San Diego, CA

Alex Morgan Bids Farewell As NWSL Attendances Surpass 1.5 Million

Published

1 year ago

September 9, 2024

Alex Morgan Bids Farewell As NWSL Attendances Surpass 1.5 Million

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – SEPTEMBER 08: Alex Morgan #13 of San Diego Wave FC waves to the crowd after … [+] the game against the North Carolina Courage at Snapdragon Stadium on September 08, 2024 in San Diego, California. This was Morgan’s final NWSL game before her announced retirement. (Photo by Kaelin Mendez/Getty Images)

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The third-highest crowd of the NWSL season witnessed the last-ever game of Alex Morgan’s career on the day total attendances surpassed 1.5 million for the the first time.

A crowd of 26,516 were at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego to see the United States Women’s National Team legend Morgan play for just 16 minutes of the game against North Carolina Courage until she was substituted on her final appearance before retiring from the professional game.

Earlier in the day, total attendances for the regular NWSL season had gone past the 1.5 million mark for the first time in the league’s eleven-year history during the match between Chicago Red Stars and Orlando Pride. It is the third successive year in which the league has attracted more than one million spectators.

Last season, 1,424,208 fans watched the 132 regular season matches in the league. This figure was surpassed last Sunday during the game between Angel City and Chicago Red Stars. With seven weeks of an expanded league campaign left to play, it now seems inevitable that the NWSL will record attendances in excess of two million.

In spite of the increased number of games to be played, the 1.5 million mark was broken in the 132nd match of the season – the same total of games played last year. Average attendances are up for the fourth successive season, currently standing at 11,477 per game.

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – SEPTEMBER 08: Fans hold signs for Alex Morgan #13 of San Diego Wave FC … [+] during the game against North Carolina Courage at Snapdragon Stadium on September 08, 2024 in San Diego, California. Morgan bid farewell to fans and fellow athletes after announcing her retirement from the game three days earlier, marking this game as her last. (Photo by Meg Oliphant/Getty Images)

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Morgan’s well-publicised farewell swelled the crowd for San Diego’s 1-4 defeat to North Carolina Courage. In her farewell speech she joked that “95” of her friends and family were in attendance. “I know people have come here from Alaska, Massachusetts, Colorado, Florida, all around the country.”

When Morgan played in the first NWSL campaign in 2013, a total of 375,763 attended the 88 regular season games, an average of just 4,270. Her side then, Portland Thorns, had the highest-season average of 13,320, as they would in eight of the first ten years. Now new franchises, like Angel City and San Diego Wave, have surpassed them bolstering the league’s figures.

Despite their lowly league position, The Wave are averaging 20,408 this campaign pulling in four of the the five largest crowds of the year. This has put them on course to become the first NWSL side in history to average over 20,000 in successive seasons.

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA – MAY 05: Penelope Hocking #55 of the Chicago Red Stars evades a slide tackle … [+] by Jen Beattie #5 of Bay FC in the first half at PayPal Park on May 05, 2024 in San Jose, California. (Photo by Eakin Howard/Getty Images)

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The largest crowd of the NWSL season was recorded at Wrigley Field when 35,038 saw the visit of Bay FC to Chicago. However this is only one of two matches in this campaign to register among the all-time top ten attendances for the NWSL indicating a more sustained growth of crowds throughout the league. Currently, every club is averaging above 5,000 for the season.

These figures make the NWSL far and away the best supported professional women’s sports league in North America. Crowds in the Mexican Liga MX Feminil averaged at 2,072 in the Apertura and 2,456 in the Clausura.

The Professional Women’s Hockey League in the United States pulled in a total attendance of 392,259 last season averaging 5,448. In 2023, the WNBA averaged 6,615 per match but pulled in a total attendance of 1,587,488 over 212 games. Currently at 1,526,407, this mark will be surpassed by the NWSL next week.

Despite a season of record-breaking attendances in the English Women’s Super League (WSL), the total attendance from the same number of games (132) reached 971,977, an average of 7,363. This marked a 41% increase on the previous season when the total attendance reached 689,297.

