San Jose Earthquakes' Chris Wondolowski (8) heads onto the field before the San Jose Earthquakes exhibition match with Manchester United at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, July 22, 2018. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
SANTA CLARA — There are still three years until the men’s World Cup comes to the Bay Area.
But the preparation is already underway at Levi’s Stadium — and the first soccer match of many to come is set for this weekend.
“This is the kickoff to a five-year run of hopefully just great soccer here in the Bay Area and Northern California,” San Jose Earthquakes president Jared Shawlee said.
The Earthquakes will make the five-mile trek north from PayPal Park on Saturday to host reigning MLS champion Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC) at 4:30 p.m. The Quakes and 49ers are expecting a big turnout for what the club is calling “biggest Cinco de Mayo celebration on the West Coast,” with more than 40,000 tickets sold already.
“Every night, when I pop open those updates around how many tickets were sold, it speaks to how excited people are about the Quakes,” 49ers president Al Guido said. “And hopefully, as excited as they are about continuing to build soccer fandom here.”
The 49ers aren’t strangers to the sport, having previously hosted four matches in the 2016 Copa America Centenario, the 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup Final and various friendlies. More soccer is coming to Santa Clara later this summer, with Mexico returning as part of a Gold Cup doubleheader set on July 2 and Guido hinting more announcements could come soon.
The global game’s biggest stage is coming in 2026, and Levi’s is set to be one of 16 venues across the US, Mexico and Canada hosting matches for the newly expanded 48-team World Cup. Even three years away with only the hosts locked in to play, the preparation is well underway for the matches.
“Everything that we do, especially soccer events at the stadium, is part of the run-up,” Guido said. “There’s still probably a reality that not everybody knows it’s coming and the timeframe [for it]. I think every chance that we get to educate the market, that a World Cup is coming here … I think it’s a great opportunity for Levi’s.”
There’s potential for more, too. The United States just announced a joint bid with Mexico for the 2027 Women’s World Cup. It would make sense to host a game in the Bay Area, given recent women’s soccer news: Last month, the NWSL announced a Bay Area expansion team and the U.S. women’s national team will play its only 2023 World Cup tune-up match at PayPal Park.
And when the 2028 Summer Olympics come to Los Angeles, it’s likely the Bay Area could host several soccer matches, just like Stanford Stadium did in 1984. Both Guido and Shawlee said their organizations would be interested in hosting matches for both the 2027 women’s World Cup and the Olympics.
“We have the most fertile market for soccer in the entire country here in Northern California,” Shawlee said. “I think the Bay Area wants to host all of the major global events.”
Levi’s went more than three years without soccer before last year’s Mexico-Colombia friendly in late September. Guido said the gap came as extended fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.
That’s why Saturday’s match will be a welcomed chance to help further break that spell. It’s the first Quakes match at the stadium since a friendly against Manchester United five years ago and the third MLS regular-season match the Quakes have played there (one each in 2014 and 2015).
The Quakes already take one home match a year against their original LA rivals, the Galaxy, to Stanford Stadium sometime around the Fourth of July. This year’s “California Clásico” is set for July 1.
Might this mark the start of a second annual big-stadium match for the Quakes, against the other LA team around Cinco de Mayo?
Shawlee said Saturday’s game setting is only a one-off for now, but Guido said he “really wants to make this an annual thing” — and sees the chance to build up the Bay Area-LA rivalry, too.
“If you think about Bay Area sports and what it means to beat LA, whether it’s us versus the Rams, or obviously the Warriors currently now playing the Lakers, Dodgers-Giants, there’s a lot of elements that seem to fit around this event,” Guido said. “I think this could become a staple.”
Originally published at Alex Simon