As Major League Soccer season starts its off-season, the winter period will most likely see staff, players especially, see their workloads reduced. But for 20 or so employees operating out of a Mid-Wilshire office in Los Angeles, California, their to-do lists look only set to increase the months to come.

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In 2018, Los Angeles Football Club will become the 22nd team in Major League Soccer. As things stand, LAFC are a soccer team whose payroll consists of no players or coaches – instead made up of those working sales, marketing and accounts, tasked not with maintaining or growing a soccer club, but making one.

“This opportunity brings together two things that I love the most, which is building organizations from scratch and sport,” Henry Nguyen, one of the owners and the executive chairman of LAFC, said in an interview with the Guardian. “So, for me, it’s been really exciting.”

Nguyen, a Vietnamese-American venture capitalist, is one of three individuals heading the new Los Angeles franchise, along with Peter Guber, an entrepreneur, entertainment executive and co-owner of two other sports franchises (the LA Dodgers and Golden State Warriors), and Tom Penn, a former NBA executive. It was in 2012 that Nguyen would get the ball rolling for plans to introduce a new soccer franchise into the Los Angeles area. While attending an event that Penn co-founded and organizes – the Global Sports Summit, in Aspen, Colorado, where sporting executives and owners from across the globe gather to discuss the business of sport – Nguyen began chatting to Don Garber, the MLS commissioner, about the possibility of introducing a new franchise in the league.

The idea of starting a soccer team in the United States had been in the back of his mind for some time, Nguyen said. Having moved to America from Vietnam when he was less than two years old, in 1975, he grew up playing soccer, attended Washington Diplomats games with his father, and watched condensed highlights shows of European games on Sunday mornings. As he grew older, though, Nguyen’s attentions turned towards American sports, and it wasn’t until 15 years ago, when he returned to Vietnam to live and work, that soccer became a focus of his once more.

“It really was an eye-opener when I returned to Vietnam,” Nguyen said. “You learn very quickly that outside of the American borders there really is only one sport that matters. Obviously we call it soccer here in the US, but the game of football is what I would call the global language.”

Garber told Nguyen that the league was looking to expand and that there would be opportunities available for those looking to start a new franchise. At the same event Nguyen would briefly float the idea to Penn, who had become interested in the sport while living in Portland, where he attended a number of Timbers games.

The the pair would continue exchange phone calls over the coming months, and having honed in on Los Angeles as their desired market – they were attracted by the city’s soccer scene and diversity – Nguyen and Penn would spend a year and a half putting together a group of investors that could help make the team a possibility. The most important factor in speeding up the project, they said, was the support of someone who had extremely strong connections in the Los Angeles area, Peter Guber, who has worked in the entertainment industry for more than 40 years, producing such movies as Batman and Rain Man. The result the three’s collaboration was a star-studded lineup – a who’s who of those Nguyen, Penn and Guber had ties to in their respective fields.

“The idea was to have a group that accurately reflected the fabric of the World’s City,” Penn told the Guardian. “This was a startup club from nothing. And we really needed all the wind in our sails as possible.”

Nguyen was able to attract Vincent Tan, the majority owner of Cardiff City Football Club, and Ruben Gnanalingam, a co-owner of Queens Park Rangers, both of whom he knew through the ASEAN Basketball League, and who had advised him on the possibilities of soccer in the US. Others to join the venture included sports stars such as US women’s soccer Hall of Famer Mia Hamm, NBA Hall of Famer Magic Johnson, and Nomar Garciaparra, formerly of the Boston Red Sox; members of staff from the Golden State Warriors; Chad Hurley, the co-founder and former CEO of YouTube; and those with ties to the sports and entertainment business.

On 22 October 2014, the group, 24 strong and having paid a reported $110m entry fee to the MLS, announced that they would be starting a new franchise, set to debut in the 2017 season. (This date would later be pushed back a year.) The following September, they would then declare that their initial placeholder name, Los Angeles FC, had been chosen to become the club’s official title.