After playing six of their eleven games at the Emirates Stadium, Arsenal averaged an attendance of 29,999 over the season. It is a figure they are set to break this season with at least eight matches at the club’s main stadium, pushing the WSL also past the one million mark.

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San Diego, CA

Mayor Gloria defends Balboa Park paid parking, blames council for rocky rollout

Published

10 hours ago

January 9, 2026

Press Room

Mayor Gloria defends Balboa Park paid parking, blames council for rocky rollout

San Diego will put off issuing citations for paid parking in Balboa Park for about one month while improvements are made, but Mayor Todd Gloria says the new system is functioning well and being “actively adopted.”

In a long and harshly worded memo released Thursday, Gloria said recent calls by City Council members to suspend the program were politically motivated and examples of bad governance and erratic decision-making.

Gloria also deflected blame for the chaotic way enforcement began Monday, when city officials raced to put stickers about resident discounts on parking kiosks and lobbied a vendor to deliver crucial missing signs.

The mayor said the council had “shaped, amended and approved” paid parking in Balboa Park and contended an accelerated timeline chosen by the council made it hard for his administration to implement it flawlessly.

The mayor’s memo came in response to a Tuesday memo from Councilmembers Kent Lee and Sean Elo-Rivera in which they called implementation of paid parking “haphazard” and “not ready for prime time.”

Lee and Elo-Rivera said the process for city residents to get approved for discounts was so complex, cumbersome and confusing that Gloria should waive fees for residents until they have had time to adapt and learn.

While Gloria rejected that suggestion in part of his memo, he later said “enforcement remains focused on education, not punishment, during this early phase, to ensure park users are aware of the new parking fees.”

Dave Rolland, a spokesperson for Gloria, said Thursday that no specific date had been set for when the city would shift from education to enforcement. But he added that “about a month” would be an accurate timeline.

City officials have already corrected one key mistake: Signs that were missing Monday — alerting drivers that the 951-space lower Inspiration Point lot is free for three hours — have since been installed.

Lee and Elo-Rivera in their memo decried “an inadequate effort to educate the public on how to use this new system.”

They said San Diegans had not been clearly informed about when a portal for city resident discounts would go live or how to use it.

And they complained that residents weren’t told they couldn’t buy discounted parking passes in person, or when enforcement with citations would actually begin.

City residents must apply for discounts online, pay $5 to have their residency verified, then wait two days for that verification and choose the day they will visit in advance.

Lee and Elo-Rivera called the city’s efforts “a haphazard rollout that will surely lead to San Diegans missing out on their resident discount and paying higher parking rates than they have to.”

Gloria said the city collected $23,000 in parking fees on Monday and Tuesday and another $106,000 in daily, monthly and quarterly passes — mostly from residents who get discounts on such passes.

“Early data shows that the program is functioning and being used,” he said. “These are not the metrics of a system that is failing to function. They are the metrics of a system that is new, actively being adopted, and continuing to improve as public familiarity increases.”

While Gloria conceded that some improvements are still necessary, he rejected calls from Lee and Elo-Rivera for a suspension, citing his concerns it would jeopardize city finances and confuse the public.

“Your proposal to suspend paid parking for residents two days into the new program would have immediate and serious fiscal consequences,” Gloria said. “This reversal could introduce confusion among park users and would disregard investments already made to establish the system, potentially compromising the program’s effectiveness.”

Paid parking in Balboa Park is expected to generate about $3.7 million during the fiscal year that ends June 30, but revenue is expected to rise substantially when the fees are in place for a full fiscal year.

Gloria said the money is a small part of the city’s overall solution to recurring deficits it faces of more than $100 million per year.

“What we will not do is reverse course days into implementation in a way that undermines fiscal stability, creates uncertainty, and sends the message that addressing a decades-old structural budget deficit that has plagued our city is optional because it is politically uncomfortable,” he said. “That kind of erratic decision-making is not good governance, and San Diegans deserve better.”

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the San Diego Zoo said Thursday that paid parking there has continued to go smoothly since it began on Monday.

The zoo, which is using Ace Parking for enforcement, opted for immediate citations instead of an educational grace period.

