“It doesn’t represent the players, myself or the club, and it certainly doesn’t represent San Diego or Baja California.”
SDFC Head Coach Mikey Varas condemns the homophobic chant heard at last night’s match. pic.twitter.com/Hn9TjMo1O1
— San Diego FC (@sandiegofc) March 2, 2025
San Diego, CA
What should sports teams do when fans behave badly?
It took just two games for Major League Soccer’s newest team to face a fan-focused controversy.
Since its home opener on March 1, San Diego FC has been scrambling to address a homophobic chant used repeatedly by the home crowd and prevent a reoccurrence.
“What took place during our first-ever home match does not reflect who we are as a club or the values we stand for,” a Monday statement from the club read. “The sport of football brings people together, and in San Diego, that inclusive spirit thrives. The use of homophobic language in our stadium is completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated. San Diego FC is built on respect and the belief that soccer is for everyone. We are committed to fostering an environment where all fans, players and staff feel safe and welcome.”
Leaders in San Diego aren’t the first team officials to struggle to control sports fans, and they won’t be the last.
Teams in all major sports, including BYU in college football and basketball, have faced bad fan behavior, but no standard solution has emerged yet, in part because every crowd has a mind of its own.
MLS expansion team
San Diego FC is new to the MLS this season. It’s the first expansion team since St. Louis City joined the league in 2023, according to Sports Illustrated.
The San Diego and St. Louis clubs met on Saturday at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego in front of more than 34,000 fans.
Throughout the game, the San Diego FC X account shared excited updates about the home opener, highlighting the pregame fireworks display and some of the high-profile Californians wishing the team good luck.
But after the game, team leaders were worried about more than the fact that it ended in a 0-0 tie.
They had to balance thanking fans for offering their enthusiastic support, while also warning them that homophobic chants won’t be tolerated.
“I just want to make very clear that it has no place here,” said San Diego FC coach Mikey Varas on Saturday. “If they’re going to continue to come to the game and make that chant, it’s better that they don’t come here.”
Offensive chant in soccer
The chant in San Diego, which is less than 20 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border, involved a Spanish slur that’s commonly used by fans of Mexico’s national soccer team, according to The Associated Press.
During Saturday’s game, the chant resulted in three warnings from game organizers on the stadium video boards and over the stadium’s PA system.
“The last of those warnings added an additional threat that the game could be abandoned if they did not comply,” per The Athletic.
Those warnings are standard in the MLS and in FIFA, which have been on guard against that particular chant for years.
“It is a very complicated issue,” said San Diego FC CEO and co-owner Tom Penn to The Athletic. “It’s very emotional and it’s very divisive. But it’s not a difficult position for us to take. Our position is clear: we want to be a club that’s inclusive for all, one that is a source of entertainment and joy and fun. And this is the opposite of that, in that it creates such a wedge, and it’s so divisive.”
Several MLS teams, including the Los Angeles Football Club and Houston Dynamo, have been where San Diego FC is right now. And, for the most part, they’ve been successful in convincing fans to stop using the chant by simply having conversations with them about why it’s bad, The Athletic reported.
In Mexico, on the other hand, soccer leagues have had limited success trying to convince fans to stop using the chant by hitting their pocketbooks.
“The chant … has cost Mexico hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines over the past two decades,” the AP reported.
Mexican teams have recently started using AI technology to identify which fans are still chanting so that they can dole out more targeted punishments.
“So much of the issue with policing the use of the chant at games is how unpredictable its use is and how difficult it can be to identify individual fans who participate in it,” The Athletic reported.
Addressing bad fan behavior
Another factor that makes chants hard to police is that they’re sometimes linked to a specific opponent and, for that reason, may occur only once per season or once every few years.
Under those circumstances, team leaders will generally apologize and speak to their fans about appropriate behavior, but there’s not as much urgency to create new rules or punishments.
BYU athletes and fans have become familiar with that response in recent years as they’ve faced profane chants at a football game against USC in 2021, a football game against Oregon in 2022, a basketball game against Providence in 2024 and a basketball game against Arizona last month.
They’ve received apologies from their opponents, but there hasn’t yet been an NCAA- or Big 12-wide push to stop the chants once and for all.
When fan misbehavior is more serious, such as when fans physically interfere with an opposing athlete, home teams typically go beyond apologizing.
