Double duty at USD’s stadium
Pro sports on campus create opportunities for students, challenges for university
Eric Boose / Opinion Editor / The USD Vista
On Feb. 9, the San Diego Legion will kick off their third Major League Rugby (MLR) season at Torero Stadium. A month later, on Mar. 7, San Diego Loyal SC will kick off their first United Soccer League (USL) season, also at Torero Stadium. In total, the University of San Diego will play host to 12 professional sports games over the course of this semester. Those hosting duties, while giving USD students easy access to pro sports, will undoubtedly pose some serious challenges for the university.
If USD students are looking for local sports teams to support, it does not get much more local than on our own campus, and both teams are worth getting excited about. The San Diego Legion are an established powerhouse in MLR, reaching the championship in both of the league’s first two seasons. The Legion boasted the best regular-season record in last year’s competition, winning 12 of their 16 games before falling to the Seattle Seawolves in the final — a matchup which is blossoming into a serious rivalry.
In preparing for this season, the Legion signed Ma’a Nonu, a two-time Rugby World Cup winner for New Zealand — one of 17 Legion players with international rugby experience. Nonu and the Legion open their season with a championship rematch against the Seawolves on Feb. 9. Crucially, tickets start at $18 apiece for all Legion matches. Rugby fan or not, the Legion deliver 80 minutes of good sport for less than a $20 bill, right here at Alcalá Park.
Nonu’s Legion are not the only team which will bring international icons to Torero Stadium this spring. San Diego Loyal SC head coach Landon Donovan is a legend of American soccer, holding the U.S. men’s national team record for goals scored with 57. While Loyal SC is something of an unknown value in terms of how the team will play, they will at the very least play host to some talented competition. On Mar. 28, Loyal SC will welcome Club Tijuana across the border for a friendly match. A week later, defending USL champions Real Monarchs SLC will visit Torero Stadium.
The bottom line is this: with Torero Stadium playing host to both the Legion and Loyal SC, students get the chance to watch a pair of international icons — one trying to bring a title to San Diego at the end of an illustrious career, and the other taking his first steps as a coach after making his name as a player. It is a chance students should take, even if they have never seen a rugby game in their life, and even if soccer is not their favorite thing in the world to watch. When else will two professional sports teams play within walking distance of your house?
However, 12 games in a little less than 15 weeks come at a cost. Both rugby and soccer games can take a toll on the playing surface — a surface that USD is likely tasked with maintaining this spring. Keeping Torero Stadium’s natural grass field in good condition, while not impossible, will be a tough test for the university, especially on the two weekends when Loyal SC plays Saturday and the Legion take the same field the next day. As trivial as the condition of the grass may seem, stadiums have been judged for their playing surface in the past, and a well-kept field can even be a point of pride for teams. Ultimately, the field will not need to be perfect — it likely will not be — but it would be in USD’s interest to have the field make a good impression.
No matter how torn-up the field at Torero Stadium may get, keeping it in shape will not be the biggest challenge of hosting teams on campus. That would be parking. In 2019, the Legion averaged just over 3,000 fans per game, and the average attendance for USL games was just under 4,500. So it would be fair to assume that Loyal and Legion games will bring anywhere from around 3,000 to a capacity crowd of 6,000 people on to USD’s campus. And most of those people will need a place to park. On a campus which is already struggling for parking without an influx of cars, that has a high potential to create logistical issues for the university and possibly inconvenience students.
While the university has done admirably to handle the issue of parking in the Legion’s first two seasons playing on campus, it remains to be seen if they can handle a sell-out crowd, should either team manage one this spring.