do this for SDFC.

SDFC Supports Padres

We have already seen SDFC support the Padres. There are multiple tweets of them using the phrase “LFGSD,” which originated from former Padre Jorge Alfaro. They comment on the Padres’ social media team’s posts, while also tweeting out support for them.

??? ???????? ???.

Let’s ? Go ? Padres pic.twitter.com/s1dQrG1A3Z

— San Diego FC (@sandiegofc) October 1, 2024

You are telling me the Padres can’t do the same?

Conclusion

San Diego FC responded after their big win against Vancouver with another win against FC Dallas (3-2) on Saturday night. A stoppage-time winner proved yet again how special this SDFC team is. They are in first place in the Western Conference with 39 points.

The Padres mean everything to San Diego. It won’t be long until San Diego FC captures the hearts of most of the community as well, especially if they continue to play at the level they are.

The Padres, SDFC, and even the Wave must all work together to help continue growing sports in San Diego.

Chris Spiering

Chris is a graduate of the University of San Diego. He is the former Sports Editor for the USDVista newspaper. Chris has covered the San Diego Loyal, and now covers San Diego State Men’s Basketball. He also contributes regularly about the Padres. Chris is an athlete and is a huge fan of San Diego sports.