San Diego FC: Behind the Flow Follows the Beginnings and High Hopes of New Team

I've been a Major League Soccer fan since the beginning in 1996, when the first game was held on April 6th as the San Jose Clash defeated D.C. United in front of 31,000 fans at Spartan Stadium in San Jose in a game broadcast on ESPN, where I watched it.


The League has come a long way since then. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation.  In 2022, with an average attendance of over 21,000 per game, MLS had the fourth-highest average attendance of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada, behind the National Football League (NFL) with over 69,000 fans per game, Major League Baseball (MLB) with over 26,000 fans per game, and the Canadian Football League (CFL) with over 21,700 fans per game. Two years later, MLS was ranked second in the world's most attended soccer leagues, only trailing the English Premier League.

iHeartPodcasts has announced San Diego FC: Behind the Flow, a new podcast co-produced by COPA90 and Message Heard. The podcast follows the creation of Major League Soccer’s (MLS) new expansion team as they prepare for their first season. The show, hosted by sports personality Adrian Garcia Marquez, launched on June 19 with new episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. 

Adrian Garcia-Marquez (AGM) is an Emmy-winning multi-sport play-by-play announcer, narrator, and host. Garcia-Márquez currently serves as the English language voice of San Diego FC on iHeartMedia’s San Diego Sports 760 AM and the top Spanish language announcer for the NFL with the Los Angeles Chargers. He is also the lead play-by-play announcer for Fox Deportes Major League Baseball, where he’s called 11 World Series and 16 All-Star games. Additionally, Garcia-Marquez has called three Super Bowls and was also the TV voice of the Los Angeles Lakers.

San Diego FC: Behind the Flow debuted as a 10-episode documentary podcast giving an inside look at what it takes to establish a major sports team in a competitive market. Following the documentary episodes, the podcast will transition to a sports talk show covering the remainder of SDFC’s inaugural MLS season.

“Sports fans have proven they’re hungry for behind-the-scenes insights into their favorite team that go beyond field performance, so it felt like a perfect opportunity to partner with San Diego FC and MLS to create a first-of-its-kind show that blends documentary and sports talk to push the boundary of what live coverage of a team can look like,” said Will Pearson, President of iHeartPodcasts. “SDFC has the potential to become one of the MLS’s most backed teams, and we’re excited to help broaden and engage their audience through iHeart’s industry-leading reach.”

The first part of the show will document the creation of SDFC, from its inception to its first game, capturing the challenges and triumphs of building a team, fan base, and club identity from scratch. It will also spotlight SDFC’s pioneering mixed-gender Right to Dream (RTD) academy and its mission to identify top talent, with the show going into Mexico, where SDFC scouts met young players hoping for a spot. Midway through its inaugural season, SDFC sits second in the MLS Western Conference standings with 30 points from 17 matches – an early testament to the Club’s ambitious vision and competitive foundation as it settles into the MLS landscape.

“From day one, our mission has been to create a Club that’s deeply connected to San Diego and authentic in everything we do,” said Tom Penn, CEO of SDFC. “San Diego FC: Behind the Flow captures the spirit, ambition, and purpose driving our journey – from the bold vision behind our Right to Dream Academy to the foundation we’ve laid for this Club to last generations. We’re excited to share the vision that’s shaping our Club and invite fans into the journey from the very beginning.” 

San Diego FC is Major League Soccer’s 30th Club, competing in its inaugural season at Snapdragon Stadium in 2025. The Club is jointly owned by Sir Mohamed Mansour, an entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist with global ties in the sport, and the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation, the first Native American tribe with a significant ownership stake in a men’s professional team across all major sports leagues. Manny Machado, San Diego’s perennial MLB All-Star, is an investor in the Club, alongside other high-profile partners including World Cup champion Juan Mata, Emmy-nominated actress and producer Issa Rae, and Grammy Award-winning artist Tems. 

San Diego FC is a proud member of the Right to Dream community, a global network of youth academies and professional football clubs. San Diego FC’s stated vision is to become the epicenter of football excellence and innovation in North America.


"As the newest expansion team, San Diego FC offers a unique opportunity to showcase what it means to build a club from the ground up," said Seth Bacon, Executive Vice President of Media, MLS. "This collaboration reflects MLS’s commitment to storytelling that brings our league closer to its communities, clubs, players, and fans." 

"We are thrilled to partner with iHeartPodcasts and COPA90 to bring the incredible story of San Diego FC to life in this groundbreaking podcast," said Jake Warren, CEO of Message Heard. "This project is not only a first in podcasting, but it's a testament to the power of audio to connect fans with the heart and soul of a club. We believe this immersive experience will set a new standard for sports storytelling and deepen the relationship between SDFC, its passionate supporters, and the wider community." 

I found the series fascinating, not just because I am an MLS fan, but also because the documentary illustrates how a new team in any professional sport builds its foundation from the ground up. There will be important questions to answer. Will we have a mascot? What will we charge for a beer? How much can we charge for parking? And, oh yeah, maybe we should sign some players who know something about soccer or football. 

Check out San Diego FC: Behind the Flow or risk being called offside.







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