San Diego, CA
San Diego Wave poaches Leeds United executive Morrie Eisenberg as new CEO
NWSL team San Diego Wave have poached Leeds United’s chief business officer Morrie Eisenberg to be its new chief executive officer.
Eisenberg, who joined Premier League club Leeds as chief operating officer in October 2023, is credited internally with leading the push on its stadium redevelopment at Elland Road, which gained full planning permission earlier this year.
During Eisenberg’s time at the club, Leeds secured promotion back to the Premier League and, after his promotion last May, avoided relegation this season to maintain their place in English football’s top flight.
Eisenberg will begin his new role at the Wave in August, having previously held leadership positions at LinkedIn, Tesla and with the San Francisco 49ers in the NFL. He remained as a senior advisor to 49ers Enterprises while working at Leeds, with the two teams sharing the same ownership.
An announcement will be made by the two teams later on Wednesday.
In a statement, San Diego Wave governor Lauren Leichtman welcomed Eisenberg as a “transformative leader.”
“His vision, collaborative leadership style and commitment to building world-class organizations make him the ideal person to lead this club into its next chapter,” she added.
Eisenberg said: “The Wave has already established itself as a global brand with an exceptional fan base, ambitious vision and strong foundation. I’m excited to work alongside the players, staff, supporters and community to continue building a club that sets the standard on and off the pitch.”
The Wave are third in the NWSL standings (Leonardo Fernandez / Getty Images)
Leeds United managing director Robbie Evans added: “While I am disappointed to see Morrie leave, I am grateful for his effort and impact over the last three years. Much as with players, when you employ excellent people who produce excellent results, sometimes the unfortunate effect is that they will attract interest elsewhere.
“Morrie and I first met three years ago in discussing if we should leave our old lives behind to try and help Leeds United return to its rightful place in English football. Three seasons later, he leaves with the club on an excellent trajectory. I hope Morrie is especially proud of his tireless work on the stadium expansion, which will benefit the club, supporters, and the community for generations to come.
“Morrie and his wonderful family depart with the best wishes of the club. He is welcome anytime if he tires of California sunshine and misses the Yorkshire weather!”
The Wave is building influence
Analysis by soccer writer Asli Pelit
Lauren Leichtman, the first woman to become a billionaire from private equity, bought the Wave from billionaire businessman Ron Burkle for a record $120 million in 2024. Less than three years earlier, Burkle bought the franchise for $2m. Leichtman’s arrival in the NWSL marked the entry of institutional-caliber capital from one of private equity’s most accomplished operators.
Through Levine Leichtman Capital Partners, which manages more than $12bn in assets, Leichtman brought a new level of financial sophistication to women’s soccer just as franchise valuations, sponsorship revenue and infrastructure spending across the NWSL continue to surge.
The acquisition also underscored the increasing importance of relationships in women’s soccer. Former Wave president and ex-USWNT coach Jill Ellis played a pivotal role in connecting the parties, leveraging a relationship with Leichtman that dates back two decades to UCLA. Though Ellis’ exit to join FIFA was quite contentious.
Bringing USWNT legend Alex Morgan into the ownership group only deepened the club’s alignment between business credibility and player influence, a growing trend across the NWSL’s new ownership era.
Having only launched in 2022, the Wave have never won the NWSL Championship, though they did capture the 2023 NWSL Shield after finishing with the league’s best regular-season record and added the 2024 Challenge Cup to the trophy case.
In just a few seasons, the Wave have packed stadiums, landed superstar talent, shattered franchise valuation records and behaved like an established giant; the only thing still missing is the championship confetti.
The Wave are navigating a transitional 2026 season, balancing strong results with clear growing pains both on and off the field. Under second-year head coach Jonas Eidevall, San Diego remains in the playoff run, consistently hovering around the league’s top four to six spots, but performances have often highlighted unresolved issues within the squad. The club is still searching for consistency, but the potential arrival of USWNT star Catarina Macario after the summer break could significantly raise the team’s ceiling and strengthen their chances of bringing home a trophy this season.
Eisenberg is coming to Wave after his stint with one of the most successful American ownership groups, the 49ers Enterprises, the investment arm linked to the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers, which completed a full takeover of the club in 2023 after first purchasing a minority stake five years earlier. Led by chairman Paraag Marathe and backed by the York family, the ownership group has reshaped Leeds with an American-style approach centered on commercial expansion, infrastructure investment and data-driven operations.
