The Legion aren’t just San Diego’s anymore.
The city’s Major League Rugby club is merging with Rugby Football Club Los Angeles to form The California Legion. Starting next season, the new Legion will play their home matches at Torero Stadium and in both Los Angeles and Irvine. The clubs announced the merger on Wednesday.
The new Legion are owned by “a combination of new and existing rugby investors across MLR, San Diego, Los Angeles and California,” a spokesman said.
The team’s new logo looks just like the San Diego Legion’s former crest, only with a “CA” instead of “SD” below the wordmark. The Legion will wear red in San Diego and for some road games and blue when the team plays in Los Angeles; the club is likely to introduce a “city edition” jersey for its Orange County matches.
The Legion will play at least two matches in San Diego and three in Irvine.
It’s unclear which players and coaches will survive the merger. The MLR draft is slated for late August, with the season scheduled to begin in February.
“With California having the most registered rugby players in the United States, our sport needs to extend beyond the 80 minutes on match day,” said Adam Freier, the new club’s CEO. “It’s about attracting new fans, creating clear pathways, and supporting our vibrant and passionate rugby community, while building on the incredible legacy already created by the Legion Community Foundation, and expanding it across California, and pushing forward with purpose.”
MLR commissioner Nic Benson said the new club “will build and connect rugby communities to elevate the game in Southern California.”
Founded in 2017, the Legion were one of the original franchises in MLR. The club played at Torero Stadium before relocating to Snapdragon Stadium, where it spent the 2023 and ’24 seasons. Matches returned to the USD campus this year.
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