Sports in San Diego

Professional teams

San Diego has the longest championship drought in the nation with at least two major-league sports franchises; dating back to 1963 (54 Years as of 2017), as well as being the largest United States city to have not won a Super Bowl, World Series, Stanley Cup, NBA Finals or any other Major League sports championship. Some fans believe that there is a curse on the major league teams in the city.

Baseball

Major League Baseball's San Diego Padres play in Petco Park. The semi-final and final games of the inaugural World Baseball Classic were played there in 2006, and an earlier round of the second WBC was held there in 2009.

Football

The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team based in San Diego. The Chargers competed in the National Football League (NFL). The club began play in 1960 as a charter member of the American Football League (AFL), and spent its first season in Los Angeles, California, before moving to San Diego in 1961. The Chargers joined the NFL as result of the AFL–NFL merger in 1970, and played their home games at Qualcomm Stadium.

On January 12, 2016, the Chargers were given a one-year option to join the Rams in the Los Angeles area. Team chairman and CEO Dean Spanos announced on January 29, 2016, that the Chargers would remain in San Diego for the 2016 season. In 2017 the Chargers moved back to their original city of Los Angeles, leaving San Diego without a football team for the first time since 1961.

Team tennis

The San Diego Aviators of World TeamTennis (WTT) moved to San Diego from New York prior to the start of the 2014 season. They were formerly known as the New York Sportimes. They played their 2014 home matches at Valley View Casino Center. In 2015, they moved to Omni La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad. In their first three seasons in San Diego, they finished with the league's top regular-season record twice (2014 and 2016), and won the King Trophy as 2016 WTT champions.

San Diego has had two previous WTT franchises. The San Diego Friars were a WTT expansion franchise that began play in 1975. They used the San Diego Sports Arena (now Valley View Casino Center) as their primary home venue but played some home matches at the Anaheim Convention Center between 1975 and 1977, before Anaheim got its own team in 1978. After missing the playoffs their first two seasons, the Friars qualified in 1977 and 1978, and were the 1978 Western Division champions, but lost in the quarterfinals. The team folded after the 1978 season. International Tennis Hall of Famers Rod Laver and Dennis Ralston played for the Friars.

In 1981, the Friars returned as an expansion franchise as WTT resumed operations rebranded as TeamTennis after a hiatus. After three seasons as the Friars, the team was renamed the San Diego Buds before the 1984 season. The Buds won both the 1984 and 1985 TeamTennis championships but folded following the 1985 season. Hall of Famer Rosie Casals was the Friars player-coach in 1983.

Ice hockey

San Diego has a long history of minor league ice hockey teams, starting with the San Diego Skyhawks that played in the Pacific Coast Hockey League from 1948 to 1950. Hockey returned in 1966 with the San Diego Gulls of the Western Hockey League, which were created by Robert Breitbard to have a tenant for his upcoming arena – now known as the Valley View Casino Center. The Gulls soon grew a fanbase in San Diego, with averages of over 9,000 spectators. By 1971, the year Breitbard's National Basketball Association franchise relocated to Texas to become the Houston Rockets, the Gulls had attendances bigger than both the Rockets and the Californian National Hockey League teams, the Los Angeles Kings and Oakland Seals. The Gulls ceased operations in 1974 to give way for the relocated San Diego Mariners of the World Hockey Association, which folded in 1977. Another Mariners team was one of the charter teams of the short-lived Pacific Hockey League that same year, being renamed Hawks in the following and last PHL season. The arena remained without hockey until 1990, when another San Diego Gulls team was founded in the International Hockey League (1990–95). After the IHL team moved to Los Angeles, another Gulls team played for over a decade in both the West Coast Hockey League (1995-03) and ECHL (2003-06). The current San Diego Gulls, of the American Hockey League, started playing in 2015, and are owned by the NHL's Anaheim Ducks.

Soccer

With the expansion of the National Premier Soccer League, the San Diego Flash saw the addition of the North County Battalion and Albion SC Pros in the 2016 NPSL season. The San Diego SeaLions play in the Women's Premier Soccer League.

Rugby

Rugby union is a developing sport in San Diego. The multiple clubs, ranging from men's and women's clubs to collegiate and high school, are part of the Southern California Rugby Football Union. San Diego is represented in rugby by Old Mission Beach Athletic Club RFC (OMBAC). OMBAC is the home club of USA Rugby's former captain Todd Clever who played rugby professionally abroad for the Japanese Top League team Suntory Sungoliath. The USA Sevens, an event in the annual World Rugby Sevens Series for international teams in rugby sevens, was held in Petco Park from 2007 through 2009 before moving to Las Vegas for 2010. San Diego Breakers will begin play in the inaugural 2016 PRO Rugby season.

College

The San Diego State Aztecs (MWC) and the University of San Diego Toreros (WCC) are NCAA Division I teams. The Point Loma Nazarene Sea Lions (Pacific West Conference), UCSD Tritons (CCAA) and Cal State San Marcos (CCAA) are members of NCAA Division II while San Diego Christian College (GSAC) is a member of the NAIA.

Sporting events

The annual Farmers Insurance Open golf tournament (formerly the Buick Invitational) on the PGA Tour occurs at the municipally-owned Torrey Pines Golf Course. This course was also the site of the 2008 U.S. Open Golf Championship.

There have been two international track and field competitions at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista called the Thorpe Cup, which is an annual decathlon and heptathlon meeting between the United States and Germany.

San Diego is home to several premier amateur sports events, such as the San Diego Crew Classic, held in Mission Bay every spring and featuring 100 or more college and amateur crews. The amateur beach sport Over-the-line was invented in San Diego, and the annual world Over-the-line championships are held at Mission Bay every year. The San Diego Yacht Club hosted the America's Cup yacht races three times during the period 1988 to 1995.

San Diego is also host to the Bayfair Cup, a hydroplane boat race in the H1 Unlimited season. The race is typically held during the Bayfair Festival on Mission Bay in San Diego.

There are several road races including the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in June, the America's Finest City Half Marathon in August, the La Jolla Half Marathon in April, and several triathlons.

Venues

San Diego has several sports venues. From 1967 until 2017 The National Football League's San Diego Chargers played at Qualcomm Stadium, which also houses the NCAA Division I San Diego State Aztecs, as well as local high school football championships. International soccer games and Supercross events take place at Qualcomm where Major League Baseball was once played. Three NFL Super Bowl championships have been held there. Two of college football's annual bowl games are held there: the Holiday Bowl which features a Pac-10 team against a Big-12 team and the Poinsettia Bowl. Balboa Stadium was the city's first stadium, constructed in 1914, where the San Diego Chargers once played. Currently soccer, American football, and track and field are played in Balboa Stadium.

Former teams

Note: Major league teams are in bold.

San Diego has had two NBA franchises, the San Diego Rockets and the Buffalo Braves. The Rockets represented the city of San Diego from 1967 until 1971. After the conclusion of the 1970–1971 season, they moved to Texas where they became the Houston Rockets. Seven years later, a relocated NBA franchise (the Buffalo Braves) moved to town and was renamed the San Diego Clippers. The Clippers played in the San Diego Sports Arena from 1978 until 1984. Prior to the start of the 1984–1985 season, the team was moved to Los Angeles, and is now called the Los Angeles Clippers.