On Thursday, Major League Soccer announced a new team that will begin play in a brand new, soccer-specific stadium located in Los Angeles. The team being referred to as the Los Angeles Football Club or LAFC will begin play in 2017.
MLS Commissioner Don Garber awarded the team to an ownership group led by Peter Guber, Henry Nguyen and Tom Penn. Along with these men, there are a number of other high-profile owners such as Magic Johnson, Nomar Garciaparra and Tony Robbins to name a few.
Earlier in the week, Chivas USA folded after 10 years in the MLS. LAFC will be taking over as the new Los Angeles team in Chivas’ place. There will be a dispersal draft of the Chivas players sometime before December.
According to the LAFC twitter page, which is already verified, the fans will determine the team’s logo, name and kit. This is similar to what NYCFC, another expansion franchise beginning play in 2015 has done, but added a new part by allowing fans to also choose the name.
The Los Angeles Galaxy are already a current MLS team playing in the city, and they have been around since the league’s inception. When talking about the city, Garber said, “Los Angeles is a diverse, vibrant market with millions of soccer fans, and we look forward to an intense rivalry between the Galaxy and Los Angeles Football Club.”
LAFC will join Atlanta as expansion franchises that will join the league in 2017, bringing the league’s total to 22 teams from the 20 that will play at the start of 2015.
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