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San Diego, CA

Barricaded individual in custody following police response in Mission Valley

Published

22 hours ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

Barricaded individual in custody following police response in Mission Valley

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — San Diego Police responded to a barricaded individual in the Mission Valley area Thursday afternoon, prompting a heavy law enforcement presence.

The Nexstar Media video above details resources for crime victims

The department confirmed around 1 p.m. that officers were on scene in the 1400 block of Hotel Circle North, and are working to safely resolve the situation. Authorities asked the public to avoid the area and allow officers the space needed to conduct their operations.

Police described the incident as a domestic violence restraining order violation. At this time, it’s unknown if the person is armed.

No injuries have been reported.

The suspect was taken into custody within an hour.

Further details about the barricaded person were not immediately released. Police say updates will be shared as more information becomes available.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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San Diego, CA

Padres roster review: Luis Campusano

Published

1 day ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

Padres roster review: Luis Campusano – San Diego Union-Tribune

LUIS CAMPUSANO

Position(s): Catcher
Bats / Throws: Right / Right
2026 opening day age: 27
Height / Weight: 5-foot-10 / 232 pounds
How acquired: Second round of the draft in 2017 (Cross Creek HS, Ga.)
Contract status: Will make $900,000 after agreeing to a one-year deal to avoid arbitration; Will not be a free agent until 2029.
fWAR in 2025: Minus-0.4
Key 2025 stats: .000 AVG, .222 OBP, .000 SLG, 0 HRs, 0 RBIs, 0 runs, 6 walks, 11 strikeouts, 0 steals (10 games, 27 plate appearances)

STAT TO NOTE

1 — The number of plate appearances for Campusano while in the majors between June 1 and June 13 and the one at-bat resulted in a weak, pinch-hit groundout against a position player (Kike Hernandez) on the mound in mop-up duty. Campusano was recalled to the majors four times in 2025 but did not get a real opportunity get settled after he went 0-for-6 with four walks and a strikeout in three straight starts as a DH in early May. Of course, hitting .227/.281/.361 with eight homers over 299 plate appearances after getting the first real chance to start in 2024 likely informed how the Padres viewed his opportunity in 2025.

Down — Called up a final time on the last day of the regular season, Campusano balked at the idea that the season did not go the way he wanted. “I had a great season,” he said as he and his teammates packed for the NL Wild Card Series in Chicago. And he did … for Triple-A El Paso. He hit more home runs than ever (25), drove in more runs (95) and finished with a career-high 1.036 OPS, tops among all qualifying Triple-A hitters. The disappointment inferred in the question posed to Campusano was that he was not able to impact the big-league team in any way in 2025, which began with the team choosing to bring in a 40-year-old Yuli Gurriel a chance on the opening day roster over a homegrown product. Once billed as the catcher of the future, Campusno did not catch a single game in the majors, nor did he get any hits, although the opportunity to play was sporadic after getting three straight starts as a DH in early May (see stat to note). The Padres even lost back-up catcher Elias Díaz to an oblique injury over the final weekend of the regular season, but Campusano — who played out the string for a Triple-A El Paso team that did not make the playoffs rather than participate in the majors as a September call-up — was added to the postseason roster more as a right-handed bat than a third catcher (Martín Maldonado was also re-added to the team for the playoffs as the defensive back-up to Freddy Fermin). Campusano, of course, was not asked to help the team in either capacity before the Padres were eliminated in three games.

2026 OUTLOOK

Campusano is finally out of minor league options this year, so the Padres will either have to carry him on the roster, trade him or expose him to waivers. He has fans in the organization, but two big-league staffs headed by Bob Melvin and Mike Shildt seemingly lost faith in his ability to catch a game and all the responsibilities that come with that. It remains to be seen what impact the arrival of robo umps will have on how new manager Craig Stammen views Campusano’s ability behind the plate, but he’s been a potent minor league hitter who has yet to truly get on track in the majors beyond the second half of 2023 (.875 OPS, 6 HRs). Campusano has dabbled at first base in recent years in the minors (12 starts total), so perhaps he settles into a role as a second catcher/right-handed DH/first base option to start 2026.

Luis Campusano #15 of the San Diego Padres and Nick Pivetta #27 walk to the dugout during a practice before the Wildcard series against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on Sept. 29, 2025 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune)