The San Diego professional soccer team that didn’t have a league finally has one.

More than two years after it launched and following months of silence, 1904 FC announced last week it has joined the National Independent Soccer Association, a new league that recently received third-division sanctioning from U.S. Soccer and plans to have its inaugural games in September.

But the bigger news is where 1904 FC will play them: 70,561-seat SDCCU Stadium.

The club has not made a formal announcement about its home venue, but a team official confirmed what several sources told the Union-Tribune — that 1904 FC is “finalizing terms” with the city for a lease at the 52-year-old stadium in Mission Valley.


It’s a bold move by a team that is less than two months from its first game, yet still has no head coach, no players, no schedule, no ticket sales and a bare-bones front office.

“We are working around the clock to make sure we’re ready to go in September,” said Paul Redfern, a minority owner who currently is the club’s lead spokesperson. “It’s going to be a lot of hard work. We’re excited with what we’re going to be able to do with the community, growing the support.

“Honestly, if we had the choice if we could start in the fall or start (next) spring, we definitely would choose the fall because we have been waiting a long time to get the players on the pitch and kick off.”

1904 FC — the numbers represent where S and D fall in the alphabet — began two summers ago with an ownership group headed by Senegalese forward Demba Ba, Real Madrid midfielder Eden Hazard and several other European players. The original plan was to play in the second-division NASL, but the league lost its U.S. Soccer sanctioning and filed an antitrust lawsuit against the federation.


The key part of the lawsuit was an injunction forcing the federation to reinstate NASL for the 2018 season, or until the case could be litigated. A federal judge in New York denied it, and the league promptly folded.

1904 FC then opened negotiations with the United Soccer League, also considered second tier behind Major League Soccer, and in February 2018 announced it was “finalizing” an agreement to join the following year. But that deal fell apart a few months later, and 1904 FC once again was an orphaned club.

Since then, the San Diego pro soccer scene has become more crowded.

Albion Soccer Club San Diego, which has played in the amateur National Premier Soccer League at Mission Bay High, recently joined the Founders Cup, a group of 11 teams with plans to launch a third-division pro league in the fall that so far does not have U.S. Soccer sanctioning.


And last month, the USL granted an expansion franchise to San Diego headed by Warren Smith and Landon Donovan that will start in 2020 or 2021 at USD’s 6,000-seat Torero Stadium.

Confused?

In October 2017, 1904 FC announced plans for a modular, 10,000-seat stadium at Oceanside’s SoCal Sports Complex, a 20-field facility on an old sand mine that hosts youth tournaments. For a temporary home, the club signed a lease to play at Torero Stadium and even made a down payment.

But Bob Watkins left as 1904 FC’s president to run the NISA, and 1904 FC let the USD lease lapse, opening the door for pro rugby and now a different USL team there. And Redfern calls the Oceanside plans “dormant.”


Asked what size crowds they hope to draw, Redfern said: “We did develop a following. We certainly have people who are watching us on social media, people who have asked for more information via email. We have thousands of people who are definitely interested in what 1904 FC will be able to bring to the San Diego community. It’s hard to guess without having played a game what the crowds are going to be, but we’re certainly hopeful that we’ll be in five figures for the matches.”

If USL attendance is any indication, that might be a difficult goal to attain. Of the 36 teams playing in that league — one division above NISA — just three are averaging at least 10,000 a game this year, according to soccerstadiumdigest.com. The league average is 4,369.

Unlike other U.S. pro soccer leagues that run spring to fall, the NISA season will operate on the international calendar from Labor Day to Memorial Day.

There will be a brief, round-robin tournament with the nine founding members from September to November in which Redfern expects “three to four home games.” An abbreviated spring season will follow a winter break. The league will play a traditional full season in 2020-21.


The NISA’s other big difference: It’s not based on the traditional U.S. franchise model.

“It is a club-owned league, so 1904 FC is a 7.5-percent owner in the NISA,” Redfern said. “We are modeling the league after the leagues you see in Europe and around the world. There are barriers you face if you’re a franchise. If you’re a McDonald’s franchise in San Diego and you don’t want to serve Big Macs, that’s too bad.

“It’s important to us, especially with our ownership group mainly being athletes or coaches from Europe, that they can run the club like the best clubs in the world are run. We wanted more autonomy and control over the players who we bring in and transfer out.”

Redfern expects 1904 FC to have a head coach and a roster with 20 to 25 players — most from Southern California, some from overseas — by the start of training camp in early August. The average annual payroll for NISA teams, Redfern said, is expected to be between $400,000 and $800,000, which would be on par with the USL.


The most important thing for 1904 FC, of course, is it’s in a league after more than two years without one.

“If you want to be a professional, (you) always must have the attitude of never surrender,” Ba, the club’s chairman and principal owner, said in a statement. “The ownership group has maintained this kind of commitment.”