There are so many options for entertainment in the San Francisco Bay Area market that it’s hard to think there is a void. Especially in the sports world.

But Nick Swinmurn, the founder of Zappos.com and owner of the Burlingame Dragons soccer team, says there is one and he hopes to fill it in a couple of years.

Soccer fans who don’t want to drive to San Jose to watch the Earthquakes might enjoy going to a bayside stadium and supporting a San Francisco team. After pregame stops at the beer garden and food stand.

And tickets will only set them back $15 to $20.

Meet the San Francisco Football Club, which has applied for a United Soccer League expansion franchise to kick off in the spring of 2019.

SFFC hopes to build a stadium just south of San Francisco International Airport. It would cost $3 million to build and seat about 6,000, with room to add additional capacity if the team’s popularity grows. While the Burlingame site is preferred, Swinmurn and team president Jordan Gardner are also looking at other sites in San Francisco.

“Our ambitions are big,” said Swinmurn, who is also a minority owner of the Warriors. “But big doesn’t always mean going to the biggest league you can find. It means creating the best soccer experience that appeals to all kinds of fans. You have to assume that bigger is not always better.”

But some skeptics say San Francisco won’t support a minor-league team. Swinmurn disagrees.

“You don’t have to be minor league,” he said. “The rest of the world’s second division is just the second division. People know it’s not Chelsea or Barcelona. Soccer is so popular, people just want a local product to project their passion on, and attendance is growing in leagues across the country.

“In every other sport, America is the best in the world. That’s why this USL opportunity is so exciting — it’s second division and MLS is first division, but what does that mean? It just means MLS is one of the top 15 leagues in the world — so fans know they’re not watching the best in the world, and it’s all about capturing the imagination of fans and having a fun environment.”

There is already a lower-division soccer team in San Francisco, the Deltas, who play in the North American Soccer League at Kezar. Swinmurn wishes the Deltas all the best and said he is not looking at them as competition.

“We think San Francisco is still available,” he said.

And he thinks a shiny stadium with great sight lines should be a better draw than Kezar, no offense to history buffs.

“We think the new modular venue on the water will be something people really rally around,” Gardner said. “Not to mention some built-in rivalries with teams in Sacramento, Reno and Fresno.”

USL officials toured the site last week and seem likely to let SFFC into the league, pending stadium approval.

The Division II USL has 30 teams now, with plans to expand to Fresno (to be announced next week), Las Vegas, Nashville and possibly Birmingham, Ala., in 2018. The USL is talking to San Francisco and seven other groups about the 2019 season.

There have been no specific discussions regarding expansion fees for San Francisco’s entry, but previous teams have paid $5 million to join the USL.

“The USL continues to lead the next phase of growth in professional soccer across the United States,” league president Jake Edwards said.

Swinmurn thinks there can be a lot of teams that lean on local support, just like there are in England, where he grew up before moving to the U.S. when he was 7.

“No matter where you lived, you grew up walking to a game and having a local team to follow,” he said.

Which is one of the reasons he started the Dragons in Burlingame four years ago. He saw the great market and atmosphere for soccer in the Bay Area, but limited access at Burlingame High School’s stadium and a short season had him set his sights bigger.

That and the need for a new stadium for the “true soccer experience.”

“The fun part is creating it,” said Swinmurn, whose team would play 20 home games in 2019 if accepted. “We’re talking about an intimate place to play, with great sight lines of quality soccer and maybe a view of the water, with a beer garden and great food options.

“There is no doubt there are enough people in the Bay Area who would enjoy that experience.”

Vic Tafur is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: vtafur@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @VicTafur