For example, after recent issues during Utah Jazz, Utah football and New York Yankees games, the home team worked to identify the fan or fans who created the problem and then took away their season tickets, banned them from future games or turned identifying information over to the police.
Some combination of these approaches generally reduces the risk of future bad behavior, but team leaders are always on guard against new issues.
Penn told The Athletic that San Diego FC plans to clearly communicate what is and isn’t acceptable to fans ahead of the next home game and then enforce the rules when fans break them.
“We’re not going to reinvent the wheel here,” Penn said.
San Diego FC schedule
San Diego FC is set to play on Saturday against Real Salt Lake in Utah at 7:30 p.m. MST.
The club will next play at home one week later on Saturday, March 15, against the Columbus Crew.
San Diego, CA
WEBTOON Brings Top Creators for San Diego Comic-Con Panels
Global entertainment company Webtoon is returning to the hallowed halls of San Diego Comic-Con with a larger-than-life slate of panels featuring top talent and fresh announcements.
They will be shining the spotlight on some of today’s most engaging webcomic creators, including Derek V. Song (Fantasy High) and Punko (Cinderella Boy).
Let’s take a look at their schedule:
Thursday, July 23 – 10am – Room 29AB
Creature Craft: Visionaries of Horror Comics Share Their Secrets
This panel features Punko, creator of Stagtown and Cinderella Boy on WEBTOON; Cullen Bunn, creator of Ripcord and Deluge for Ignition Press; and Cat Staggs, co-creator of Death Mask, and artist on Tales for a HalloweeNight for Storm King Comics. Rotem Rusak, Editor-in-Chief at Nerdist, will moderate.
Friday, July 24 – 10am – Room 32AB
Love in Every Universe: The Great Romance Trope Debate
Join ROSEOAK, creator of Not So Silent on WEBTOON, Alessandra Ferreri, Head of Content at Wattpad, E.M. Wilson, author of Situationship, and Becca Erin Title, founder of Meet Cute Romance Bookshop. The panel is moderated by Crystal Bell, the Culture Editor at Mashable.
Friday, July 24 – 1pm – Room 32AB
Adapting Fantasy High for WEBTOON with Derek V. Song
Featuring Derek V. Song, writer of Fantasy High. Fans will get a behind-the-scenes look at adapting the beloved Dimension 20 series for WEBTOON and learn more about bringing the world of Fantasy High to a new visual format.
Saturday, July 25 – 11:30am – Room 24ABC
What’s Next from WEBTOON Entertainment
Featuring Ryan Lee, Head of Content at WEBTOON; Sydney Bright, Head of Global Animation at WEBTOON Productions; Erik Kozura, Producer at WEBTOON; ROSEOAK, creator of Not So Silent; Derek V. Song, writer of Fantasy High; Punko, creator of Stagtown and Cinderella Boy; and Ucheomaaa, creator of Vibe Check! on WEBTOON. Journalist, comic critic, and 2026 Eisner judge, Tiffany Babb, will moderate. his panel will deliver a slew of announcements, exclusive first looks, and Creator appearances from its platform and entertainment businesses. Additionally, the panel will give fans a window into what’s next from WEBTOON’s most exciting stories and projects, with news from WEBTOON Originals, WEBTOON Productions, WEBTOON Unscrolled, and more.
San Diego, CA
Terrifying moment huge sea lions chase tourists off popular California beach
Beachgoers in one Southern California town had to run for their lives after two massive sea lions came out of the ocean and onto the beach in San Diego.
In a video posted July 7 on Instagram, Dion Ruzicka captured the terrifying moment the two giant sea creatures hit the shore and began chasing people at the beach on a sunny California day.
One sea lion suddenly charged at stunned beachgoers, barreling across the sand as terrified visitors shrieked and sprinted away while the barking beast gave chase.
Moments later, a second sea lion joined the chaos, sending panicked crowds scrambling for higher ground — and even into the surf — to escape the pair’s path.
The more people ran, the more determined the hefty marine mammals seemed, waddling after the fleeing beachgoers in a bizarre game of chase.
“Oh my God,” one person could be heard saying, in the midst of the chaotic scramble.
It didn’t matter whether the visitor was young or old, the sea lion just kept chasing them. Finally, both animals dived back into the ocean and swam away at a quick pace.
It is not the first time such an encounter has happened in the popular La Jolla spot. A year ago, a video showed a pair of sea lions chasing beachgoers around before finally leaving.
