Aboard a proud vessel moored in the shadow of the downtown skyline, symbolism shined bright as the midday sun.

The group seeking to build a stadium and surrounding development in Mission Valley publicly handed its expansion bid to the commissioner of Major League Soccer shortly before noon Monday aboard a San Diego landmark.


Considering Mayor Kevin Faulconer and the COO of the city’s tourism authority and CEO of the region’s chamber of commerce were also in attendance for the event on the flight deck of the USS Midway, it is pretty easy to see that a new future for San Diego as a sports town has already set sail.

All that is left is for a bunch of the rest of the town to climb aboard and leave the naysayers waving from shore.

It isn’t that difficult a leap to take. This is an opportunity. A good one. It’s a need meeting a solution in a way folks have every right to be skeptical of in a town with a well-earned reputation for bickering and fear-induced inertia.

No more. Not now. We’re doing this.


The San Diego bid to get an MLS team will be one of as many as a dozen such submissions expected by the Tuesday deadline. The league hopes to announce by fall at least two teams that would begin play in 2020 and perhaps two more that would begin playing at a future date. So this isn’t a slam dunk — or a penalty kick, as it were. There is work to be done, including 72,000 signatures that must be gathered from registered city voters and a city council vote to forego a public election on what would essentially be a land swap.

But the MLS commissioner is not attending an announcement of any other group vying for a team.

Sure, Monday’s event coincided nicely with the national team’s friendly against Serbia at Qualcomm Stadium on Sunday. Commissioner Don Garber could attend the first game back for U.S. coach Bruce Arena and stay over a night to be on hand for Monday’s to-do. But neither did the commissioner nor his people attempt to downplay the significance of Garber’s attendance at the Midway event.

“If we didn’t think San Diego would work,” Garber said, “we wouldn’t be here today.”


Walking away from a meeting with Garber, it feels a lot like San Diego has nailed the interview process so far. The boss is impressed; there are just a few more people to meet and details about the applicant’s resume that have to be confirmed.

As for what factors into a successful expansion bid, the commissioner said, “Success is driven by great ownership, a great stadium situation and a market that cares. It seems those things are coming together nicely in San Diego.”

The commissioner spoke Sunday afternoon following the exhibition at Qualcomm Stadium, the 50-year-old edifice that is likely headed to a date with a wrecking ball in a few years regardless of whether an MLS team comes here and spawns construction of a new smaller stadium.

Garber certainly seemed intrigued by the plans the MLS group, headed by local investor Mike Stone, has for the surrounding acreage – a stadium that would house the MLS team and San Diego State football, housing for students and faculty, as well as other middle-income families, office space and an entertainment district, plus more than 50 acres of park land.


Garber seems more than passingly acquainted with the area and spoke of the marketing and revenue opportunity – including exterior signage – created by the convergence of three freeways and the trolley.

“The Mission Valley site would be one of the most unique stadium and mixed-use development projects in the country,” he said.

The commissioner is also a fan of Stone, with whom he has been acquainted for decades.

“He represents that new breed of sports team owners we like,” Garber said. “… He’s young, successful working in private equity, and he moved to San Diego because he wanted to be here. He could have lived anywhere in the country, and he chose San Diego because he loved it.”


The region’s demographics, skewing younger and more ethnically diverse all the time, are also intriguing for MLS.

“We’ve positioned ourselves as a league for a new America,” Garber said, using a phrase he has for years employed to describe the United States’ evolution in a global market. “That new America lives here in San Diego.”

The 20-team MLS is growing in every conceivable way. We can in the coming months talk about the good and bad of that growth from every conceivable angle. For now, think young and international.

Going in, we should focus on what the league can do for us. That seems to be plenty, considering SDSU football needs a place to play and affordable housing for a certain portion of the populace is in short supply and there are people with a viable plan ready to turn land that has been a burden into taxable real estate.


Garber spent time with some city council members Sunday and the council Monday. It will be those nine folks who ultimately decide whether San Diego is going to welcome an invitation from MLS.

If their decision is to be determined by what they gather is the will of the people, the local MLS group plans to take no chances. Its goal beginning in February is to gather 125,000 signatures, well above the required threshold.

A vote by the council would likely come in early summer. The MLS, which will add two teams this year, another in 2018 and likely another in ‘19, expects to make its announcement on its 25th and 26th teams by autumn.

The quest here officially launched Monday.


Sports Videos

kevin.acee@sduniontribune.com

UPDATES:


11:30 a.m.: This article was updated with the official announcement.