Editorial: Los Angeles Galaxy Are For Los Angeles

Aug 31, 2014; Carson, CA, USA; Soccer fans watch the game between Chivas USA and the Los Angeles Galaxy at StubHub Center. Galaxy won 3-0. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Earlier this week, Sean Maslin reported that Chivas USA are going to go on hiatus next year to rebrand and relaunch themselves and figure out their future. I wanted to write this editorial to give you my take on Los Angeles needing a second team. There is no need. Don Garber, if you are reading this, good. There is one world that you need to know: STOP. Los Angeles is fine with just one team in Major League Soccer.

It does not take rocket science to tell you, Commissioner Garber, that the Los Angeles Galaxy are for Los Angeles, and no one else. Why must the City of Angels be forced a second team down its throats? You readers all saw, over the past decade, the failure that is Chivas USA—insipid records, terrible attendances, endless ridiculing by the entire league, its supporters and perhaps the world football community in general—all evidence to tell you that Los Angeles is just fine with having the Galaxy fly the flag for the Southland.

The decision for Chivas USA to hide in its cocoon of transition for season 2015 means that Sporting Kansas City and Houston Dynamo will join the MLS Western Conference, especially with New York City FC (more on them in a bit) and Orlando City entering the Eastern Conference next season. With the addition of Sporting and Houston, two accomplished ball clubs, the Western Conference is once again the best conference in the competition. In fact, I am boldly predicting that the MLS Cup Champion in 2015 will come from the West. I’m throwing the gauntlet down; it’s up to you to pick it up and take on my prediction, your call.

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But back to Chivas USA for a bit. This season, there have only been two games in which Chivas had a decent crowd: April 6, 2014 and August 31, 2014. Both matches were against the Los Angeles Galaxy. Both ended in 3-0 defeats. Guess you figured out why they had announced crowd numbers of 15,008 and 18.652, respectively. Most of the fans were Galaxy fans. A blog that covers MLS attendances shows that the Galaxy draw 20,163 on average per game, while Chivas only manage 6,492 per game, if you include the two SuperClasico matches the Goats hosted.

No one wants to go to Chivas USA games, obviously. Hello? I mean, look, this was a really dubious, vacuous, “what in the name of the football gods was I thinking?” attempt by Jorge Vergara, a brash cad full of big talk, to persuade the Hispanic football market to support an LA side. Take a look at this New York Times piece from Billy Witz on the Goats’ plight. Vergara, allegedly wants to “teach the gringos how to play soccer.”

Um, sorry to break it to you, Mr. Vergara, but we don’t need assistance from Liga MX to teach us how to play the game. We’ve been fine learning it ourselves. Also, pandering to a specific market isn’t how you’re going to win fans in this part of America. Perhaps worrying about Liga MX promotion and relegation being an obscene joke/farce on your side of the border would be a wiser decision. Recommended, even.

I want to turn attention to New York City FC, another club owned by a big name not unlike Guadalajara when Chivas USA started in Manchester City. The lessons from the mess at Chivas are surely to be learned because they are opening up to all New Yorkers and they are a club that will definitely be in it for the long haul.

I cannot see NYCFC making the same unforgivable mistakes that Chivas USA made in singling out a certain audience and using bush league marketing and management tactics to win the hearts of fans. The only thing that will stop City is the wins and losses. The marketing is there, the management is rock solid. The legacy of New York City FC will be defined by its results and its supporters, just like any club in Major League Soccer not named Chivas USA.

And I’m going to say this for the record: New York deserves two MLS ball clubs. Let them have two. New York is the big metropolis, the center of the American universe, the big city of big cities…they can have two teams. Including the Cosmos, New York now has three storied clubs in two competitions in the New York Red Bulls, New York Cosmos, and New York City FC starting next year.

If Chivas USA are reborn under a rebranding scheme, this is my take: I want them to move to Sacramento and be reborn as the Sacramento Republic. Sacramento wants an MLS club. They want to be in the big leagues because they have the support, they have the passion, and they want to give the nearby fans in San Jose something to think about. Don Garber, if you’re still reading this, drop your dreams of a second MLS franchise. Let this reborn club move the Sacramento because I cannot, for the life of me, think of how they will stuff this opportunity up.

The years may come, the years may go, but there is only one team worthy of representing all of Los Angeles in Major League Soccer, soon to enter its 20th year, and that, readers, is the Los Angeles Galaxy Football Club.

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