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San Diego has warned the public about the potential dangers of going near wildlife living in the area.
“With the increase in the sea lion population, Point La Jolla has become a popular tourist destination for the public to view these wild animals close up,” a message on the city’s website read.
As a result, interactions between sea lions and the public have increased.
“Members of the public have been observed trying to touch, take selfies, and get as close to sea lions as possible which is a dangerous situation for both the public and the animals,” it added.
Officials suggest people watch the animals from the boardwalk and keep their distance from the sea lions.
While it is unclear what lead to Tuesday’s chase, the summer months are pupping season for these ocean animals. Mothers and fathers become protective of their young ones, and will display aggressive behavior, if they sense a threat, per officials.
“These interactions are not only dangerous for both humans and wildlife, it may be a violation of the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act which helps to safeguard these animals,” the city said.
The California Post has reached out to the La Jolla Parks and Beaches group for further comment.
San Diego, CA
Opinion: More apartments eased rents. Townhomes could aid buyers.
San Diego’s most beloved neighborhoods, like North Park, Golden Hill and Sherman Heights, were built by people who needed a place to live and found one. But the bungalows, fourplexes and cottages that gave working San Diegans a foothold in those neighborhoods can hardly be built anywhere else in the city.
Rules written decades ago banned them. For 70 years, San Diego has been paying for that mistake in the form of a city its own workforce can no longer afford to live in.
Neighborhood Homes for All of Us is the city’s plan to fix that: family-sized townhomes, rowhouses and small duplexes built in the neighborhoods where San Diegans most want to live.
While San Diego rents are softening as new apartments are built, the cost of buying a home is not moving, and it won’t, because the rental and ownership markets run on entirely separate tracks. Renters benefit when more rentals are built, forcing landlords to compete for them.
However, a family trying to buy a home benefits only if more homes are available for sale. San Diego home prices now exceed nine times the median household income, among the worst ratios in the nation, according to Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. Building rental housing is important, but it does not change the math for a buyer.
The homes that would change it — family-sized, on the ownership track, in the neighborhoods where people most want to raise children — have been illegal to build for decades. San Diego produced roughly 7,000 condos and townhomes a year in 2005. By 2022, that number had collapsed below 500. Part of that drop is because of litigation rules that drove up insurance costs for builders, caps on pre-sales that finance these projects and high fees. Another major reason is that we simply do not allow starter homes on smaller lots. So, instead, builders default to rentals because that’s what current rules allow them to build profitably.
London Moeder Advisors, a San Diego real estate economics firm, finds that eliminating the city’s large-lot-size mandates could produce new townhomes at 42% less cost than surrounding single-family homes without taxpayer subsidies. While this price point is still high for many, it’s more attainable for young families starting out. And importantly, the price could drop further if the state advances reforms to address litigation rules and pre-sale caps that drive up costs.
The city’s program is also focused on adding homes in San Diego’s neighborhoods with the best-performing schools and most accessible jobs. These are also the neighborhoods with the most restrictive regulations on smaller starter homes. A teacher whose classroom is in La Jolla cannot afford to live there. A firefighter stationed in Mission Hills commutes from Santee. The homes that would let them stay are currently illegal to build in much of these areas. Neighborhood Homes changes that.
While critics may say San Diego already has the tools for adding homes to neighborhoods, why add another program? Because each of those tools was for a different purpose. None were designed to add more for-sale housing.
ADUs, the backyard homes now common across the city, typically top out at 750 square feet (because of fee cliffs) and entail intricacies when selling to own. Other tools, like Senate Bill 9, have been layered with requirements that make it far too complicated and expensive for many homeowners to split their lots to add homes. Laws like Senate Bill 79 are important for adding more housing near transit. But none of these tools focuses on family-sized, ownership-track townhomes in an established neighborhood.
The Neighborhood Homes initiative asks a simple question: Where do the families who can’t afford a million-dollar home but don’t want an apartment go? We can continue to say certain neighborhoods are off-limits to the teachers, trades workers and young families who want to live there, or San Diego can set its own terms for how they grow, with local standards in a form the city controls.
San Diego’s most beloved streets were not preserved into existence. They were built — a duplex here, a rowhouse there — by people who needed a place to live in the city they loved and found one. That is what Neighborhood Homes makes possible again.
Asad is a former board member of the YIMBY Democrats of San Diego County. He resides in Mid-City.
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