Three Clubs in Search of a City: Professional Soccer in Los Angeles, 1973–2018

Abstract

In 2016, Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC) celebrated its birth before a public audience at Union Station. The club’s posturing on the day, and in its efforts more broadly, was that it offered the local market something new. Yet while the claim to originality was a tacit acknowledgment that the city had a footballing past, rarely has this past been explored in the relevant historiography. Thus, the founding of LAFC presents a timely moment to fill in the scholarly gap. This article uses LAFC as an entry point for exploring the contours of professional soccer in Los Angeles over the previous half-century. It follows three sides—the Los Angeles Aztecs, Los Angeles Galaxy, and Los Angeles Football Club—in their attempts to navigate the city’s built and sociocultural environment.