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What should sports teams do when fans behave badly?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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San Diego, CA

Game 21: San Diego Padres at Los Angeles Angels

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Game 21: San Diego Padres at Los Angeles Angels


San Diego Padres (14-7) at Los Angeles Angels (11-11), April 19, 2026, 1:07 p.m. PST

Watch: Padres.TV

Location: Angel Stadium – Anaheim, Calif.

Listen: 97.3 The Fan

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Solans, Luna, Guilavogui help RSL beat slumping San Diego, extend unbeaten streak to 6 games :: WRALSportsFan.com

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Solans, Luna, Guilavogui help RSL beat slumping San Diego, extend unbeaten streak to 6 games :: WRALSportsFan.com


— SANDY, Utah (AP) — Sergi Solans had two goals and an assist, Diego Luna added a goal and two assists, and Real Salt Lake beat San Diego FC 4-2 on Saturday night to extend its unbeaten streak to six games.

Morgan Guilavogui scored his first goal in MLS and had an assist for Real Salt Lake (5-1-1). The 28-year-old designated player has five goal contributions in his first six career games.

RSL hasn’t lost since a 1-0 defeat at Vancouver in the season opener.

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San Diego (3-3-2) has lost three in a row and is winless in five straight.

Luna opened the scoring in the fifth minute when he re-directed a misplayed pass by Duran Ferree, San Diego’s 19-year-old goalkeeper, into the net.

Moments later, Solans headed home a perfectly-placed cross played by Luna from outside the right corner of the 18-yard box to the back post to make it 2-0. Solans, a 23-year-old forward, flicked a header from the center of the area inside the right post and past the outstretched arm of Ferree to make it 3-1 in the 37th minute.

Guilavogui slammed home a first-touch shot to give RSL a three-goal lead in the 45th.

Marcus Ingvartsen scored a goal in the 14th minute and Anders Dreyer converted from the penalty spot in the 66th for San Diego.

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Ingvartsen has five goals and an assist this season and has 10 goal contributions (seven goals, three assists) in 16 career MLS appearances.

Rafael Cabral had three saves for RSL.

Ferree finished with five saves.

___

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/soccer

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How San Diego Has Quietly Emerged as One of America’s Great Dining Destinations

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How San Diego Has Quietly Emerged as One of America’s Great Dining Destinations


When John Resnick opened Campfire on a quaint little street in Carlsbad, Calif., in 2016, some locals weren’t sure what to think. The coastal enclave wasn’t exactly awash in innovative, chef-driven establishments, so it was a shock to see the dining room consistently full. Early on, one woman wondered aloud to Resnick, “Where did all these people come from?”

It’s a moment he remembers vividly. “I was struck by her statement, because I think she was surprised that so many other people in Carlsbad were there,” Resnick says. 

The rest of the culinary world would take some time to catch up to what was happening. In 2019, when Michelin expanded to rate restaurants throughout all of California—not just the San Francisco area—Addison was the only one in San Diego to earn a star. But since emerging from the pandemic, the region’s food scene has grown dramatically. Driven by outstanding farms, ingredients, a bumper crop of talented chefs, and a G.D.P. approximately the size of New Zealand or Greece, San Diego County has become one of America’s most underrated dining destinations.

Campfire’s octopus, chorizo, and celery-root entrée.

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Gage Forster

Perhaps no single restaurant is a better emblem for this shift than chef William Bradley’s Addison, which opened in 2006. After landing his first star, Bradley knew he wanted more. To get them, he transformed his French-leaning fare to serve what he calls California Gastronomy, which combines the cultures of SoCal with impeccable ingredients and wildly impressive techniques, prizing flavor over flair. Michelin responded, awarding Addison a second star in 2022, and making it the first Southern California three-star restaurant just a year later. The accolade has created a halo effect, attracting culinary tourists from around the world.

Berry beet tartlets at San Diego’s three-star stalwart Addison.

Berry beet tartlets at San Diego’s three-star stalwart Addison.

Eric Wolfinger

“Earning three stars forces the global dining community to pay attention to a place that may not have been on their radar before,” says chef Eric Bost, a partner in Resnick’s four Carlsbad establishments. 

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Resnick recruited Bost, who spent time at award-winning outposts of Restaurant Guy Savoy, to run Jeune et Jolie, which he led to a star in 2021. They’ve since taken over an old boogie-board factory down the street and converted it to an all-day restaurant and bakery, Wildland. The space also hosts an exquisite tasting-counter experience called Lilo, which was given a Michelin star mere months after opening in April 2025. And as Resnick and Bost grew their successful Carlsbad operation, chef Roberto Alcocer earned a Michelin star for his Mexican fine-dining spot Valle in nearby Oceanside.

The stylish tasting counter at Michelin one-star Lilo in Carlsbad.

The stylish tasting counter at Michelin one-star Lilo in Carlsbad.

Kimberly Motos

About 25 miles to the south, another affluent coastal community is going through its own culinary glow up. In La Jolla, chef Tara Monsod and the hospitality group Puffer Malarkey Collective opened the stylish French steakhouse Le Coq. Chef Erik Anderson, formerly of Michelin two-star Coi, is preparing to launch Roseacre. And last year, Per Se alums Elijah Arizmendi and Brian Hung left New York to open the elegant tasting-menu restaurant Lucien, lured by the ingredients they’d get to serve. “A major reason we chose San Diego is the quality and diversity of the produce,” Arizmendi explains. “San Diego County has more small farms than anywhere else in the U.S., and its many microclimates allow farmers to grow an incredible range of ingredients year-round.”

Wildland’s spicy Italian sandwich.

Wildland’s spicy Italian sandwich.

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Gage Forster

Chef Travis Swikard has also been a tireless advocate for the region’s ingredients since he returned to San Diego, his hometown, and opened Mediterranean-influenced Callie in 2021. There’s no sophomore slump with his latest effort, the French Riviera–inspired Fleurette in La Jolla, where he’s serving his take on classics like leeks vinaigrette and his San Diego “Bouillabaisse” with local red sheepshead fish and spiny lobster. Its food is bright, produce-driven, and attentive in execution, while the dining room maintains a relaxed and unpretentious style of service. And Swikard sees that approach cohering into a regional style with a strong network of professionals behind it.

“It’s really nice that we are developing our own identity, not trying to be like L.A. or any other market, just highlighting what’s great about the San Diego lifestyle and ingredients,” he says. “Similar to New York, a chef community is starting to develop where chefs are supporting each other. There is a true sense of pride to be cooking here.”

Top: In La Jolla, Lucien serves ocean whitefish with tomatoes turned into concasse, sabayon, and other expressions.





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