It all sounded rather familiar to MLS followers in recent years: declare that you are starting a new franchise in one of America’s largest and most diverse cities (which may already have a soccer franchise); select a rather European-sounding title and look to build a fanbase from the ground up. But Nguyen and Penn insist that newly-formed teams such as New York City FC only bolstered their confidence in the venture, and because of the league’s franchise-based system, LAFC staff have been able to speak to those at other clubs, who have offered advice on the unique challenge – at least in the world of soccer – of starting a club from scratch. One of the most interesting and welcome dynamics, Nguyen and Penn admitted, will be LAFC’s growing cross-city rivalry with the Los Angeles Galaxy, one of the founding franchises in Major League Soccer, who have won the MLS Cup five times. In a city with a number of franchises across a variety of sports, the club hope that such a rivalry will draw interest to soccer as a whole, as well as boost the respective clubs.

“There’s definitely room for both of our teams in LA,” Joanne Wong, senior vice president of marketing for LAFC, said. “But I think to have that rivalry element will be really exciting for soccer in the area – it will attract not only core soccer fans, but all sports folk. I think that will only bolster both of our teams.”

The biggest differentiator between the two clubs, Wong said, will be each team’s chosen geographical location in the city. Chivas USA, who competed in the MLS between 2004 until it ceased operations in 2014, played in the StubHub Center alongside the Galaxy; but the site LAFC are proposing for their stadium – around 13 miles away from Galaxy’s home – will be in downtown Los Angeles, next to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. When MLS accepted LAFC into the league, one of the criteria the owners agreed to meet was that the club would play in a soccer-specific stadium. The most recent renderings, released in September of this year, show a modern 22,000-seat stadium, with a clear roof, surrounding restaurants and a soccer museum. The estimated cost of this stadium – described by those at the club as a potential “cathedral of soccer” and a “tight, urban sound-box” – has been reported at around $250m.

“I think one of the most difficult things was that they [Chivas USA] played in StubHub, and were basically co-tenants. … Actually, they were kind of like the tenants of the LA Galaxy,” Henry Nguyen said. “I think that when you are trying to build a club that has its own identity, you’ve got to have, first and foremost, had your own home. So that was the first and the most critical part of this endeavor.”

The LAFC owners had the opportunity to take over control of Chivas USA, Penn said, but it was always their intention to create a new identity, and once the stadium is finalized he feels that it will become infinitely easier to attract fans to the fledgling club – even though some have already purchased season tickets. Though millennial may be too broad of a term to describe those who have already shown an interest in LAFC, Joanne Wong compared those who have already engaged with the franchise to the tech industry’s ‘early adopters’: their interests lie in being the first to be part of something; such involvement allows them to shape the look and feel of the franchise. Though they may come from a variety of backgrounds, the majority of these early adopters, Wong added, tend to be very “tech savvy” individuals – they may have grown up watching the MLS or European soccer as children, or perhaps now even have children of their own. Many of the suggestions that have been put forward so far surround personal touches that can be added to the stadium – such as integrating certain technologic aspects to enhance the viewing experience.

Over the coming months, staff at LAFC’s ever-growing office in Central Los Angeles plan to continue integrating themselves into the local community, speaking at local community centers, working with “soccer influencers” in the area, and ask brand-shaping questions that will help paint the blank canvas they have been given to design a soccer club. Soon, they hope to announce the club’s official colours and crest, one of the major steps – following its naming; before the likes of a stadium and, well, a team of players – that will help make Los Angeles Football Club become increasingly identifiable.

“The whole thing is so unusual,” Penn said. “This will be the last major sports club or franchise launched in Los Angeles from scratch – maybe ever. So right now, the most exciting thing has been the formation of the brand. … The club of the future. It’s easier to focus on being the club of the future if you are not fighting to win in the present moment on the pitch.”