San Diego awarded MLS franchise, opens play in 2025
Major League Soccer awarded San Diego its 30th franchise, which is set to join the league in 2025.
The expansion team announced Thursday is owned by billionaire Mohamed Mansour and the Sycuan Tribe, the first Native American tribe to have an ownership stake in a professional soccer team. The ownership group includes San Diego Padres third baseman Manny Machado.
The team will play at San Diego State’s Snapdragon Stadium, which opened last year.
Atlanta United agreed to sell the contract of Brazilian winger Luiz Araújo, who is heading back to his home country to play for Flamengo. The MLS club will receive a reported $10-million transfer fee from the deal.
Nadal pulls out of French Open
Rafael Nadal, who turns 37 next month, said he is pulling out of the French Open because of a lingering hip injury, and he expects 2024 to be the final season of his career. The owner of a record 14 championships at the clay-court Grand Slam tournament will miss it for the first time since making his debut there in 2005.
Nick Kyrgios withdrew from the French Open because of a foot injury he suffered at his Canberra home after a man allegedly threatened his mother with a gun and stole his car, according to Australian media. The Canberra Times said in the aftermath Kyrgios realized he cut his foot in the scramble to help his family and track down the thief . ... Daniil Medvedev beat German qualifier Yannick Hanfmann 6-2, 6-2 to reach the semifinals at the Italian Open in Rome. His semifinal opponent will be Stefanos Tsitsipas, who defeated Borna Coric 6-3, 6-4.
Michael Norman,
the Southern California-raised sprinter who last summer won the world’s 400-meter championship, will no longer compete at the Los Angeles Grand Prix. After running the 200 meters May 5 in Doha in a slower than expected 20.65 seconds, Norman felt discomfort behind a knee, said Emanuel Hudson, the director and cofounder of Norman’s agency, HSI. It led Norman’s team to opt for a cautious approach — Norman also withdrew from a race this week in Japan for the same reason.
— Andrew Greif
The Los Angeles office of the National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint against USC, the Pac-12 Conference and the NCAA, alleging that the three joint employers have maintained unlawful rules by “misclassifying” college athletes in men’s and women’s basketball and football as “student-athletes” rather than employees who are entitled to protections under the National Labor Relations Act. — J. Brady McCollough
The pending $6.05-billion sale of the Washington Commanders from owner Dan Snyder and his family to a group led by investor Josh Harris remains under standard review and will not be voted on next week by NFL owners at their spring meeting, the league said.
In Tampere, Finland, Sweden routed Hungary 7-1 at the hockey world championships. In other games, Germany beat Denmark 6-4 in Group A for its first victory at the tournament, and Switzerland and Czechia won games in Group B.
Junior Matthew Robles from Warren High in Downey won the Southern Section individual golf championship by firing a courserecord 10-under par 62 at River Ridge Golf Course (Vineyard Course) in Oxnard. — Eric Sondheimer