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The San Diego Padres are in the playoff picture this season despite both the lineup and rotation falling short of expectations. While big moves won’t come until the summer, there are some swirling MLB trade rumors about two of the club’s targets in July.
USA Today‘s MLB insider Bob Nightengale reported over the weekend that the Padres are looking around the league for bullpen help and “have their eyes on” Boston Red Sox closer Aroldis Chapman and Colorado Rockies reliever Antonio Senzatela.
Padres general manager A.J. Preller has already demonstrated how much of a priority he places on the bullpen. San Diego gave up one of the top prospects in MLB, Leo De Vries last summer to acquire All-Star closer Mason Miller. One season later, San Diego could strengthen its pen again.
It’s not as if it’s a weakness for the team. Heading into MLB games today, the Padres’ bullpen has the fifth-lowest ERA (3.13) in MLB. That’s even with Jeremiah Estrada struggling early and then spending a few weeks on the IL.
As of now, Boston hasn’t seemingly shown much interest in selling at the MLB trade deadline. While the club is still eight games below .500 entering play on Tuesday, reports have suggested the team wants to add hitting. Chapman does have a mutual option for the 2027 season worth $13 million, which will likely be guaranteed since he’s well on pace to reach the 40-inning incentive.
- Aroldis Chapman stats (ESPN): 0.51 ERA, 0.85 WHIP, 23-7 K-BB, .235 batting average allowed
Senzatela is an intriguing option. A former starter, the 31-year-old reliever is owed $12 million this season with a $14 million club option for 2027. Across 32 innings of work this year, Senzatela boasts a 1.13 ERA with a 0.78 WHIP and a .157 batting average allowed.
The Padres could still add a starting pitcher this summer, but strengthening the bullpen would allow them to effectively shorten games and be better suited for competing in October. One promising thing: with new ownership coming in, shedding payroll won’t be a mandate this summer.
The magic of movies may still be present, but the way audiences experienced them in early San Diego was very different.
In the opening decades of motion pictures, films didn’t originate locally — they arrived.
Before Hollywood’s studio system fully consolidated, movies were distributed as physical reels and moved through regional film exchange networks.
These exchanges supplied theaters across the West Coast, including San Diego, with a steady rotation of new titles. Prints would arrive from distribution hubs in Los Angeles, play brief local runs, and then continue onward to the next city. San Diego was part of the circuit, rather than a production center.
By the early 1900s and into the 1910s, downtown theaters and vaudeville houses quickly adapted to motion pictures as they grew in popularity.
Programs were mixed: silent shorts, live music, vaudeville acts, and newsreels sharing the same stage. Film was not yet a standalone cultural industry — it was part of a broader night of entertainment.
San Diego’s growing downtown and busy port helped sustain this system. Sailors, travelers, and military personnel created a steady audience base, and films rotated frequently enough to keep programs changing week to week.
Films also did not arrive everywhere at once. A title might open in Los Angeles first, then reach San Diego days or weeks later as part of the same distribution circuit. Early cinema was a staggered experience—shared nationally, but consumed locally at different moments in time.
Film historians, including those from the Library of Congress and the American Film Institute, note that these exchange systems were essential to standardizing early American film culture, allowing motion pictures to reach cities far beyond production centers.
(Photo and caption info courtesy of the San Diego History Center)
Within this broader California film landscape, early directors often worked quickly and flexibly. William Bertram, for example, operated in a fast-moving production environment shaped by outdoor locations and rapid shooting schedules rather than permanent studio infrastructure.
Directors with direction
Allan Dwann, whose career stretched from the silent era into the sound age, represents a later stage of that evolution. A prolific filmmaker, he eventually settled in La Jolla, where he lived for many years until he died in 1981. His presence in coastal San Diego reflects the period when the film industry had become firmly rooted in Southern California life.
San Diego’s role in early cinema was not as a production hub, but as a receiving point — its downtown theaters and vaudeville houses acting as stops along a larger national distribution route.
In that sense, early film culture here was defined less by creation than by circulation: reels arriving, audiences gathering, and the city sitting along the path movies traveled as they moved across the country.
Read more history stories here, and do you have a story to tell? Send an email to DebbieSklar@cox.net.
Sources:
Library of Congress — motion picture history and early film distribution/exchange systems.
American Film Institute (AFI) Catalog — silent-era exhibition and industry context.
San Diego History Center — early 20th-century urban development and cultural life.
Eileen Bowser, The Transformation of Cinema, 1907–1915 (MoMA film scholarship)
Other historical references.
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